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...
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...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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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
Throughout history many civilizations and cultures have had their own ways of explaining the world and its creation. Each of these civilizations has created unique descriptions and accounts of such events. However, when comparing them to each other, are they really different? Look at the ancient Greco - Roman creation myths as told by Hesiod in his Theogony and Works and Days and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when compared to the creation myths as seen in the Old Testament’s book of Genesis they may not be as different as one would think. Taking a more in-depth look at both Genesis and Hesiod’s and Ovid’s work more closely, the reader can see that on multiple occasions the myths have almost identical similarities which reflect their views in society. The similarities in particular are the myths of the creation of man, women with their subsequent role of evil in ancient times, and the great floods. These similarities prove that even though these two scriptures were centuries apart, the concepts presented in each myth were almost identical to one another.
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.”
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
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)
While the Hebrews and Egyptians creation theories bear resemblances and differences, the study and comparison of both the Egyptian myths and the biblical account allow us to comprehend the religious views of ancient civilizations in a better light. One may come to the conclusion that the Hebrews were influenced by the cultures of Egyptians by creating similarities in their own beliefs, or by drawing a line of defense of what is in their terms true, by separating from the mass ideals of the Egyptians and establishing distinct
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
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.
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.
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.).