
Jewish tradition holds that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah.

Philo of Alexandria, who lived in Egypt from 15 BCE to 45 CE, was among the first Jewish to interpret the Torah as a rational and universal text, according to Adam Kirsch, author of "The People and the Books."

Flavius Josephus was a Jewish general in the disastrous war against the Romans. He later wrote about the war and other moments in Jewish history.

Moses Maimonides, a Spanish-born Jew, wrote "The Guide of the Perplexed," which sought to join reason with faith, in the late 12th century.

Rabbi Moses de Leon claimed to have re-discovered the Zohar, an ancient and esoteric Jewish book on which Kabbalah is based. But many believe he wrote the book himself in the 13th century.

In "The Jewish State," a political pamphlet, Theodor Herzl, a Viennese journalist, prophesies the creation of the modern state of Israel.

