The
Documentary Hypothesis
As
the Renaissance brought about the questioning of church authority that
resulted
in the Reformation of the 16th century, so the Reformation lead to
the European Enlightenment that blossomed in the 17th century. This
new Age of Enlightenment, spawned from the Protestant Reformation and
later
Catholic Counter-Reformation, called into question the authority of the
institutional
church, be it Catholic or Reformed, to interpret and teach Biblical
truth based
upon assumptions that remained from ancient times, and traditions that
had
become attached to the faith through the Dark and Middle Ages. This
gave rise to secular scholarship as the
self
proclaimed “objective” arbiter of faith, and it became natural to
suppose that
all things religious, and specifically all things Christian, should be
subjected to the scrutiny of scientific investigation in order to
determine
their validity. In particularly, the
Bible ceased to be Holy Writ to the secular scholars and instead became
just another
specimen to be examined under the microscope of what came to be called
the
“historical-critical” method.
During
the mid 17th century two great philosophical thinkers of this time,
Thomas Hobbes and Benedict Spinoza, were among the first to challenge
the long
held supposition that Moses was the author of the Torah or Pentateuch,
the
first five books of the Old Testament. When
the Jewish Spinoza published his theory that it was Ezra and not Moses
that was
the true author of the Pentateuch, the ensuing furor among the rabbinic
authorities resulted in his cherem,
or excommunication, and nearly cost him his life.
By
the middle of the 19th century this line of reasoning on the origin
of the Pentateuch (or Hexateuch, as many scholars came to associate
Joshua as
part of this same literary tradition) had evolved to loosely identify
four
original sources for the Torah narrative that had been assimilated to
comprise
the final text. In 1876/77 the German scholar Julius Wellhausen
published The Composition of the Hexateuch, in
which he solidified and coalesced the scholarship of the previous
century into
a cohesive four-source theory of Pentateuchal origins known as the
“documentary
hypothesis.” Based on this four source
approach, Wellhausen then published Prolegomena
to the History of Israel in 1878. This
work traced the development of the ancient Israelite
religion from
an entirely secular, non-supernatural standpoint. For Wellhausen the
Bible was
literature rather than history, and this spawned an intellectual and
religious
debate that remains with us to this day.
The
four sources
- J — the
Jahwist. The oldest source,
concerned with narratives, making up half of Genesis and the first half
of Exodus, plus fragments of Numbers. J describes a human-like God,
called Yahweh (or rather YHWH) throughout, and has a special
interest in the territory of the Kingdom of Judah
and individuals connected with its history. J has an extremely eloquent
style. Originally composed c 950 BC.
- E — the
Elohist. E parallels J, often
duplicating the narratives. Makes up a third of Genesis and the first
half of Exodus, plus fragments of Numbers. E describes a human-like God
initially called Elohim, and Yahweh subsequent to the
incident of the burning bush, at which Elohim reveals himself as
Yahweh. E focuses on the Kingdom
of Israel and on the Shiloh priesthood, has a moderately eloquent
style. Originally composed c 850 BC.
- D — the
Deuteronomist
D takes the form
of a series of sermons about
the Law, and consists of most of Deuteronomy. Its distinctive term for
God is YHWH Elohainu, translated in English as "The Lord our
God." Originally composed c 650-621 BCE.
- P — the
Priestly source. Preoccupied
with the centrality of the priesthood, and with lists (especially
genealogies), dates, numbers and laws. P describes a distant and
unmerciful God, referred to as Elohim. P partly duplicates J
and E, but alters details to stress the importance of the priesthood. P
consists of about a fifth of Genesis, substantial portions of Exodus
and Numbers, and almost all of Leviticus. P has a low level of literary
style. Composed c 550-400 BC.
Four
sources and accompanying chart from Wikepedia:
“Documentary hypothesis”
By
the 1920’s, thanks to the pioneering efforts and brilliance of William
Foxwell
Albright, the biblical archaeology movement had arisen to challenge the
assumption
of Wellhausen that the Old Testament was a collection of myths and
stories of
earlier origin that had been assembled after the Babylonian exile in
order to
establish and substantiate the Jewish religion. Albright, the father
and dean
of modern biblical archaeology, and the leading biblical scholar and
linguist
of his era, believed that through archaeology and the analysis of
archaic
language within the four biblical source texts it was possible to
determine
definitively that Abraham was an historical figure existing at around
the turn
of second millennium before Christ. The further ramifications of this
indicated
that the earlier biblical traditions of the antediluvian period had
their
origins in far ancient times, and that the succeeding stories of the
exodus,
conquest, monarchy and its split, fall of Israel
and the Babylonian exile and return of Judah, were all rooted in
historical fact.
Contemporary
with Albright was the German scholar Gerhard von Rad.
Von Rad, major exponent of what came to be
known
as “Neo-Wellhausian” scholarship, took the even more radical position
that
virtually all of the biblical history of Israel was fiction; a
fabrication of
the postexilic Jews for the purpose of establishing an ongoing claim to
the
land of Palestine that would transcend time, politics and religion. For von Rad, the four sources became merely
irrelevant historical fiction. Indian scholar Victor Premasagar
describes von
Rad’s approach succinctly: “The Bible for von Rad, in the final
analysis, is
neither history nor literature, but rather the confessions of a
community. (Wikipedia: “Gerhard von
Rad”)
As
editor of the Bulletin
of the American Schools of Oriental Research between 1931 and 1968,
Albright exercised vast influence over both biblical scholarship and
Palestinian archaeology. Because of
this, his point of view became known as the “American School” of Old
Testament
research as opposed to the more radical “German School” of Wellhausen
and von
Rad, and this point of view held sway in academic circles in the U.S.
into the
mid 1970’s. Since Albright’s time,
students of his approach such as George Ernest Wright, Frank Moore
Cross,
George Mendenhall and David Noell Freedman have continually moved more
towards
the position of von Rad, and the current generation of biblical
archaeologists
has come to question even such once universally held concepts as the
historical
reality of the Davidic/Solomonic kingdom.
While there is currently much modern
scholarship that
seeks to challenge, refute or redefine the documentary hypothesis,
there has
been no alternative view of Old Testament origins that has emerged to
replace
it. Today, scholars argue over the
veracity and validity of the four source theory, but it remains as the
basis of
the discussion.
Origin
of the
Old
Testament
During the reign of David, and for the
purpose of
solidifying the 12 tribes of Israel into a politically and religiously
cohesive
nation that would form the foundation for the most impressive empire of
the 10th century BC, it was determined that the various strands of
religious and
historical tradition existing among these 12 tribes should be merged
into a
coherent, universal format. What we
today call the Book of J is the result of this process. J forms the
core of the
Pentateuch. In perspective, it reflects the southern tribes of Judah
and
Benjamin and uses “Yahweh” as the name of God. It
is a complete work unto itself and can be disentangled
from the other
three sources and reconstructed as a separate, stand alone document. J
is
multifaceted and its scope is unprecedented. It serves as a unifying
tribal
history, delineates and explains the relationship and function of God
to
individuals and through the priesthood, and provides a social context
that
secures the foundation of Israelite culture. It accomplishes all this
as the
will of the One True God, who makes covenant with his people and
repeatedly saves
them both from and in spite of themselves. J
is ironic, humorous and playful, yet at the same time
speaks eloquently
to the deepest yearnings of the human soul. At
the time J was composed, the “court historian” was
compiling the more
recent history of the conquest of Canaan,
the
rule of the judges, and the rise of the monarchy through Saul and David. This material would eventually take shape as
the books of Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel and 1&2 Kings. The purpose of J and this historical material
is to justify the unification of the 12 tribes of Israel
under the rule of David as
the will of God. Theologically, it is J that lays the groundwork for
what would
come to be called the “Messianic Expectation.”
In
920
BC, the imploding empire of David and Solomon
split into the separate nations of Israel
and Judah, with Israel’s political capital at Samaria
and cultic center at Shiloh. Judah
retained Jerusalem
in both roles. During the 9th
century, E, a source of religious teaching and history reflecting a
previously
unincorporated parallel tradition that is more oriented to the
perspective of
the 10 northern tribes, is incorporated with J to form a document more
reflective of the separated northern kingdom. E
is a fragmentary text and much of it is now lost. At
some points it retells the same stories as
J and at some points it has its own unique material.
In some instances it is divergent from
J. E relates the older name for God as
“Elohim,”
explaining that “Yahweh” was first used as the name for God after the
incident
with Moses at the burning bush. J, in
contrast, claims that the first use of the sacred name was by Seth in
the
earliest antediluvian patriarchal times. In
many places E is tightly interwoven with J and uses the
form “Yahweh
Elohim” as the name of God (The LORD God in English).
When
Josiah reigned as king of Judah
in the 7th century
BC, the people had fallen into the great apostasy of worshiping the
Canaanite
gods, especially Ba’al and the Ashteroth. While
cleaning out the treasure room of the Temple, the High
Priest Hilikah found an
ancient scroll that is described as a “scroll of the Torah” (2 Chr.
34:14, 2
Kings 22:8). When Hilikah brings this
ancient scroll to the attention of the king, Josiah reads it aloud to
the crowd
in Jerusalem and this leads to repentance and a rededication to the
ways of the
Lord our God (D’s name for God). Most
scholars believe that this scroll was the Book of Deuteronomy or at
least the
major portion of it, and this is the D source.
The
Priestly writer is actually an editor as well as a
source that inserts new material into the biblical text for the purpose
of
clarifying the religious aspects of the other sources. In
reconciling
them to
the practices of the temple and priesthood as pertains to the worship
of God
and the cult of Israel in the latter day in which he writes, P uses the name “Elohim” for God and sees his
role as filling in what he perceives as the religious gaps in these
texts.
P is
responsible for the book of Leviticus and for other rather dry material
that
pertains to the origins and relationship of the people and the correct
practice
of the law. The genealogies in Genesis
are “P.” The Priestly writer is working
during the waning years of the Babylonian captivity in the mid 6th
century BC and well into the period after the return from exile. Like the Deutronomic writer, he sees his
function as a purification of the religious life of the people and a
restoration of purified worship.
This
brings us to the period in which this material was
finally brought together and edited into essentially the form in which
it
exists today. Many scholars believe that
this was accomplished by Ezra in the time following the return of the
exiles to Jerusalem
(the
5th century BC). The most
popular theory is that Ezra supervised a team of editors that brought
not only
the Pentateuch but the historical books, prophets and other Hebrew
scriptures
into their current configuration. This
team is referred to as the “Ezra Academy”
and is associated
with the origin of the “scribes” of New Testament times that provided
the
scriptures for the synagogues – the resident experts on scripture and
the same scribes
that Jesus tangled with. Generally, scholars use the letter “R” for
“redactor”
to describe the source of this overall editing of the Old Testament,
especially
in regards to the Pentateuch.
By
the
3rd century BC, the Old Testament scriptures
were being translated into Greek in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. This is the Septuagint (meaning “70” for the
tradition
that 72 scholars
made the translation in just 70 days). This
is the version that Jesus quotes from in the New
Testament.
Among
the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947 at Khirbet
Qumran,
there is a collection of Old Testament books in Hebrew that is complete
except
for the book of Esther. Dating to the
mid 2nd century BC, they are the oldest examples of the scriptures
in their original language.
There
are seven books in the Catholic Bible from the Old Testament era that
were
originally written in Greek and were not included in the Hebrew
Scriptures for
this reason. Luther decided to use the
Hebrew Scriptures which did not contain these books (1 & 2
Maccabees,
Tobit, Esdras, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus and Sirach).
He removed them to a section of their own
located in between the Old and New Testaments, and for this reason they
came to
be known as the inter-testamental books.
There are a total 66 books in the Protestant
Bible, with 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the new.
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