'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' seem to be largely based on the satirical treatise Discussion between Machiavelli and Montesqieu in Hell penned by French writer Maurice Joly in 1864. The original work was a political pamphlet aimed at the policies of Napoleon III, with no relation to Jews or anti-Semitism whatsoever. It is possible that Joly based his work on the novel Le sable du honneur' by Eugene Sue, belonging to the Les mystieres du peuple cycle and presenting a similar conspiracy undertaken by Jesuits to curb the achievements of the liberal movements of late 18th and 19th century. Again, Sue's novel does not mention Jews and has a definitely anti-clerical bent. It has also been banned by censorship in 1857, during the Second French Empire. Although the link between works of Joly and Sue, brought up by e.g. Umberto Eco is disputable, the connection between the Dicsussion... and Protocols... is pretty strong, given that large part of the former has been taken almost verbatim and some additional part has been changed slightly to better fit the general theme of a planned conspiracy rather the present state of the country, like in Joly's satire. Some historians state that almost 40% has been lifted directly from the source material, which might be quite accurate, given that large part of the Protocols... seem to contain entire paragraphs attributed to Machiavelli's answers in the original (the book is written in the manner of ancient maieutic dialogues, with persona of Montesqieu directing the course of narrative and persona of Machiavelli providing answer as carrier for the author presenting his opinion). This is very visible in e.g. 20th Dialogue and item 196 in Protocols..., where not only the same wording, but also the same percentage values are used to demonstrate the mechanism of the state loans.

One of the first instances of the relations between Dialogues... and Protocols... being pointed out publicly was a brochure The Jewish Bogey and the Forged Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion written by Lucien Wolf, British journalist and diplomat, and published by Press Committee of the Jewish Board of Deputies in 1920, as a reaction to the increased interest in 'Jewish-Bolshevik threat' by anti-Semitic British journalists, and the notion that the October Revolution was caused by Jewish conspiracy. It was very possibly a direct reply to the article The Cause of World Unrest published in Morning Post in July 1920, that used aforementioned notions. In USA, William Hard also refuted credibility of Protocols... in his book The Great Jewish Conspiracy. In the next year, Irish journalist, Philip Graves, published similar article, allegedly using the materials presented by a former White Army officer, Mikhail Razslavyev. Also in 1921, Katarzyna Radziwiłł, in her article published in American Hebrew (issue of 25th February) and La Revue Mondial (issue of 15th March) stated that the Protocols... have been written in 1905, after the Russo-Japanese War (apparently not being aware of the 1903 newspaper edition), most likely by Matvey Golovinskiy, journalist and police agent working with Pyotr Rachkovskiy, whose name also appears in other discussion about the autorship of the book in question (although in the years 1902-1905 Rachkovskiy was not working in Police department, having been relieved of his duties by Minister of Interior Vyacheslav von Pleve and returned only after the death of the latter). In 1999, Russian historian Mikhail Lepyokhin noted that Golovinskiy worked in the Parisian Le Figaro with Charles Joly, son of Maurice Joly. Similar notions are presented in Portraits of Mean Men by John Dwyer, published in 1938, where author attributes the Protocols... to the Okhrana agents in Paris (Rachkovskiy was a resident agent in Paris prior to 1905) and points to large parts of the book being lifted directly from works of Joly.

To elaborate on the content itself, the idea behind the 'Twelve Elders' has likely been lifted from the 1868 novel Biarritz by Hermann Goedsche under the pen name sir John Retcliffe. Two of the chapters (Jewish cemetery in Prague and The Council of the Twelve Tribes of Israel) present a shadow organization of the rabbis, who gather at an eponymous cemetery every 100 years to discuss the further actions that will help them secure their control of the world. Their methods, such as hoarding money, eroding traditions, weakening authority of the Church and sabotage of the national armies are strikingly similar to the ones presented in Protocols.... Biarritz has been translated and published in the Russian Empire in 1872, achieving moderate popularity. In addition, a book Les juifs, nos maitres! [Jews, our masters!] written in 1882 by French priest Emmanuel Chabauty (who later also wrote articles for first anti-Semitic periodical, L'Anti-Semitique published in the years 1883-1884) presents similar ideas of Jews attempting to control the global politics in a manner reminiscent of that presented in 'Protocols...'. The form of this publication is also similar, as it is based on a fictional letter of a Father Jean-Baptiste Bouis, allegedly exposing a 1489 letter sent by 'Jews of Arles' to 'Jews of Constantinople' and asking how to react to the increased anti-Semitic tendencies in the policies of Charles VIII of France. The letter is followed by the alleged response, where the 'Jews of Constantinople' suggest to go into hiding and infiltrate European governmental and financial structures to seize its power where possible.

There are also other theories regarding the origins of the Protocols of the Elders of Sion. For example, Pierre-Andre Taguieff posits that the document has been prepared in cooperation between the French and Russian secret police to be used in both countries. Pierre Barrucand, honorary researcher affiliated with CNRS, brings forth an assumption that it has not been made by the secret police, but rather by the non-specified group of the Catholic priests (most likely French), with a strong tied to higher echelons of Vatican, possibly members of Jesuit Order, also employing tsarist courtier Yustina Glinka, who allegedly brought the manuscripts of the Protocols... from Paris. Barrucand rejects the 'police origins' of the pamphlet, noting that Rachkovskiy was a protege of the Minister of the Finances and later also Prime Minister of Russian Empire, Sergey Witte, who was later attacked as one of the 'Elders of Sion' (although this can be simply explained as an irrational conspiracy theory created by Witte's enemies). In addition, the book was published almost in a conspiracy and then presented to tsar by Sergey Nilus, what looked as an unnecessary complication, given that by 1903, anti-Semitic policies of Russsian government was a matter of fact, and many ultranationalist, conservative and fervently anti-Semitic organizations were not only operating openly, but were largely supported by highest Imperial officials including tsar himself.

French historian Henri Rollin attributes the origins of the 'Protocols...' to Ilya Tsyon, Russian scholar and economist who spend last decades of 19th century in France and entered serious conflict with Russian Minister of Finances Sergey Witte over personal and professional matters. Rollin suggesting that Tsion created pasquil against Witte based on the Joly's Dialogues... that was later found or received by Rachkovskiy who remade it so that it attacked Jews instead of Witte. Any allegations of Tsion's anti-Semitism is hard to defend however, as the latter was known to defend Jews by stating in his 1892 book La Russie contemporaire that the realities and myths concerning Western Jews cannot be applied to Russian Empire, as unlike Western Jews who largely belong to middle class, Russian Jews predominantly belong to either urban worker class or rural agricultural workers living in relatively poor Jewish colonies withing Pale of Settlement, and thus are heavily disenfranchised even in comparison with poor Russians.

German journalist Thomas Grüter states, that the 'Protocols...' are unlikely to have originated in Western Europe, as the book does not mention any important events that could have been used for illustration of the alleged Jewish influence, such as Franco-Prussian War, Dreyfuss Affair or the French colonial policies. Likewise, Italian literature professor Cesare de Michelis suggests that the first edition from 1903 was intended as a parody of The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl, first published in 1896 in German. This book is similar in form to the Protocols..., as it presents the rationale and proposed methods of working towards the establishment of an independent Jewish state in a series of short paragraphs or series of paragraphs, pointing to and discussing particular issues.