Post on 22-May-2015
Higher Criticism:Source Criticism:
The Documentary Hypothesis
Yah-weh Elohim
The LORD God
ה הו�� ים י� � לה א�
My teen age experience – readingDeuteronomy 34 : 5, 7-8
5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
I Thought how strange, but I did not think anything about it. My German Bible names the books of the Pentateuch – The Books of MosesSo it must beMoses who wroteabout his own death
It some years toreconsider the fact
1. Higher Criticism is a product of the Enlightenment (Age of Reason)2. Interpretations were based on human reason and
a naturalistic worldview. 3. The Bible was not considered God’s special revelation but written by mere human beings.
Everything is to be explained naturally. The supernatural is excluded from
interpretations The Bible is only a human book and is
to be interpreted from a naturalistic and eventually (in the 19th century) an evolutionary perspective.
Higher Criticism
Higher Criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the books of the Bible and compares them to other texts. . .
Higher Criticism includes:
Source, Source criticism questions traditional authorship, so it attempts to determine the original sources. Form, Form criticism assumes that style and cultural formsinfluenced the writing of the text, so it attempts to determine the original forms. Redaction, Redaction criticism believes the present day documents are merely edited versions, so it attempts to determine the specific revisions or edits to the text.
Tradition, Literary, as well as others.
Source criticism is the pivotal method of higher criticism.
Higher Criticism
A. Definition:
1. Source Criticism is the study of the source
or origin of the material found in a written document.
2. In the Old Testament it focuses on the sources of the Pentateuch
(Documentary
hypothesis) and Kings and Chronicles.
Source Criticism
“The Four Document Hypothesis” which included
--“Q” “Quelle” hypothetical lost source (material common to Matthew and Luke and not found in Mark),
--Mark, --L (material unique to Luke) and --M (material unique to Matthew).
B. H. Streeter in 1924
New Testament Example:Source Hypothesis of the Gospels
1. Traditional Conservative View
a. Moses is the author of the Pentateuch
b. It was written ca. 1400 BCc. It is inspired by God
2. Radical Documentarian View
a. Moses is not the author of any of itb. It was written much later than
Moses’ timec. It is a composite of many documents
and authors and a result of literary evolution
d. It is not inspired by God. God is not assumed to exist
Pentateuch: Competing World Views
Glenn Giles, The Documentary Hypothesis - Evidence for Christianity
Spanish rabbi
Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-?)
He believed certain passages did not come from Moses' own hand:
passages that referred to Moses in the third person, terms that Moses would not have known, places where Moses had never been, language that reflected another time and locale from those of Moses.
Early Suspicions about the whole Pentateuch being Moses Work
The Book Exodus with the commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra, Naples 1488
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_ibn_Ezra
Andreas Carlstadt, (1486 –1541)
One time friend of Martin Luther and 16th century scholar.
The description of Moses' death was written in the same style as preceding narrative. Moses could not have described his own death, therefore the book of Deuteronomy may not be his work.
Otto Eissfeldt, The Old Testament an Introduction, (1965) 159
Early Suspicions about the whole Pentateuch being Moses Work
The Birth of the Documentary Hypothesis• From there Abraham
journeyed toward the region of the Negeb…While residing in Gerar as an alien, Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” (Gen. 20:1-2)
• So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said “She is my sister.” (Gen. 26:6-7)
• Richard Simon (1638-1712) noticed that some stories in Genesis were very similar.
• He developed the theory that the Pentateuch was a compilation of a number of sources.
• Some of these sources could have been derived from Moses.
For Simon Ezra was the editor of the final form of the Pentateuch.Thus, the Torah was a product of the postexilic period; the fifth century B.C.
The Birth and History of DH
Baruch Spinoza (1632 –1677) a Spanish Jewish scholar who claimed the Pentateuch was not written by Moses because:
1. in passages he is spoken of in third person rather than first person (he rather than I) (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth. Numbers 12:3 )
2 Moses could not have written of his own death in Deut. 34 3. unsubstantiated historical references (Gen 14:14; Ex 16:35; Deut
1:1; etc.),4. inconsistencies within the text (Ex 4:20; 18:2
A redactors (Ezra) composed the present-day Pentateuch many years after the death of Moses.
• Jean Astruc (1684-1766) noticed something odd about some lines in Genesis 2.
• One referred to God as Elohim. See blue arrow:
• The other used Yhwh. See red arrow:
The Birth and History of DHJean Astruc 1684-1766
www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/pilchj/Documentary_Hypothesis.ppt
Moses compiled Genesis from several centuries
of oral and written
materials, laying them out in
four columns; later editors
combined these columns to
produce a continuous narrative.
This explains why some of the narrative material is not in chronological order
Employed 1. duplicate
narratives 2. divine names
Elohim and YHWH From two recognizable primary and parallel sources,
as well as some 10 minor fragmentary sources.
From this time forward Moses was no longer considered the direct author of the Pentateuch/Torah.
Jean Astruc 1684-1766
The source, based on Elohim, he titled A; the other source, based on YHWH, he titled B; the remaining material he placed in two other columns, C and D. Otto Eissfeldt, The Old Testament an Introduction, (1965) 161
He extended the criteria of
duplicate narratives and the divine names used by Astruc to include: literary style and thought content,
broadening his approach to include the entire Pentateuch.
He Changed Astruc’s A and B to E and J respectively, which are the first letters of the corresponding divine names—He also identified several smaller Sources
Concluded that the Pentateuch was much later than Moses and he could not be the author.
Eichhorn
The Birth and History of DHJohann Gottfried
Eichhorn (1780-83)
Competing Views on the Origin of Genesis thru Deuteronomy
Alexander Geddes, a Scottish Roman Catholic priest proposed a “fragmentary theory” in 1792
Johann S. Vater, advanced in his Commentar uber Den Pentateuch Vol 1-3 (1802,1805) the idea that Genesis was composed from at least 39 different fragments which he dated from Moses’ time up to 586 B.C.
Redactor
1400 BC
Fragmentary Theory
Chart from: Did Moses Write the Torah? Examining the JEDP Theory. Allan A. MacRae. Robert C. Newman. Abstracts of Powerpoint Talks. - newmanlib.ibri.org
Competing Views on the Origin of Genesis thru Deuteronomy
The origin of the Supplementary Hypothesis is to be found in Heinrich Ewald review of J.J. Stahelin, Kritische Untersuchungen uber die Genesis (1831), and in Franz Delitzsch (1852)
Heinrich Ewald (1823) noticed an impressive unity running thru Genesis. It couldn’t very well be a mass of independent fragments.
a. proposed the “supplementary theory” of the origin of the Pentateuch in which there was “one basic document or body of tradition (E) which underlay all the rest and which dated from about 1050-950 BC” (Archer, 83)
b. later additions were made by the J author
c. laws attributed to Moses by the text were genuinely his. The rest were codified by priests after the conquest of Canaan
EBasic
Document(Grundschrift)
J supplement
Heinrich Ewald
Franz Delitzsch
Supplementary Hypothesis
Ewald later developed this to solve problems in the Supplementary Theory, as it looked like both J and E materials assumed the existence of the other.
Ewald suggested that J and E were types of material which gradually accumulated, being composed in view of the currently existing compilation.
accumulation
accumulation
gradually accumulated
Crystallization Theory
Competing Views on the Origin of Genesis thru Deuteronomy
Additional Views impacting the Development of the Documentary Hypothesis
Scholars began to explore the religious history of Israel were they seemed to discover development.
Also the evolutionary philosophic view of Hegel began to have an impact.Scholars began to see religious development in the Torah which could be used to date the documents.
Hupfeld's (1853) attempt to combine stylistic criteria with developmental ones
More Modifications of the Documentary Hypothesis, before the Classical Articulation of
the Documentary HypothesisHermann Hupfeld (1853)
Re-examined the E document and proposed that there were two documents (E1 and E2)
Karl Heinrich Graf (1866)
Graf divided P into historical P and a “legal-P” document. “legal-P” was later than DHistorical P was very early so had order
of documents as P,E,J,D, legal-P
Abraham Kuenen (1869)
argued for a unified P document the order J-E-D-P
Julius Wellhausen (1878).
a. contributed basically nothing new
b. restated the four source theory with “great skill and persuasiveness, supporting the JEDP sequence upon an evolutionary basis” fitted into Hegelian dialecticism and the supposed evolutionary development of polytheism to monotheism in the Jewish religion. Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (1985 ed), p.89
“…was largely based on a Hegelian philosophy of history, not upon his literary analysis. It was an a priori evolutionary scheme that guided him…" – G.E.Mendenhall in The Bible & the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of William F. Albright., 32.
c. Became “Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis” or “The Documentary Hypothesis”
d. Classic statement is found in his Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel (New York: The World Publishing Co, 1957).
Definitive Formulation of theDocumentary Hypothesis
http://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/the-documentary-hypothesis-power-point/
Julius Wellhausen’s Presuppositions
Wellhausen approached scripture with three key presuppositions:
1. Scripture must submit itself to human reason and
“contemporary methods of study and modes of thought;2. Scripture has errors3. Humans are the only authors of scripture.
Wellhausen established the criteria for the classical theory of the documentary hypothesis.Since then, proponents use five literary identifiers to distinguish the sources.
1. variation in the ways of referring to God ((Elohim myhla and Yahweh hwhy)
2. Duplication (Doublets) and repetition of material;
3. variation in vocabulary and literary style;
4. contrasting author perspectives;
5. evidence of editorial activity.
Wellhausen’s Criteria Documentary Hypothesis.
www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/pilchj/Documentary_Hypothesis.ppt
Some Examplesof the Identifiers to distinguish the Sources
1. Variation in the ways of referring to GodThe use of two different names for God (Elohim myhla and Yahweh hwhy) in different passages.
For example: 1:1-2:3 uses Elohim
Gen. 4: 6-16 uses Yahweh6 Yahweh said to Cain, "Why are you angry? …9 Yahweh said to Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?" …10Yahweh said, "What have you done? …13 Cain said to Yahweh, "My punishment is greater than I can bear. .. 15 Yahweh said to him, "Therefore whoever slays Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should strike him. 16 Cain went out from Yahweh's presence, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Gen. 1:1In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'arets.Gen. 2:2 The earth was without form and empty, with darkness on the face of the depths, but God's spirit moved on the water's surface. Veha'arets hayetah tohu vavohu vechoshech al-peney tehom veruach Elohim merachefet al-peney hamayim.Gen. 3:3 God said, 'There shall be light,' and light came into existence. Vayomer Elohim yehi-or vayehi-or.Gen 2 & 3 uses YHWH Elohim
a. two different stories of creationb. two converged stories of the floodc. two stories of the covenant between God and Abrahamd. two stories of Abraham claiming Sarah is his sistere. two stories of Jacob making a journey to Mesopotamiaf. two stories of God changing Jacob's name to Israelg. two stories of Moses getting water from a rock at a place
called Meribah (From http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Doc4/source.htm).
Some Examplesof the Identifiers to distinguish the Sources
2. Doublets seemingly repeating the same story
Noah's special statusThen the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. [7:1]
Noah's special status"For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you." [6:17-18]
Animals by pairs and seven pairs"Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground." And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. [7:2-5]
Animals by pairs"And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them." Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. [6:19-22]
Duration of floodThe rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. [6:12]
Duration of floodAnd the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days. [7:24]
End of floodAt the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove ... He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove... Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more. [8:6-12]
End of floodIn the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God said to Noah, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you....[8:13-16]
Doublets repeating the same story with consequent contradictionsWeaving together two previous versions of the Flood Story, J source and P source J P
http://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/the-documentary-hypothesis-power-point/
Genesis 1:2-2:3 Genesis 2:4-25
plants animals Man & woman (simultaneous)
man plants animals woman
Creator Elohim mentioned thirty-five times
Yahweh or Yahweh Elohim mentioned eleven times
Doublets repeating the same story with consequent contradictions
E J E
In the first account Israel sees the thunder and lightning and stays at a distance from the mountain. But, in the second account they go up to the mountain and see the smoke and fire.
Doublets repeating the same story with consequent contradictions
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they
trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance (Exodus 20:18, NASB)
Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently (Exodus 19:17-18, NASB)
Vivid narrative of Exodus 2—the childhood and early career of Moses—
Ponderous accounts of the building and equipping of the tent sanctuary in Exodus 36-40.
Some Examplesof the Identifiers to distinguish the Sources
"I talked to mom” or "I spoke to my mother.“ These two phrases are from two different people.
These same variations in writing style can be seen in of the Torah.
"Yahweh said to Moses." Numbers 21:16 "Yahweh spoke unto Moses." Exodus 4:30
3. Language and Style differences
Certain parts of the Pentateuch are: statistical or enumerative, other parts are narrativemost of Deuteronomy consists of exhortation
Documentary Hypothesis: Composition of Pentateuch
Wellhausen proposed that the Pentateuch was composed from four main sources.
1)J = Yahwist
2)E = Elohist
3)D = Deuteronomist
4)P = Priestly writer
J Jahwist
written ca 800 BC;Prefers the narrative style and stories
stress on Judah;Calls indigenous people “Canaanites”
stresses leaders
anthropomorphic speech about God
God walks and talks with us
God is YHWH
uses "Sinai” for God’s mountain
Jahwist9th cent BC
E Elohist
Written ca 750 BC
stress on northernIsrael;Calls indigenous people “Amorites”
stresses the prophetic
refined speech about God, narrative, stories of warning
God speaks in dreams
God is Elohim (till Ex 3)
Uses "Horeb” as God’s mountain in place of Sinai
JE JE
Jahwist9th cent BC
Elohist750 BC
P Priestly
Written in various stages (Ezekiel to Ezra)
stress on Judah
stresses the cultic
majestic speech about God
cultic approach to God
God is Elohim (till Ex 3)
has genealogies and lists
Deuteronomist
650 BC later
JE
Jahwist9th cent BC
JE (D)
Elohist750 BC
Deuteronomist
650 BC laterPriestly
JEDP
D Deuteronomist
Written under high priest Hilkiah & king Josiah 621 BC
stress on central shrine
stresses fidelity toJerusalem
speech recalling God's work
moralistic approach
God is YHWH
has speeches and long sermons
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 2 Kings 22:8
JE
Jahwist9th cent BC
JE (D) Deuteronomist
650 BC later
Elohist750 BC
J Jahwist E Elohist P Priestly D Deuteronomist
written ca 800 BC Written ca 750 BC Written in various stages (Ezekiel to Ezra)
Written under high priest Hilkiah & king Josiah 621 BC
stress on Judah stress on northernIsrael
stress on Judah stress on central shrine
stresses leaders stresses the prophetic
stresses the cultic stresses fidelity toJerusalem
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 Ex 3)
God is Elohim God is YHWH
uses "Sinai” Sinai is "Horeb" has genealogies and lists
has long sermons
http://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/the-documentary-hypothesis-power-point/
Wellhausen’s sequencing and dating according to his Developmental (evolutionary)
ViewWellhausen divided, sequenced and dated the sources according to his view of the development of the Israelite religion and Heglian evolutionary ideas
Lit. Society Religion Law1. J
E
primitive, tribal, semi-nomadic (Judges)
free, unorganized, natural worship at many local shrines; monolatrous at best
Book of the CovenantEx. 20:22 – 23:19(esp. 20:24)
2. D monarchy (Samuel, Kings)
prophets, the real founders of Israelite religion, advocate strict monotheism; God personal, not national; ethical, not natural; worship centralized
Deuteronomic Law(esp. 12:1-7)
3. P ecclesiastical hierarchy in post-exilic times
cultus end in itself; denatured, formulistic worship; fraudulent ancient setting created to give it authority
Priestly CodeEx 25-31; 35-40; Lv and legal portions of Numbers
Summary of Wellhausen’s Evolutionary Views
[DOC] 6. Negative Criticism 26-29.doc - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary
PPT] Did Moses Write the Torah? - Newmanlib.ibri.org
CREATION OF THE PENTATEUCH
2100 BC--Abraham's Lifetime
2000 BC 1900 BC 1800 BC 1700 BC 1600 BC 1500 BC
1400 BC--End of Moses' Life Conservative Date for Pentateuch
1350 BC 1300 BC 1250 BC 1200 BC 1150 BC 1100 BC 1050 BC
1000 BC--King David's Reign J
950 BC 900 BC 850 BC 800 BC 750 BC
700 BC--Fall of Northern Kingdom E
650 BC
600 BC--Josiah's Reform D
550 BC--Babylonian Exile P W
500 BC 450 BC W
400 BC Q JEDPPentateuch
The Evolution of the JEDP
Document
1 Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground." 5 And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7 And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.18 The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20 the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth.Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.
Bold type for (red) J sections, ordinary type (yellow) for P sections, and underlined type for “harmonizing additions” from a later editor (blue). (Gen 7:1-9, 17-24)
A. Campbell and M. O’Brien, Sources of the Pentateuch: text, introductions, annotations. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993.
Genesis 5Jawist (J) Source Priestly (P) Source Redactor (R) Source
29) Now he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed."
30) Then Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters. 31) So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. 32) Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 6
1) Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2) that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3) Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." 4) The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6) The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7) The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them." 8) But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9) These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 10) Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11) Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12) God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13) Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14) "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15) "This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16) "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17) "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. 18) "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark--you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19)
A Sample of the Distribution of Sources in the Pentateuch
Distribution of materials of Jahwist, Elohist and Priestly sources, as well as Redactor's
contribution in the first four books, following Richard Friedman
Distribution of Sources in the Pentateuch
R Friedman
The Documentary Hypothesis
Implications from the Wellhausen hypothesis which became widely accepted
1. Moses could not have authored the Pentateuch2. The Pentateuch is much later then the traditional view3. The Law originated after the historical books, not before them.4. The true history of Israel is very different from the history narrated by the OT.
1. Variation in the ways of referring to God
Some Challenges to the DH in Favor of the Unity of the Pentateuch
The same author can use different names for God in order to reflect different characteristic
He “selected the name YHWH when the text reflects the Israelite conception of God, …express… attributes traditionally ascribed to Him by Israel, particularly in His ethical character” YHWH is employed when God is presented … in His personal character and in direct relationship to the people or nature”
“It preferred the name Elohim when the passage implies the abstract idea of the Deity…–God conceived as the Creator of the physical universe, as the Ruler of nature, as the Source of life” “Elohim… as the Transcendental Being who exists completely outside and above the physical universe” Umberto Cassuto (Hebrew, 1941; English translation, 1961) in The Documentary Hypothesis and the Composition of the Pentateuch: Eight Lectures (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1961) (31)
When applied to Gen. 1 and 2, it perfectly explains the different usages of the two terms in these passages without a need to posit two different authors/sources.
--Genesis 1 is the story of Creation and Lord of the Universe which wouldrequire the term “Elohim.” Indeed “Elohim” is the word used in that passage. --With respect to Genesis 2-3, “God is portrayed as the moral Ruler,… YHWH. This is appropriate here as it is dealing with God’s personal relationship with people.
--It is assumed that doublets were pieced together by a redactor and this is the cause of the perceived “inconsistencies.”
--Kaiser quotes Whybray about doublets
and the inconsistencies “. . . the hypothesis can only be
maintained on the assumption that, while consistency was the hallmark of the various documents, inconsistency was the hallmark of the redactors”
Kaiser, 137
2. Doublets repeating the same story and consequent Inconsistencies
Some Challenges to the DH in Favor of the Unity of the Pentateuch
Another arguments against doublets indicating different sources may be chiasms. Chiasms are simple literary structures which use reverse duplication. They are found in the Pentateuch such as in Genesis 9:6 ____A) Whoever sheds _____B) the blood ______C) of man ______C) by man shall _____B) his blood ____A) be shed.
3. Language and Style differencesVariety in Language and style “could just as well be a sign of differences in subject matter that carry with them their own distinctive vocabulary and style”
Kaiser, 137
Cassuto found that “change in style depends on change of subject- matter, not on differences of sources” (54)
Some Challenges to the DH in Favor of the Unity of the Pentateuch
Style can vary widely and still belong to a single personConsider:
The painter Pablo Picasso
“On the face of it, the study of the Pentateuch is in ferment . . . The debate between different points of view is lively and sometimes heated. As yet, no new consensus has emerged about the composition of the Pentateuch.”
(Gordon Wenham “Pentateuchal Studies Today,” Themelios 22:1 (October 1996): 3
“a fix is needed” (Antony F. Campbell and Mark A. O’Brian , Rethinking the Pentateuch: Prolegomena to the Theology of Ancient Israel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 1.
the study of the Pentateuch is in ferment no new consensus “a fix is needed”
“Another point to be kept in mind is what I do not mean when I take the positionthat Moses was the author/compiler of the Pentateuch. I do not mean thatMoses wrote every single word so that the current form of the entire HebrewPentateuch is exactly the same as it came from his pen. It is clear that there aresome post-Mosaic elements in the text. Not only the account of Moses death inDeut. 34, but also other statements reflect post-Mosaic editorial activity.(Gen. 13:6b; Gen. 36:31). A high view of inspiration does not preclude editorial work by someone other than the original author.I also do not mean that every word was original with Moses. It is not onlypossible but likely that Moses made use of written sources (see Num. 21:14), evenas Luke would later do in constructing his gospel (see Luke 1:1Ð4). It also seemsprobable that Moses made use of oral tradition in composing the Pentateuch. Itbears emphasizing that originality is not a prerequisite for inspiration. All truthbelongs to God, and He has the right to inspire His prophet to make use of it, evenif it is derived from another source, whether oral or written.
In conclusion, in light of the weaknesses inherent in the documentary hypothesis,this is certainly not the time for Bible-believing Christians to be flockingto its banner. Rather, it is an auspicious time for them to affirm a more traditionalview, …”Greg A. King. The Documentary Hypothesis, Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 12/1 (2001): 22-30.
Adventist Perspective on the DH
"... it is true that the documentary hypothesis has increasingly been shown to be flawed, and will survive, if at all, only in a greatly modified form, but that does not mean that we should ignore the results of the last two centuries of investigation. Our task is to find better ways of understanding how the Pentateuch came to be without writing off the real advances of our predecessors.“
Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch, p 28:
Flawed, but don’t Ignore and find a better way
Moses the author of the Pentateuch according to the Bible
New Living Translation (NLT):Passages in the Pentateuch itself:
Exodus 17:14 "Then the Lord instructed Moses, 'Write this down as a permanent record...'"Exodus 24:4 "Then Moses carefully wrote down all the Lord's instructions."Exodus 34:27 "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Write down all these instructions, for they represents the terms of my covenant with you and with Israel.'“
Passages elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures:Joshua 8:31-34 "He followed the instructions that Moses the Lord's servant had written in the Book of the Law...“2 Chronicles 34:14 "...Hilkiah the high priest...found the book of the Law of the Lord as it had been given through Moses."
Passages in the Gospels which show that Jesus and John the Baptizer believed Moses to be the author:
Matthew 19:7-8 "...why did Moses say a man could merely write an official letter of divorce and send her away?", they asked. Jesus replied, 'Moses permitted divorce...'“Mark 12:24 "...haven't you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush..."Luke 24:44 "...I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true.“
Passages elsewhere in the Christian Scriptures:Romans 10:5 "For Moses wrote..."
Some Challenges to the DH in Favor of the Unity of the Pentateuch
No JEDP Document or shred of it ever found
Nor are there any references to it anywhere
We have no J, E, D, or P.
Documents,
BUT
We have hundreds of manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible
Some Challenges to the DH in Favor of the Unity of the Pentateuch