• Late 13th century: Song of the Sea^[9]
• 12th–10th: Psalm 29^[10][11]
• Late 12th–late 11th: Song of Deborah^[12] (alternative datings to the monarchic period^[13] have been advanced)
• 12th–8th: Song of Moses^[14][15] (not including the editorializing layer of Deuteronomy 32:44–32:55)^[15]

• Late 8th–early 7th: Amos (initial composition of earliest layer, Amos 2:6–9:10);^[16] "First Isaiah" (Isaiah 1–39),^[17] Hosea,^[18] Micah (1–3).^[19]
• 7th: Nahum (based on its assumption of the fall of Thebes and call for the destruction of Nineveh),^[20] Zephaniah (in the reign of Josiah, c. 649–609 BCE),^[21] Habakkuk (possibly shortly before the Battle of Carchemish, 605 BCE);^[22] first edition of the Deuteronomistic history (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) in the reign of Josiah;^[23] Deuteronomy 5–26 in the reign of Josiah.^[24]

• Core of Obadiah around the fall of Jerusalem, 586 BCE^[25]
• Completion of Deuteronomistic history (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings)^[26]
• Deuteronomy expanded with addition of chapters 1–4 and 29–30 to serve as an introduction to the Deuteronomistic history^[24]
• Jeremiah active in the last decade of the 7th century and first decades of the 6th^[27]
• Ezekiel active in Babylon 592–571 BCE^[28]
• "Second Isaiah" (author of Isaiah 40–55) active in Babylon around mid-century^[29]
• Expansion and reshaping of Hosea, Amos, Micah and Zephaniah^[30]
• Possible early Psalms collection (psalms "of David") ending with psalm 89^[30]

• Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers), with 250 BCE determined to be the last possible date for the final text based on manuscript evidence^[31][32]
• Deuteronomy revised with expansions to chapters 19–25 and addition of chapter 27 and 31–34 to serve as conclusion to the Torah^[24]
• "Third Isaiah" (Isaiah 56–66)^[29]
• Later version (the Masoretic Hebrew version) of Jeremiah^[33]
• Haggai (self-dated to the second year of the Persian king Darius 520 BCE)^[34]
• Zechariah (chapters 1–8 contemporary with Haggai, chapters 9–14 from the 5th century)^[35]
• Malachi (5th century BCE, contemporaneous or immediately prior to the missions of Nehemiah and Ezra)^[36]
• Book of Joel (between 450 and 350 BCE)^[37]
• Chronicles (between 350 and 300 BCE)^[38]
• Origins of Ezra–Nehemiah (may have reached its final form as late as the Ptolemaic period, c. 300–200 BCE)^[39]

• Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs (possibly written in the 4th or even 5th century, but seems to reflect contact with Greek culture)^[40]
• Jonah (Persian or Hellenistic, no later than 2nd century BCE)^[41]
• Most of the individual psalms making up the final third of Psalms^[42]
• Tobit (between 225 and 175 BCE)^[43]
• Book of Sirach (the first quarter of the 2nd century BCE, probably c. 175 BCE)^[44]
• Daniel (between 168 and 164 BCE)^[45][46][47]

• 1 Maccabees (between 146 and 129 BCE)^[48]
• Judith (between 150 and 100 BCE) ^[49]
• 2 Maccabees (between 134 and 100 BCE)^[50]
• 3 Maccabees (between 100 BCE and 70 CE)^[51]
• Additions to Daniel and Additions to Esther^{[citation needed]}
• Wisdom of Solomon (c. late 1st century BCE–mid 1st century CE)^[40]

• 3 Maccabees (between 100 BCE and 70 CE)^[51]
• Wisdom of Solomon (c. late 1st century BCE–1st century CE)^[40]
• 4 Maccabees (probably mid 1st century CE)^[52]
• New Testament (between c. 50–110 CE—see Table IV)

• Book of Genesis
• Book of Exodus
• Book of Leviticus
• Book of Numbers
• Book of Deuteronomy

The majority of modern biblical scholars believe that the Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—reached its present form in the post-Exilic period.^[32]

the Documentary hypothesis model suggests that the five books are drawn from four "sources" (distinct schools of writers rather than individuals): the Priestly source, the Yahwist and the Elohist (these two are often referred to collectively as the "non-Priestly" source), and the Deuteronomist.^[53] There is general agreement that the Priestly source is post-exilic, but there is no agreement over the non-Priestly source(s).^[53]

• Genesis is a post-exilic work combining "Priestly" and "non-Priestly" material.^[53]
• Exodus is an anthology drawn from nearly all periods of Israel's history.^[54]
• Leviticus is entirely Priestly and dates from the exilic/post-exilic period.^[55]
• Numbers is a Priestly redaction (that is, an alteration) of a Yahwistic/non-Priestly original.^[56]
• Deuteronomy, now the last book of the Torah, began as the set of religious laws (these make up the bulk of the book), was extended in the early part of the 6th century BCE to serve as the introduction to the Deuteronomistic history, and later still was detached from that history, extended yet again, and edited to conclude the Torah.^[57]

• Book of Joshua
• Book of Judges
• Books of Samuel
• Books of Kings

This group of books, plus Deuteronomy, is called the "Deuteronomistic history" by scholars. The proposal that they made up a unified work was first advanced by Martin Noth in 1943, and has been widely accepted. Noth proposed that the entire history was the creation of a single individual working in the exilic period (6th century BCE); since then there has been wide recognition that the history appeared in two "editions", the first in the reign of Judah's King Josiah (late 7th century BCE), the second during the exile (6th century BCE).^[23] Noth's dating was based on the assumption that the history was completed very soon after its last recorded event, the release of King Jehoiachin in Babylon c. 560 BCE; but some scholars have termed his reasoning inadequate, and the history may have been further extended in the post-exilic period.^[58]

• Book of Isaiah
• Book of Jeremiah
• Book of Ezekiel

Scholars recognise three "sections" in the Book of Isaiah:

• Proto-Isaiah (the original 8th century BCE Isaiah);
• Deutero-Isaiah (an anonymous prophet living in Babylon during the exile); and
• Trito-Isaiah (an anonymous author or authors in Jerusalem immediately after the exile).^[59]

The Book of Jeremiah exists in two versions: Greek (the version used in Orthodox Christian Bibles) and Hebrew (Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Bibles), with the Greek representing the earlier version.^[60] The Greek version was probably finalised in the early Persian period and translated into Greek in the 3rd century BCE, and the Hebrew version dates from some point between then and the 2nd century BCE.^[61]

The Book of Ezekiel describes itself as the words of the Ezekiel ben-Buzi, a priest living in exile in the city of Babylon, and internal evidence dates the visions to between 593 and 571 BCE. While the book probably reflects much of the historic Ezekiel, it is the product of a long and complex history, with significant additions by a "school" of later followers.^[62][63]

In the Hebrew Bible the Twelve Minor Prophets are a single collection edited in the Second Temple period, but the collection is broken up in Christian Bibles.^[64] With the exception of Jonah, which is a fictional work, there exists an original core of prophetic tradition behind each book:^[65][66]

• Book of Hosea: second half of the 8th century BCE^[18]
• Book of Joel: late Persian or Hellenistic^[67]
• Book of Amos: first half of the 8th century BCE^[68]
• Book of Obadiah: around the time of the fall of Jerusalem, 586 BCE^[25]
• Book of Jonah: Persian or Hellenistic, no later than 2nd century BCE^[41]
• Book of Micah: c. 750–700 BCE^[69]
• Book of Nahum: an "oracle concerning Nineveh", the Assyrian city destroyed in 612 BCE^[70]
• Book of Habakkuk: possibly shortly before the battle of Carchemish, 605 BCE^[22]
• Book of Zephaniah: reign of Josiah^[21]
• Book of Haggai: self-dated to the second year of the Persian king Darius (Darius the Great), 520 BCE^[34]
• Book of Zechariah: first eight chapters contemporary with Haggai; chapters 9–14 from the 5th century BCE^[71]
• Book of Malachi: 5th century BCE, contemporaneous or immediately prior to the missions of Nehemiah and Ezra (which, however, are themselves difficult to date)^[36]

• Job
• Ecclesiastes
• Proverbs

The books of Job, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs share a similar outlook which they themselves call "wisdom".^[72] It is generally agreed that Job comes from between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.^[73] Ecclesiastes can be no earlier than about 450 BCE, due to the presence of Persian loan-words and Aramaic idioms, and no later than 180 BCE, when the Jewish writer Ben Sira quotes from it in the Book of Sirach.^[74][75] Proverbs is a "collection of collections" relating to a pattern of life which lasted for more than a millennium, and impossible to date.^[76]

• Psalms
• Lamentations

The psalms making up the first two-thirds of the psalter are predominantly pre-exilic and the last third predominantly post-exilic.^[42] The collected book of Psalms was possibly given its modern shape and division into five parts in the post-exilic period, although it continued to be revised and expanded well into Hellenistic and even Roman times.^[77] It is generally accepted that the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BCE forms the background to the Book of Lamentations.^[78]

• Chronicles
• Ezra–Nehemiah

Chronicles was composed between 400 and 250 BCE, probably in the period 350–300 BCE;^[38] Ezra–Nehemiah (two books in modern Bibles, but originally one) may have reached its final form as late as the Ptolemaic period, c. 300–200 BCE.^[39]

• Ruth
• Esther
• Daniel
• Song of Songs

The Book of Ruth is commonly dated to the Persian period.^[79] Esther to the 3rd or 4th centuries BCE; the Book of Daniel can be dated more precisely to 164 BCE thanks to its veiled prophecy of the death of a Greek king of Syria;^[80] and the Song of Songs could have been composed at any time after the 6th century BCE.^[81]