<P> The author of the Book of Baruch is traditionally held to be Baruch the companion of Jeremiah, but this is considered unlikely . Some scholars propose that it was written during or shortly after the period of the Maccabees . </P> <P> The anonymous author of 1 Maccabees was an educated Jew and a serious historian; a date around 100 BCE is most likely . 2 Maccabees is a revised and condensed version of a work by an otherwise unknown author called Jason of Cyrene, plus passages by the anonymous editor who made the condensation (called "the Epitomist"). Jason most probably wrote in the mid to late 2nd century BCE, and the Epitomist before 63 BCE. 3 Maccabees concerns itself with the Jewish community in Egypt a half - century before the revolt, suggesting that the author was an Egyptian Jew, and probably a native of Alexandria . A date of c. 100--75 BCE is "very probable". 4 Maccabees was probably composed in the middle half of the 1st century CE, by a Jew living in Syria or Asia Minor . </P> <P> The Letter of Jeremiah is not by Jeremiah; the author apparently appropriated the name of the prophet to lend authority to his composition . Nor is it by Jeremiah's secretary Baruch, although it appears as the last chapter of Baruch in the Catholic Bible and the KJV . Internal evidence points to a date around 317 BCE, with the author possibly a Jew in Palestine addressing Jews of the diaspora . </P> <P> The Prayer of Manasseh presents itself as a prayer from the wicked, but now penitent, king Manasseh (or Manassas) from his exile in Babylon . The actual author is unknown, and the date of composition is probably the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE . </P>

Who is the original author of the bible