problems with the documentary hypothesis

P stands for “Priest,” and refers to the parts of the Pentateuch, especially Leviticus, that were written by a priest, or multiple priests. The Documentary Hypothesis within the spectrum of biblical schol-arship. As I commented on R' Student's blog, at first I was excited to see an Orthodox rabbi honestly taking on the Documentary Hypothesis. When God reveals the name YHWH to Moses in Exodus, he says that not even the patriarchs knew this name, yet they all use it in Genesis. If the Documentary Hypothesis or JEDP model is true, that would mean these Bible verses are incorrect about who wrote the Pentateuch, which would mean the Bible is fallible and therefore not truly God’s Word or revelation. A single author would not use two different names for God. What this ignores is that different names for God would have different meanings, or emphases, so it is entirely reasonable that one author could have used multiple names for God, to emphasize different thinigs. The Pentateuch has components of all of these. However, due to advances in literary studies, today the state of pentateuchal scholarship is confused, with new theories or radical modifications appearing often. The sources are J, E, D, and P (Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly). From this perspective there is a focus on the Pentateuch as a whole. According to this theory, it is believed that the Priestly author wrote Genesis 1:1-2:3 and the Yahwist wrote Genesis 2:4ff. Some passages speak of a downpour lasting forty days and forty nights (Gen. 7:4, 12, 17a), while others speak of a cosmic deluge whose waters crest for 150 days (7:11… Understanding the Documentary Hypothesis . All rights reserved. In an ancient text, there is no stronger indication that only a single document is present than parallel accounts. There are genealogies, censuses, narratives, and legislation. But by the end of the 19th century, liberal scholars had reached general agreement. A theory that arose as a result of problems with the traditional view that Moses, one author, wrote the Pentateuch. The traditional “documentary hypothesis,” as it is called, was most famously formulated by the nineteenth-century German scholar, Julius Wellhausen, who, along with some of his predecessors, called the sources J E D and P. This was the standard view of the matter back when I was doing my PhD in biblical studies way back when. There is absolutely no manuscript evidence for the existence of these different J, E, D, and P documents. Jennifer Raff . A single author may change literary styles within a single document. C. The Implications of the Documentary Hypothesis With Respect to the Traditional . Historically speaking, the theory that Moses 'did not write the Pentateuch actually has been around for more than a millennium.' 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. The documentary hypothesis is liberal theology’s attempt to call the veracity of the Pentateuch into question. A Documentary Solution. But each one shall die for his own sin.”. Higher Criticism of the New Testament is similarly in the same category as these two. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible. The documentary hypothesis has a number of problems - some of which, ... 'The documentary hypothesis was originally based on the supposition that the events in the Torah preceded the invention of writing, or at least its use among the Hebrews. Documentary Hypothesis: The Subjective Approach to Biblical Criticism, by Matthew Graham The Documentary Hypothesis , by Duane Garrett Mosaic Authorship of the Torah: Problems with the Documentary Hypothesis (JEDP) - Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , by Michael Heiser The historical critical scholars claimed that they found evidence for their hypothesis from the Bible, but they ignored the biblical passages that contradicted their theory. On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. This revised version of the documentary hypothesis is called the neo-documentary hypothesis. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. Both point out that Breuer primarily deals with the literary problems posed by biblical scholarship and not the historical ones. It is based on misinterpretation, mistranslation, and lack of attention to extrabiblical sources. With time, the findings of the hypothesis have been challenged in reference to some texts in the Pentateuch. J refers to the parts of the Pentateuch that were written by one or more authors who preferred to use the Hebrew name Jahweh, or Jehovah, for God. A mature science, according to Kuhn’s hypothesis, is one in which there exists a dominant paradigm—a conceptual frame-work that informs the scientist of what to expect as he engages in his or her scientific inquiry. Moses would have been able to receive written and oral records from as early as the time of Adam, which he could have used to write the book of Genesis. Why was the Documentary Hypothesis developed? How was… The historical critical scholars claimed that one author would not have used multiple names for the same God. Acts 7:22 says, “And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.”. The historical critical scholars behind the Documentary Hypothesis and JEDP model were not only not Christians, they were largely anti-Christian. Let’s now look at the problems with this theory. In the last article, we discussed the basic contours of the documentary hypothesis and how it has developed through the years. If you don’t accept the documentary hypothesis, that’s fine. The hypothesis attempts to account for discrepancies and repetitions in the Pentateuch by positing the combination of separate and coherent documents. It’s an attack upon the intelligence of the ancient Israelites. The assumption appears reasonable, but it is altogether a fallacy. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”. When he isn't ripping on the Documentary Hypothesis, Cassuto is actually a good writer. He studied under Ewald at the University of Göttingen, and later served as professor at Greifswald, Halle, Marburg, and Göttingen. The Documentary Hypothesis To make further progress with our question, ‘What is the Pentateuch?’, we need to dig deeper and consider more closely how it came to exist and what kinds of material it is made up of. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. The source of truth for Christians is the Bible, which is God’s revelation. E refers to the parts of the Pentateuch that were written by one or more authors who preferred to use the name Elohim for God. In this way, they utilized a “pick and choose” method that was blindly biased towards their position. Cassuto has an organized approach in which he breaks down the multiple arguments against unity of the Torah into a smaller group of generalities. Proponents of the various versions of the Documentary Hypothesis believe there must be 4 or more authors of the Pentateuch for several reasons, but the three most common are: How do critics of the Documentary Hypothesis respond? It delineates the parameters of what can and cannot be considered acceptable solutions to a problem. However, due to advances in literary studies, today the state of pentateuchal scholarship is confused, with new theories or radical modifications appearing often. Analysis: Explaining JEDP: Answering JEDP: Flesch-Kincaid grade level: 13.64: 10.35: Passive voice (% of finite verb phrases) 9%: 9%: Sentence Complexity (100 = very complex) 60: 43: Vocabulary Complexity (100 = very complex) 38: 22: We could conclude … They come from the same movements, with mostly the same assumptions, having nearly the same evidence, making similar conclusions. Rejecting the Solutrean hypothesis: the first peoples in the Americas were not from Europe. In this blog, I will be examining the Documentary Hypothesis, but I will most often refer to it as the Wellhausen Hypothesis. They refer to the various authors who are said to have written various sections of the Pentateuch. I ran both the paper explaining the Documentary Hypothesis and this paper refuting it through the analyzer. Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord, and these are their stages according to their starting places. And supposedly, around 400 B.C., some editors, or redactors, combined these four sources, or documents, together to form the Pentateuch that we know today. Problems With The Documentary Hypothesis. Even so, the vast majority of believers, both Jew and Christian, 'still maintained that Moses was its author' well into the 17th century. Josiah’s reforms in 621 B.C. The History and Salient Points of the Documentary Hypothesis. A single author would not use so many writing styles. It is an entirely modern reading of the text and ignores ancient rhetorical concepts. The traditional “documentary hypothesis,” as it is called, was most famously formulated by the nineteenth-century German scholar, Julius Wellhausen, who, along with some of his predecessors, called the sources J E D and P. This was the standard view of the matter back when I was doing my PhD in biblical studies way back when. So really the main competing arguments right now within scholarship are what I described. What do the letters J, E, D, and P stand for? The documentary hypothesis was developed in the late 19th century by Karl Heinrich Graf, Julius Wellhausen, and Abraham Kuenen. Some, as Phelan notes, created a veritable alphabet soup of sources (p. 49), and the social aspect of the theory grew accordingly—having only the hypothesized divisions of these documents as evidence (not archaeology, or any other external vector) using a technique some scholars call ‘mirror- reading’—that is, assuming that because an author says ‘X’… Supposedly, these priests wrote around the time of the Babylonian exile, after 586 B.C. This paper seeks to re-examine the sources, formation and the socio-historical context of the Joseph nar-rative under the Documentary Hypothesis. To its earlier critics, the problem with the Documentary Hypothesis was that it was too hypothetical: a clever construction, perhaps, but without enough solid evidence. A mature science, according to Kuhn’s hypothesis, is one in which there exists a dominant paradigm—a conceptual frame- work that informs the scientist of what to expect as he engages in his or her scientific inquiry. More recent models include the supplementary hypothesis and the fragmentary hypothesis. There’s a whole lot of evidence to support a version of the documentary hypothesis. To do this, first a brief overview of the history of the Documentary hypothesis will be presented. Variations of the Documentary Hypothesis prevailed for more than a century. It contradicts what Jesus said, and it is an unreliable way to analyze a document that is thousands of years old. For example, here is a long list of verses and passages that say Moses isi the author of the Pentateuch: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”. Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel. And then we don’t have the problem of, the five books being written later.” But none of that goes away. As this hypothesis was developed by a number of Jewish and theologically liberal Christian scholars in the late 17th to the late 19th centuries, there were a number of different proposals of who wrote what and when. Be strong and courageous. The documentary hypothesis, along with the JEDP theory, denies that Moses wrote the Pentateuch and instead ascribes its authorship to four (or more) different authors/redactors spread out over several hundreds of years. Posted April 15, 2018 April 19, 2018 Cody. So one can accept multiple authorship of the Five Books of Moses without accepting the idea that there were multiple authors of Isaiah. This meant I would have to rely on The Documentary Hypothesis itself for Cassuto's arguments. Recent criticisms of the hypothesis have included: Its assumption of originally coherent documents is tenuous. As knowledge of the Ancient Near East and its literary practices grew, however, it became necessary for JEDP theorists to make adjustments again and again. These models differ on the nature of these s… The Documentary Hypothesis is indeed in ferment among scholars and there is no consensus something, which in itself, would seem to indicate the inadequacy of the hypothesis. Documentary Hypothesis: The Subjective Approach to Biblical Criticism, by Matthew Graham The Documentary Hypothesis , by Duane Garrett Mosaic Authorship of the Torah: Problems with the Documentary Hypothesis (JEDP) - Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , by Michael Heiser And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. This is the second in a series on critical biblical scholarship. The results are interesting. 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