Blending archaeological discovery, biblical scholarship, and gripping historical fiction, renowned biblical scholar Richard Elliott Friedman’s The Woman Who Wrote the Bible imagines the extraordinary woman whose stories became the foundation of the Hebrew Bible.

Who Wrote the Bible? Modern scholarship has revealed that the Bible's earliest books were woven together from multiple ancient sources, each distinguished by its own vocabulary, themes, and perspective. One of the most influential of those sources, renowned biblical scholar Richard Elliott Friedman argues, may have been the work of a woman living in the time of King David and Solomon.

What if she could finally tell her own story? In The Woman Who Wrote the Bible, Friedman transforms that provocative theory into a sweeping work of historical fiction.

Judith, a gifted woman in Solomon's Jerusalem, possesses an extraordinary talent for storytelling. As she shapes her compelling prose, she creates the foundational narratives that future generations will know as Genesis and the earliest books of the Bible.

But Judith's work unfolds amid political intrigue, royal succession, hidden alliances, and dangerous secrets. Living beside Jerusalem's mysterious monumental staircase, she discovers a concealed passage leading to confidential conversations with Queen Bathsheba and into the heart of Solomon's court. As competing versions of Israel's past emerge, Judith must decide what history will remember. And what it will forget.

Drawing on decades of archaeological research and biblical scholarship, The Woman Who Wrote the Bible blends meticulous historical detail with an unforgettable fictional narrative. Familiar biblical figures come vividly to life as kings, queens, priests, and prophets whose choices shape not only the future of a nation but the stories that will endure for millennia. Rich with history, suspense, and literary imagination, this novel offers a captivating vision of how the world's most influential stories may have first been written.