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Documentary Hypothesis
A summary of the theory
History
In 1886 the German historian Julius Wellhausen published Prolegomena zur
Geschichte Israels (Prolegomena to the History of
Israel). Wellhausen argued that the Bible is an important source
for historians, but cannot be taken literally. He argued that the "hexateuch,"
(the first six books of the Bible, and the book
of Joshua) was written by a number of people over a long period.
Specifically, he identified four distinct narratives, which he identified
as Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist and Priestly accounts. He also identified
a Redactor (editor), who edited
the four accounts into one text. (Some argue the redactor
was Ezra the scribe). He argued that each of these sources has its
own vocabulary, its own approach and concerns, and that the passages originally
belonging to each account can be distinguished by differences in style (especially the name used for God, the grammar and word
usage, the political assumptions implicit in the text, and the interests
of the author).
Wellhausen argued that from the style and point of view of each source,
one could draw inferences about the times in which the source was written
(in other words, the historical value of the Bible is
not that it reveals things about the events it describes, but rather that
it reveals things about the people who wrote it). Wellhausen argued
that the progression evident in these four sources, from a relatively informal
and decentralized (the delegation of power from
a central authority to regional and local authorities) relationship
between people and God in the J account, to the relatively formal and centralized
practices of the P account, one could see the development of institutionalized
Israelite religion.
The documentary understanding of the origin of the five books of Moses
was immediately seized upon by other scholars, and within a few years became
the predominant theory. While many of Wellhausen's specific claims have since
been dismissed, we must note that the documentary hypothesis is not one
specific theory. Rather, this name is given to any understanding of the
origin of the Torah that recognizes that there are basically four sources
that were somehow redacted together into a final version. One could claim
that one redactor wove together four specific texts, or one could hold that
entire nation of Israel slowly created a consensus work based on various
strands of the Israelite tradition, or anything in between. Gerald A. Larue
writes "Back of each of the four sources lie traditions that may have been
both oral and written. Some may have been preserved in the songs, ballads,
and folktales of different tribal groups, some in written form in sanctuaries.
The so-called 'documents' should not be considered as mutually exclusive
writings, completely independent of one another, but rather as a continual
stream of literature representing a pattern of progressive interpretation
of traditions and history." ("Old Testament Life and
Literature" 1968)
J (the Jahwist or Jerusalem source) uses the
Tetragrammaton as God's name. This source's interests indicate it was active
in the southern Kingdom of Judah in the time of the divided Kingdom. J is
responsible for most of Genesis.
E (the Elohist or Ephraimitic source) uses
Elohim ("God") for the divine name until Exodus
3-6, where the Tetragrammaton is revealed to Moses and to Israel. This source
seems to have lived in the northern Kingdom of Israel during the divided
Kingdom. E wrote the Aqedah story (the binding of
Isaac by Abram) and other parts of Genesis, and much of Exodus
and Numbers.
J and E were joined fairly early, apparently after the fall of the Northern
Kingdom in 722 BCE. It is often difficult to separate J and E stories that
have merged.
D (the Deuteronomist) wrote almost all of
Deuteronomy (and probably also Joshua, Judges, Samuel,
and Kings). Scholars often associate Deuteronomy with the book found
by King Josiah in 622 BCE (2 Kings 22).
P (the Priestly source) provided the first
chapter of Genesis; the book of Leviticus; and other sections with genealogical
information, the priesthood, and worship. According to Wellhausen, P was the
latest source and the priestly editors put the Torah in its final form sometime
after 539 BCE. Recent scholars (for example, James
Milgrom) are more likely to see P as containing pre-exilic material.
Contemporary critical scholars disagree with Wellhausen and with one another
on details and on whether D or P was added last. But they agree that the
general approach of the Documentary Hypothesis best explains the doublets,
contradictions, differences in terminology and theology, and the geographical
and historical interests that we find in various parts of the Torah.
Some differences between the four strands of tradition.
J |
E
|
P
|
D
|
Jahwist |
Elohist
|
Priestly
|
Deuteronomist
|
Stress on Judah |
Stress on NorthernIsrael
|
Stress on Judah
|
Stress on Central Shrine
|
Stress on leaders |
Stresses the prophetic
|
Stresses the cultic
|
Stress fidelity to Jerusalem
|
Anthropomorphic speech about God |
Refined speech about God
|
Majestic speech about God
|
Speech recalling God’s work
|
God walks and talks with us |
God speaks in dreams
|
Cultic approach to God
|
Moralistic approach
|
God is YHWH |
God is Elohim(till Ex3)
|
God is Elohim (till Ex 3)
|
God is YHWH
|
Uses “Sinai” |
Sinai is “Horeb”
|
Has genealogies and lists
|
Has long sermons
|
Jewish tradition on the origin of the Torah
The Orthodox Jewish view holds that God revealed his will to Moses at Mount
Sinai in a verbal fashion.
According to Jewish tradition, this dictation is said to have been exactly
transcribed by Moses. The Torah was then exactly copied by scribes, from
one generation to the next. Based on the Talmud (Tractate
Gittin 60a) some believe that the Torah may have been given piece-by-piece,
over the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the desert. In either
case, the Torah is considered a direct quote from God. However, there are
a number of exceptions to this belief within classical Judaism.
* Over the millennia scribal errors have crept into the text of the Torah.
The Masoretes (7th to 10th centuries CE) compared
all extant variations and attempted to create a definitive text. Also, there
are a number of places in the Torah where it appears that there are gaps
and it has been postulated that part of the text has been edited out.
* Abraham ibn Ezra and Joseph Bonfils observed that some phrases in the
Torah present information that should only have been known after the time
of Moses. Some classical rabbis drew on their obervations to postulate that
these sections of the Torah were written by Joshua or perhaps some later prophet.
Other rabbis would not accept this view.
* The Talmud (tractate Shabbat 115b) states
that peculiar section in the book of Numbers 10:35-36, surrounded by inverted
Hebrew letter nuns, in fact is a separate book. On this verse a Midrash
on the book of Mishle states that "These two verses stem from an independent
book which existed, but was suppressed!" Another, possibly earlier midrash,
Ta'ame Haserot Viyterot, states that this section actually comes from the
book of prophecy of Eldad and Medad.
* Deuteronomy is quite different in many ways from the previous four books.
Commenting on this, the Talmud says that the other four books of the Torah
were dictated by God, but Deuteronomy was written by Moses in his own words
(Talmud Bavli, Megillah 31b). Some rabbis have
noted that some other parts of the Torah may also have been composed this
way as well.
Classical rabbinical views that suggest multiple origins
The modern critical view of the origin of the Torah was anticipated
by earlier scholars. Within Jewish tradition, individual rabbis and scholars
have on occasion pointed out that the Torah showed signs of not being written
entirely by Moses.
* Rabbi Judah ben Ilai held that the final verses of
the Torah must have been written by Joshua. (Bava Batra
15a and Menachot 30a, and in Midrash Sifrei 357.), however Rabbi
Shimon bar Yochai disagrees.
* Parts of the Midrash retain evidence of the redactional
period during which Ezra redacted and canonized the text of the Torah as
we know it today. A rabbinic tradition states that at this time (440 B.C.E.) the text of the Torah was edited by
Ezra, and there were ten places in the Torah where he was uncertain as to
how to fix the text; these passages were marked with special punctuation
marks called the eser nekudot.
* In the middle ages, Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra and others
noted that there were several places in the Torah that apparently could
not have been written in Moses's lifetime. For example, see Ibn Ezra's comments
on Genesis 12:6, 22;14, Deuteronomy 1:2, 3:11 and 34:1,6. Ibn Ezra's comments
were elucidated (to give a clarifying explanation)
by Rabbi Joseph Bonfils in his commentary on Ibn Ezra's work.
* In the twelfth century, the commentator R. Joseph
ben Isaac, known as the Bekhor Shor, noted that a number of wilderness narratives
in Exodus and Numbers are very similar, in particular, the incidents of
water from the rock, and the stories about manna and the quail. He theorized
that both of these incidents actually happened once, but that parallel traditions
about these events eventually developed, both of which made their way into
the Torah.
* In the thirteenth century, R. Hezekiah ben Manoah
(known as the Hizkuni) noticed the same textual
anomalies that Ibn Ezra noted; thus R. Hezekiah's commentary on Genesis
12:6 notes that this section "is written from the perspective of the future.".
* In the fifteenth century, Rabbi Yosef Bonfils while discussing the comments
of Ibn Ezra, noted: "Thus it would seem that Moses did not write this word
here, but Joshua or some other prophet wrote it. Since we believe in the
prophetic tradition, what possible difference can it make whether Moses wrote
this or some other prophet did, since the words of all of them are true and
prophetic?"
Classical Christian views that suggest multiple origins
The traditional view among Christians was that Moses wrote the first five
books of the Bible, apart from a number of passages, such as the death of
Moses, written by his successor Joshua. However, a number of Enlightenment
Christian writers expressed doubts about this traditional view. For example,
in the 16th century, Carlstadt noticed that the style of the account of
the death of Moses was the same as that of the preceding portions of Deuteronomy,
suggesting that whoever wrote about the death of Moses also wrote larger
portions of the Torah.
By the 17th century, some commentators argued outright that Moses did not
write most of the Pentateuch. For instance, in 1651, Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan,
ch. 33, argued that the Pentateuch was written after Moses's day on account
of Deut. 34:6 ("no man knoweth of his sepulchre to
this day"), Gen. 12:6 ("and the Canaanite was
then in the land"), and Num. 21:12 (referring
to a previous book of Moses's deeds). Others include Isaac de la Peyrère,
Spinoza, Richard Simon, and John Hampden. Nevertheless, these people found
their works condemned and even banned, and de la Peyrère and Hampden
were forced to recant (take back).
Internal textual evidence
Doublets and triplets are stories that are repeated with different points
of view. Famous doublets include Genesis's creation accounts; the stories
of the covenant between God and Abraham; the naming of Isaac; the two stories
in which Abraham claims to a King that his wife is really his sister; the
two stories of the revelation to Jacob at Bet-El. A famed triplet is the
three different versions of how the town of Be'ersheba got its name.
There are many portions of the Torah which seem to
imply more than one author. Some examples include:
* Genesis 11:31 describes Abraham as living in the Ur
of the Chaldeans. But the Chaldeans did not exist at the time of Abraham.
* Numbers 25 describes the rebellion at Peor, and refers
to Moabite women; the next sentence says the women were Midianites.
* Deuteronomy 34 describes the death of Moses.
* The list of Edomite kings included Kings who were
not born until after Moses' death.
* Some locations are identified by names which did not
exist until long after the time of Moses.
* The Torah often says that something has lasted "to
this day," which seems to imply that the words were written at a later date.
Classical commentaries usually
interpret such verses to mean until
the day they are read, in other words forever. It too could mean the person
rewriting the script meant present in his day.
* Deuteronomy 34:10 states "There never again arose
a prophet in Israel like Moses..." which seems to imply that the verse was
written long after. However,
this can be understood as "There would
never again arise.."
Acceptance of the documentary hypothesis:
Some Jews and Christians reject the documentary theory entirely, and accept
the traditional view that the whole Torah is the work of Moses. For most
Orthodox Jews and traditional Christians, the divine origins of the five
books of Moses in its entirety is accepted as a given. Other Christians,
such as the translators of the New International Version of the Bible, take
what they see as a middle ground, believing that Moses was the author of
much of the text, and editor and compiler of the majority of the rest.
By contrast, today mostly all historians and critical Bible scholars accept
the principle of multiple authorship in the Torah, and many also accept
Wellhausen's identification of four basic accounts, although some do not
believe that E was ever a distinct document. On the other hand, some scholars
disagree with the Documentary hypothesis from another angle, arguing that
the Torah is a composite of many different oral and written traditions composed
in the post-Exilic period.
Furthermore, many have questioned his interpretation of Israelite religion,
including his reconstruction of the order of the accounts as J-E-D-P. Many
scholars have questioned Wellhausen's assumption that history follows a
linear progression. They suggest that he organized the narrative to culminate
with P because he believed that the New Testament followed logically in
this progression. In the 1950s the Israeli historian, Yehezkel Kaufmann,
published The Religion of Israel, from Its Beginnings to the Babylonian
Exile, in which he argued that the order of the sources would be J, E, P,
and D.
In recent years attempts have been made to separate the J, E, D, and P
portions. Harold Bloom wrote "The Book of J", in which he claims to have
reconstructed the book that J wrote (though, certainly,
much of J's original contribution must have been lost in the consolidation,
if one believes the four-author theory). Bloom also indicates that
he believes that J was a woman, but other scholars do not accept this.
Many Christians object to the JEDP theory's a priori (relating to or derived by reasoning from self-evident propositions)
rejection of such internal evidence as stated authorship and purpose of
the Torah. They object further to the extirpation (to destroy completely) of the Creation and
Flood accounts, et al., as authoritative Scripture. They have a more literal
interpretation based on P.J. Wisemans work that the book of Genesis consists
of sections, each of which was written by a separate historical author.
Genesis was merely compiled by Moses. This is also called the Tablet theory.
"Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis" P.J. Wiseman. Nashville:
Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1985
Regardless of the different understandings of the composition of the Torah
by modern, critical scholars, a return to the pre-critical understanding
that the Torah was composed by or dictated to Moses is unlikely. Some scholars
assert that the Documentary Hypothesis does make testable predictions that
have been verified.
For an illustration of this see:
"An Empirical Basis for the Documentary Hypothesis" Jeffrey H. Tigay Journal
of Biblical Literature Vol.94, No.3 Sept. 1975, pages 329-342.
Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism Ed. Jeffrey Tigay. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986
Sources:
http://imp.lss.wisc.edu/~rltroxel/Intro/hypoth.html
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/2/Judaism/jepd.html
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis
http://webster.com/
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/002/Midrash.html
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/tr/volume2/number1/bregman.html
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/002/Midrash.html
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