The Documentary Theory holds that the Pentateuch was composed or compiled from several different documents or traditions written by several different authors. These original documents were argued to favor different styles and names for God, and thus were written by different authors. One document might favor “Elohim,” while another might favor “YHWH.” These sources are generally argued to be source J, E, P, and D. Genesis, however, only shows traces of J, E, and P. Some have even further subdivided the four primary sources. However, this theory fails to adequately explain the origin of the Pentateuch. Religious documents of the ancient Near East were not complied in this way, nor are variations in style and word choice conclusive. Dating the different documents is extremely difficult and far too subjective to prove the Documentary Theory.1
Spinoza questioned mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and developed what is known as “higher criticism.” This is a form of internal analysis.2 Spinoza argued that the Pentateuch was compiled from several documents, some of which were Mosaic.3 Astruc went a step further and actually singled out two sources, one which preferred the divine name “Elohim,” and the other preferring “YHWH.”4
Davis refuted this theory based on several factors. First, no other Ancient Near Eastern religious document is known to have compiled in this way. Isolating sources based on divine names is an extremely insubstantial practice. Davis points out that the author of Genesis might well have chosen certain divine names over others at certain points because of theological emphasis, rather than due to source documents. Second, it is irrational to argue the Document Theory based on differences on style. As Davis notes...
... middle of paper ...
...clares it very good.39 This small change in the formula indicates that humanity was the crowning glory of creation.
Bibliography
Davis, John J. Paradise to Prison. Salem: Sheffield Pub Co, 1998.
Phillips, Scott. “Genesis: Introduction.” Liberty University. http://bb7.liberty.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1504533_ (accessed June 28, 2011).
Ham, Ken. “What About the Gap and Ruin-Reconstruction Theories?” www.answersingenesis.org. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/gap-ruin-reconstruction-theories (accessed June 29, 2011).
Waltke, Bruce K., and Cathi J. Fredricks. Genesis: A Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
Walton, John H. Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament (Zondervan Charts). Revised ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1994.
Chamberlain Charles. “Mesopotamian Background of The Hebrew Bible--Creation”. Making of The Modern World Program. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla. January 7, 2011. Lecture.
When the Bible was written the concomitant influence was from God and the Holy Spirit. This view of the origins of Bibli...
It arose as scholars began to notice the inconsistencies of the initial belief that the Pentateuch was written by Moses. Documentary hypothesis describes the Pentateuch as having a series of editors. These editors have distinctive literature traditions which underpins one editor from another. The 4 significant strands of literary traditions are known as The Yahwist (J), the Elohist (E), the Deuteronomist (D) and the Priestly (P). Each of these authors have different perspectives and are seen to be from different periods of time (J – 900BCE, E – 800BCE, D – 600BCE and P – 500BCE), reflecting different literary styles such as literature around law or narratives and written in a way that was socially, culturally relevant to them. Having this knowledge gives you a better understanding of the context, era, and social situations within that particular author’s text. It provides more insight as to why an author has written what they have and depicts their various perspectives in more
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...
While the value of some of the historical documents is universally recognized as repositories of religious truth, they are inferior to the canonical scriptures. “Ancient writers assumed that their listeners would correctly interpret a symbol by making the necessary comparison. Actual settings of the literary genres used by ancient writers is necessary for interpretation of the Bible’s many and marvelous symbols.”
The Judeo-Christian creation story is one of the most well know beliefs for the beginning. The issue being looked at comes from the two creation stories in Genesis. One fairly interesting part of this is that the Bible has the two creation narratives back to back. These two stories have made believers uncomfortable and it has been used to discredit believers because they infer the two are contradictory. In order to answer the main question efficiently, the question has to be broken down into two main issues. The main discrepancies come from the creation of man and woman in each version and likewise the creation of man and animals. In order to answer this we must understand the reasoning behind the two and the original purpose and wording of the two.
For over two thousand years many people thought the Pentateuch was founded by Moses. (book citation) Not until around the eighteenth century, however, researchers in biblical interpretation saw that the best method to interpret the documents in the books of the Pentateuch was to see the books as a redaction, which is an edited version of several different original sources. Exegetes used the tecniques of source criticism and redaction criticism to propose that four authors made the five books of the Pentateuch. The authors were the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the Priestly Writers. Using the abbreviations of the sources, the extegetes have called this theory the four-source theory or the JEPD theory, with the Yahwist being abbreviated J for the German word for Yahwist. (book citation) The theory states that each source is by a particular community and situation, not by just one writer. (book citation)
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
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
Throughout the world there are various cultures with varying religions and creation stories to explain the creation of the Earth and it’s inhabitants. Of these creation stories two with similar and also different characteristics is the Creation story in the book of Genesis which is a part of the 1st Testament in the Hebrew Bible and explains the creation of Earth and humans, and the Theogony which is the greek creation story that describes the origins of the Earth and the Greek Gods. Both the Theogony and the Creation in Genesis show nature as a blessing for humans but it can also affect them negatively, However the myths differ in the ways that the Earth and humans were created and how humans interact with the deities of the creation stories.
Although a completely comprehensive and accurate analysis is impossible given the limitations of summarizing from outside of the cultures, languages, evolution of faith, geographic locations and original timelines from Creation to the first century, some scholarly generalizations serve as an appropriate framework at this time. The NIV Archaeological Study Bible provides a simple timeline with Creation, The Flood and the Tower of Babel occurring sometime before 2166 B.C. In addition, the timeline lists the years of the significant forefathers of faith as: Abraham (c. 2166-1991 B.C), Isaac (c. 2066-1886 B.C.), Jacob (c. 2006-1859 B.C.), and Joseph (c. 1915-1805 B.C.). Furthermore, this study Bible notes that Moses, the probable author of Genesis
Biblical creationism is another one of the three main views when it comes to human origins. This is where people believe in Genesis account where creation of the world took place in six calendar days. According to the scripture, Genesis 1:27, it is stated, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Walvoord believes that the origin of man has long been the subject of human speculation but in spite of all has that has been done scientifically and otherwise, no one has yet to come up with a better explanation than creation for the origin of man.
Documentary hypothesis says that there were several authors who wrote first five books of the Bible. In my essay I will try to discuss J, P, and E - authors of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers. I must admit that all these authors had lived after the division of the kingdom.
Hamilton, V.P. (1982) The Old Testament is strengthened by source criticism which is the investigation of possible sources that are used to produce the Pentateuch. The major item is the source theory. The source theory main object states that the Pentateuch has its origin from four different sources. The four sources are grouped in the following classifications Varughese, Alex (ed.).
Genesis is the first creation story. God creates, establishes, and puts everything into motion. After putting all of this in motion he then rests. He creates everything on earth in just seven days. Before creation Gods breath was hovering over a formless void. God made earth and all of the living creatures on earth out of nothing. There was not any pre-existent matter out of which the world was produced. Reading Genesis 1 discusses where living creatures came from and how the earth was formed. It’s fascinating to know how the world began and who created it all. In Genesis 1 God is the mighty Lord and has such strong power that he can create and banish whatever he would like. His powers are unlike any others. The beginning was created from one man only, God.