Ezra and the Old Testament

Much of the OT as we have it, and the earliest parts we have, were written by priestly scribes with the Ezra return from exile.  They probably had access to older documents, and seem in many places to have made an effort to merge conflicting stories.

They also edited what they had to produce a myth of the Jews as being extremely ancient (which the ancient world accepted without questioning how unlikely that would be) and to put the priests and Jerusalem and its temple at the center of things.  The fact is the Hebrews evolved out of Canaanite tribes and the vast majority of the figures talked about (such as David), while probably based on some real figure, are extremely mythical.

At least that is what I've learned over the years.