When exactly does the book of Judges take place? And when was it written? Both questions are difficult to answer.
Like the other historical books of the Old Testament, Judges never identifies its author. According to many ancient Jewish sources—from the first century onward—the traditional author is Samuel the prophet, who lived shortly after the events themselves. This view was widely accepted by the early Christian church and long assumed by most Christians.
More recent scholarship has raised questions about this tradition, suggesting instead that Judges was compiled from a variety of sources in the 7th century BC or possibly during the early exilic period.
In the end, however, I don’t think this question changes how we read or understand the book in any significant way. Even if Judges was written later, it clearly draws upon sources very close to the events themselves. A mediating view is also plausible: Samuel may have preserved or written an early historical record that was later edited into its present form. That strikes me as entirely reasonable.
What is important is that Judges is not simply a patchwork of unrelated materials. Because of the thematic differences between the final chapters and the rest of the book, some critical scholars once argued that these chapters were added later and were not originally part of the work. The final two story cycles also appear—at least at first glance—to describe events that occurred relatively early in the period of the judges.
Over the last fifty years, however, scholarly opinion has largely shifted in the opposite direction. There is substantial internal evidence for the unity of the book: consistent themes, repeated patterns, and a carefully constructed literary shape that suggests the hand of a single author. Even if the author relied on earlier historical sources, those sources have clearly been shaped into a coherent theological work.
I’ve been pointing this out week by week as we’ve gone through Judges: the book is not arranged chronologically, but thematically. Judges displays a chiastic structure, meaning the closing chapters are not random or secondary material. They are essential for interpreting everything that comes before them, powerfully recapitulating the themes introduced at the beginning of the book.
Conclusion (Authorship):
Judges is best understood as the work of a single author who sought to frame this chaotic period of Israel’s history within the larger purposes of God. It was likely written in the 7th or 6th century BC, drawing upon earlier historical records closely connected to the events described.
What about the timing of the events themselves?
This is even harder to pinpoint. We do know that the period of the judges came to an end in the mid-11th century BC, when Samuel anointed Saul as Israel’s first king. Samuel, in many ways, stands in continuity with the judges—he led Israel spiritually and militarily—and can be understood as the final pre-monarchic leader.
Beyond that firm endpoint, dating the events of Judges becomes difficult. The book is not trying to provide a sequential, year-by-year account of Israel’s history. Instead, it emphasizes recurring cycles of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance across different regions of the land. The judges were often local leaders, not national ones, and the various oppressors did not dominate all of Israel at the same time. These cycles frequently overlapped.
Complicating matters further, we don’t know precisely when Israel entered the land, how long the conquest took, or how quickly the generation that had witnessed the Exodus passed away. Additionally, numerical figures in Hebrew historical writing often carry symbolic weight. To say that a leader ruled for forty years or lived to 110 years was not meant to convey precise chronological data, but to describe a full, complete, or divinely blessed life.
Conclusion (Dates of Events):
The events of Judges take place before the establishment of the monarchy in the mid-11th century BC. While exact dates are elusive, the period described likely spans roughly 150–200 years.