Who wrote the Book of Judges? The Mystery of its Authorship and Date

 The Book of Judges does not provide any explicit information about its author, and the internal evidence suggests that the author lived after the period of the judges. 

Traditionally, some Jewish scholars have attributed the book to the prophet Samuel.

However, there are some challenges to this theory. The book seems to reference events that happened after Samuel's lifetime. So, most scholars believe the book was compiled and edited long after Samuel's time.

 

"Authorship and Date of Composition

 

THE BOOK OF JUDGES is anonymous. It is apparent that the book is a collection of various blocks of material concerning the different judges. Some of the stories may have existed very early in oral or written form, but none of these blocks are attributed to any particular source in the text. Modern scholars have expended great amounts of time and energy in an attempt to identify these sources, but with limited success.10

 

The reference in 18:30 to “the time of the captivity of the land” seems to refer to the Exile (either 722 or 586 B.C.) and suggests that the final edition of the book came from the Exile or afterwards.11 Thus the precise author and date are uncertain. But this should hardly deter the reader from understanding the book’s message."

 

[NIV Application Commentary Series. Judges, Ruth]