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| Impetus for the Documentary Hypothesis | |
| 18th cent. Deism | The Enlightenment renewed interest in a view of God as transcendent, but more or less impersonal. God created the universe but then, for many deists, declined further involvement. However, David Hume's writings undermined notions of God as "first cause" (cosmological argument) and "intelligent designer" (teleological argument). Thomas Paine concludes in his The Age of Reason that "the idea or belief of a word of God existing in print, or in writing, or in speech, is inconsistent in itself for the reasons already assigned." Paine goes on to argue that the books of the Pentateuch " are spurious, and that Moses is not the author of them; and still further, that they were not written in the time of Moses nor till several hundred years afterwards; that they are no other than an attempted history of the life of Moses, and of the times in which he is said to have lived, and also of the times prior thereto, written by some very ignorant and stupid pretenders to authorship, several hundred years after the death of Moses." |
| 19th cent. Dialecticism | Hegel developed an ontological model based on a Greek notion to understand the development of being and becoming-- of nature and history. For Hegel, the thesis/antithesis tension produces a new "thesis." For Hegel the thesis of religious determinism was countered by the antithesis of self-conscious self-determinism resulting in an evolved worldview. |
| 19th cent. Evolutionism | The theory of evolution had an impact beyond biology. It's influence was felt in sociology and anthropology as well. For many, the theological notions and the social structures presented in the Pentateuch are far too advanced for the mid-second millennium B.C. Rather, the Pentateuch is the product of a later stage of anthropological and social evolution. |
| Antisupernaturalism | The above three developments shared in common a seep-seated antisupernaturalism. The argument is: the supernatural is not rational and does not occur: therefore, the Bible is not supernatural revelation. |
| Significant Milestones of the Documentary Hypothesis | |
| Jean Astruc, Conjectures Concerning the Original Memoranda which it Appears Moses Used to Compose the Book of Genesis. 1753 | Argued that Moses used two different sources for the creation account, one of which referred to God only as Elohim and the other only by the name Yahweh |
| Johann Eichhorn, Introduction to the Old Testament, 1780-83 | Applied source theory to Gen. 1 -- Ex. 2, assigning passages to the Yahwist source (J document) or to the Elohist source (E document). In his early edition Eichhorn concluded that Moses edited these early sources but in later editions he argued that the Pentateuch was written well after Moses' time. |
| Wilhelm DeWette, A Critical, Exegetical Dissertation in Which it is Shown That Deuteronomy, Different from the Earlier Books of the Pentateuch, is the Work of Some Later Author, 1805 | Argued that the document Found in the temple during Josiah's reign was the book of Deuteronomy. It was composed at that time at the behest of Josiah & Hilkiah in order to encourage a centralized worship and political cohesion. At this point there are three source documents: J, E, D. Technically, DeWette espoused a fragmentary theory rather than a documentary theory of the origins of the Pentateuch.
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| Herman Hupfeld, The Sources of Genesis, 1853. | Argued for two different Elohist source documents, E1 and E2. He observed that E2 was so close to J in content, form and style that it would be difficult to distinguish apart from the use of the name. What Hupfeld assigned to E 1, the earliest source according to him, was later renamed the Priestly Code (P). According to Hupfeld's reckoning, the developmental order of the Pentateuch was PEJD. |
| Karl Graf, The Historical Books of the O.T., 1865. | Argued that the legal material in P was the latest of the sources and that J filled in for E and the E-J material was edited by the D author. The resulting schema was P-(history), E, J, D, P-(law) |
| Abraham Kuenen, The Religion of Israel, 1869. | Argued that P must be seen as a whole and must be the latest and that J represented the earlier period of Israel's religious evolution. Hence, J,E,D,P. |
| Julius Wellhausen, The Composition of the Hexateuch, 1876; Introduction to the History of Israel, 1878 | Presented the documentary hypothesis in terms of Darwinian theory and Hegelian dialecticism applied to sociology and Anthropology. Since human society evolved from the primitive (animism, clan) to the sophisticated (monotheism, city). This approach found wide acceptance in the Continental, British and American academy. |
| Samuel Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, 1891. | Presented the schema:
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| Conservative Response | |
| Ernst Hengstenberg, Dissertation on the Genuineness of the Pentateuch, 1847. | Careful treatment by Lutheran professor at Univ. of Berlin. He points up the lack of agreement on the part of the higher critics as grounds for questioning their methodology. |
| William Green, Unity of the Book of Genesis, 1895; Higher Criticism of the Pentateuch, 1896. | Thorough, scholarly analysis of evidence by Presbyterian professor at Princeton. In Unity he argued that Genesis is a "continuous work of a single writer" while acknowledging the probability of previously existing texts and traditions from which the writer might draw. Green cited the 'toledoth' formula as critical support for unity. |
| Umberto Cassuto, Documentary Hypothesis, 1941 | Eight lectures by Jewish professor at University of Cape Town treats each of the five main arguments in favor of the documentary hypothesis with skill and wit. |
| Evidence for Documentary Hypothesis* | On Cross-examination |
Divine names - Names for God vary, indicating different source documents and authors. E.g. Gen 1:1-2:3 refers to God only as Elohim (=E); Gen 2:4-25 refers to God a Yahweh or Yahweh Elohim (=J) |
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Language & style - Differences in vocabulary, grammar and other stylistics indicate different source documents and authors. E.g., Some genealogies use the Hiphil of yalad "he became the father of..." (=P) and some use the Qal stem (=J). Some passages give numbers is descending order (e..g, Gen. 6:3, "a hundred and twenty") and some in ascending order (e.g., Num. 7:86 "twenty and a hundred"). Some passages are characteristically "dry," detailed, formulaic in keeping with the interests associated with the professional priesthood. With reference to a covenant, some passages speak of "cutting" (karat) a covenant, some speak of "making/giving" (natan) a covenant, and some speak of "establishing" (heqim) a covenant. The latter two reflect the P source. The former reflects the others. |
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Divergent perspectives & contradictions - Perceived incongruities among various passages are proffered as support for different authors & source documents. E.g., J is seen to present God as the ethnic deity of Israel as well as Creator and Sovereign over all creation who pays attention to those who trust and obey and righteously judges humans according to their actions. Whereas E is seen to present God as distant from humanity. P's presentation of God is completely transcendent. Some passages indicate that the custom was for mothers to name their children yet a number of passages report that the fathers name a child. |
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Duplications - Duplicated themes are adduced as evidence of multiple authors/sources. E.g., Creation of the Universe (Gen. 1:1-2:3) (=P); Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:4-25) (=J) |
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Composite sections - Some passages demonstrate an internal parallelism. This redundancy is unnecessary (and not always artfully done) and is evidence of multiple sources. E.g., Isaac's blessing of Jacob (Gen. 27) demonstrates an intricate weaving of E and J stories. |
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Conclusion - Cassuto concludes that since "the whole structure of the documentary hypothesis rested on the five pillars enumerated, and subsequently we found that all these pillars were without substance, it follows that this imposing and beautiful edifice has, in reality, nothing to support it and is founded on air." p. 100 |
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