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Genesis


A Brief Description o
f
The Documentary Hypothesis

And the Origin of
The Old Testament

September 23, 2007

Phil Ropp
 
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.

Documentary Hypothesis

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.