The subject of this paper has at least five names. Documentary Hypothesis and JEDP Theory are the most common. In this paper, this scholarly position will always be referred to as Documentary Hypothesis with a few exceptions.
Documentary Hypothesis, or JEDP Theory, is the view held by various scholars that the five books of the Pentateuch were really written by four different authors, and not Moses. This theory claims that afterwards various editors (called Redactors) blended the five books together and edited them to make them flow easier. Documentary Hypothesis is one form of higher criticism theology and is closely associated with Germany.
This hypothesis has its roots as far back as the Middle Ages, but began mostly with scholars in the 19th century who recognized inconsistencies in the Pentateuch and sought to explain them. These inconsistencies, referred to by Documentary Hypothesists, include differing names for God, and differences in writing styles. Some scholars also use the record of Moses’ death to support the theory, stating that Moses could not have written about his own death if he were the author.
Those who hold this scholarly position believe that the real writers of the Pentateuch were four authors referred to as the Jahwist (Yahwist), the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the Priestly Writer. From these names they formed one of the titles of this theory, JEDP.
There are many contradictory opinions concerning the Jahwist, or J as it is often named. It is said that the Jahwist lived in the kingdom of Judah. Half of Genesis, the first half of Numbers, and the book of Joshua are supposed to have been written by the Jahwist due to their grammatical and literary form and the names used for God. Because the selecte...
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“JEDP Theory” Theopedia. 2009. Theopedia.com. 28 September. 2009.
The topic we learned that was similar to this was the discovery of ancient copies of bibles. There has been over twenty four thousand copies of bibles found by the archeological digs, and these facts support our reliability for the historical accuracy of the bible. The copies of the bible were found in forms of papyrus, stone carvings, and etc. This discovery supported not only the historical reliability, but the accuracy of the bible itself. There was more than twenty four thousand copies found, but the errors found all together was under one percent. I thought this was a pretty good evidence to use in apologetics because there was many authors and scribes writing the bible, but what they wrote was all the same thing. There can`t be a coincidence where everyone made up something random, and it all turned out to be the same idea.
The contents of the Bible have dealt with controversy in regards to its inerrancy since publication, and will surely continue to. Historians progress to learn more about biblical stories in order to provide evidence for the reliability of information. Many believers today understand that not everything in the Bible has been factually proven. An outstanding topic many scholars pay attention to lies within the four gospels. The three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, replay essentially the same story with minor inconsistencies, while John portrays Jesus in an entirely different way. The differences in each gospel are due to how each gospel entertains different portrayals of the life and understanding of Jesus himself, in order to persuade
The Bible: The Old Testament. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Sarah Lawall et al. Vol 1. 7th ed. New York: Norton, 1999. 47-97.
Until 1946 there was little assumption that additional knowledge could be uncovered regarding the Holy Scriptures however through the discovery of ancient scrolls excavated in a settlement located near the Dead Sea, more details have become available to historians regarding both the first century Jewish and Christian communities. Uncovered were several hundred scrolls that have now become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Hebrew Bible, better known as the Old Testament, is a collection of tomes that form part of the Biblical canon. Many scholars around the world do not think that a single author wrote the books contained in the Hebrew Bible, but rather that it represents centuries of stories frequently compiled after the events they describe . The stories were created with visions for the future, in order to allow audiences insight into communities and beliefs that were common thought during their era. The stories responded to the issues and problems of their time, but also addressed contemporary climates. While the stories themselves may not be true, they convey truth without needing literal readings. For example, the creation stories in Genesis, portray God as creating the universe, and while this is considered as not ‘literally true’; the stories communicate theological truths about mankind’s relationship with God through the eyes of Hebrew writers .
Contained in the many intricate and poetic Surahs of the Qur’an are retellings of a number of famous stories of the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. However, the Qur’an’s account of the lives of certain biblical characters often differs in significant ways from the Jewish version. While a believer in the divine nature of the Qur’an may claim that differences in facts stem from distortions of G-d’s message as recorded in Jewish holy books, both Muslims and non-Muslims might agree that the differences in emphasis are intentional. A more cynical observer might claim that the Qur’an changed the known Bible stories to suit its purposes. By choosing to include certain parts of a famous story and leaving out others, the story itself takes on a very different significance. Occasionally, the Qur’an will also discuss parts of the story which are entirely left out of the Torah, in which case a Muslim may claim the Torah did not deem those facts important for its own reasons. A cynical observer would claim the Qur’an made these additions to make its own message clearer.
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
Traditionally, John the apostle, the son of Zebedee, is seen as the author of Revelation. He is clearly a well-known and recognized teacher in the church of Western Asia Minor, part of the reason he could address such a letter of significance to these churches. Another possible author, John of Patmos, is supposed by some critics because of the drastic stylistic difference between the four NT books (John, 1, 2, and 3 John) and the book of Revelation. John in Revelation promotes himself as a recorder of this apocalypse, not necessarily as the “apostle that Jesus loved”, causing some to affirm John of Patmos as the author. The third author, suggested by some, is another “John” altogether, possibly a high ranking member or elder of the early
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Some of the contents of the scrolls, as mentioned above, had never been seen before in the archeological or religious communities. Being so, much skepticism concerning the scrolls, their meaning, their true origin and their authors has arisen. Of course, not all of these topics can be tackled at once and surely not all of the questions can be answered, especially because there is no proof of their true origin or their true authors, but certainly one can attempt to enlighten others with the hardships that are faced, even now, by the scribes who wrote them. In viewing the living conditions during the time that the scrolls were written and then comparing the conditions to those of today, one will have a much deeper understanding of what “hardship” means in the scribal world. Based on this comparison and a near-complete list of typical errors that plague current and ancient authors, one will not only see the types of difficulties involved with replication, but will also realize through doubt and reason that using these scrolls as a source of biblical facts is a hazardous idea.
LaSor, W., Hubbard, D., Bush, F., & Allen, L. (1996). Old Testament survey: The message, form, and background of the Old Testament (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans
The historical reliability of the Bible is the first matter that needs to be discussed. There are three criteria that the military historian C. Sanders lists as principles for documentary historical proof: the bibliographical test, internal evidence test, and the external evidence test (McDowell 43). The bibliographical test is the examination of text from the documents that have reached us. The reliability of the copies of the New Testament is tested by the number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time intervals between the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliest copy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations.
New Testament. Vol. 2. Edited by Gerhard Kittel. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964.
The Hebrew Bible is studied, analyzed, and worshiped by millions each day, it gives insight into the teachings and laws of God. The article “Pentateuch”, obtained from The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible by Merrill C. Tenney, deeply examines the authorship of the Pentateuch and displays two compelling arguments of weather the Pentateuch is of Mosaic authorship, or written by authors other than Moses. The Pentateuch is the bases of the entire Bible, it contains the first five books, including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, thus the literal meaning of “five volumes”. Theses five books make up the Old Testament and are roadmap to God’s teachings. The two views of Pentateuch authorship are Mosaic authorship
The first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy contain the beginnings of the story of God and humanity. At a first glance each book seems not fully connect with all the others; yet with a closer look, the Pentateuch is one complete story to be read in unison. In fact, Gary Schnittjer would say that Genesis 1-12 stets the pattern for the rest of the Pentateuch’s story and form. Furthermore, the continuity between the five books raises the question of authorship. Was the Pentateuch the work of a sole-author—Moses, or is the Pentateuch a compilation of several writings put together in order to tell one story? Therefore, current scholarship on the authorship of the Pentateuch helps to answer that