Bible 110 Old Testament
Structure of Pentateuch
A. Documentary Hypothesis
1. Jean Astruc – physician (1766) “father of Pentateuchal criticism, found key
to Pentateuchal criticism – alternation of divine names (Jahweh [Yahweh],
Elohim)
2. Hupfeldt – 1853 4 document hypothesis

First Elohist

Second Elohist

Yahwist

D
3. Julius Wellhausen convinced scholarly world 1883 that documentary
hypothesis was answer to the study of OT
J, E, P, D

J document 850 BC (Southern)

E document 750 BC (Prophetic)

JE redactor 650 BC

Deuteronomic 621 BC Josiah reform

R JED 550 BC

P document final outline of Pentateuch 500 – 450 BC

R JEPD ca 400 BC
Wellhausen key Exodus 6:3. Jacob knew God as El Shaddai; Moses
knew Him as Yahweh. Stories Gen 17:1; 35:11 avoiding name Yahweh
are pre-Mosaic belong to P source.
Priestly source easiest to recognize – many stereotyped phrases
Deuteronomy is 99% D material
Wellhausen believed that Israel’s religious conception began animistic and
moved toward monotheism. He dated the creation of Israel’s faith in 8 th
century BC with prophets. Anything prior to this has been colored by
prophetic witness later.
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Bible 110 Old Testament
Later archeologists Bright, Albright, Wright believe the creative
period of Israelite religion to be 13th century with Moses. You cannot
speak of Israel as a unit until 11th century.
Documentary hypothesis held sway until 1930’s. Form criticism
and tradition history now are taken seriously. Many revisions of
documentary hypothesis
1. What about oral pre-history?
2. When did the materials become written literature?
3. Now we must give up efforts to mark off precise demarcation of
sources
4. No longer does the date of the source indicate the date of the
narratives in it.
We stand somewhere on the continuum between Wellhausen and Engnell
Documentary
Hypothesis
Traditional
History
Tradition grows is supplemented, reinterpreted, not static (e.g. J
source between 10th and 8th centuries). Interest of talking sources or
strata of material, we talk about schools or strata with similar
presuppositions. Growth, dynamism, complexity
God works complexly with people who interpreted and preserved
the tradition handed down (Heilsgeschichte).
Basic (early) outline of Israel’s faith:
Deuteronomy 26:5f
Deuteronomy 6:23-34
Joshua 24:2f
Patriarchs oppressed in Egypt; deliverance by God from Egypt; gift
of the land. This amounted to a conquest tradition. A covenant tradition
came later. Did the Yahwist writer join together the covenant and
conquest traditions later? Yahwist extended the patriarchal traditions
bringing into them the element of promise. Yahwist also went behind
Abraham to primeval material connecting creation with Patriarchal
promise.
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Bible 110 Old Testament
Did the J writer link together conquest and covenant traditions?
Not likely. Who did? The active cultus in covenant renewal
Exodus
Sinai
Conquest
Abraham
South
Jacob
North
Creation

Active cultus
Israelite cultus likely used pre-patriarchal material during monarchy to
explain what happened before Abraham (mythopoeic material, God
inspired). Jerusalem is central focus for the bringing together of all this
material.
Many alterations have taken place in documentary hypothesis,
posted basic G (Grundlage) source, L (lay) source, G1, G2, K (Kenite), S
(Southern). Cannot now say strictly that J and E were documents as
much as collections of traditions from South J Kingdom and Northern E
Kingdom. All these traditions wound up in Jerusalem and received
modifications at the hands of pro-Jerusalem scholars.
P is largely law codes and legal materials. P provides outline for J
and E materials. P’s view of history is theocratic; goal of history is
theocracy.
Outline of Hebrew History
a)
Creation to flood – creation theophany; Sabbath cultic
instruction
b)
Noah to Abraham – Noah covenant; cultic slaughter of
animals
c)
Elohim God
Elohim God
Abraham to Moses – God appears to Abraham as El
Shaddai; cultic act of circumcision in Moses’ time
d)
Moses → full blown Mosaic system is climax; God’s name is
Yahweh
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Bible 110 Old Testament
In P materials God appears to man through the cultus (institutional acts).
Theology of P material is outgrowth of exilic adversity (lifting up law and
legal material; importance of law as structure of Israelite life).
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