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Loading...A few posts ago I more or less backed into a new thread on literary discrepancies found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament; these discrepancies are key to understanding why the books were almost certainly not written by a single person — Moses, for example — but are a combination of sources put together centuries after the stories were first placed in circulation.
I talk about this in my textbook: The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction. Here is how I discuss the matter there:
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The literary inconsistencies of Genesis are not unique to these two chapters. On the contrary, there are such problems scattered throughout the book. You can see this for yourself simply by reading the text very carefully. Read, for example, the story of the flood in Genesis 6-9, and you will find comparable differences. One of the most glaring is this: according to Gen. 6:19 God told Noah to take two animals “of every kind” with him into the ark; but according to Gen. 7:2 God told him to take seven pairs of all “clean animals” and two of every other kind of animal. Well, which is it? And how can it be both?
You can find similar differences in other parts of the Pentateuch. In the next chapter, for example, we will be looking at the ten plagues that Moses miraculously performed against the Egyptians in order to convince the reluctant Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go free from slavery. These are terrific stories, as good as the accounts of the Patriarchs in Genesis. But scholars have long detected similar discrepancies. It has been noted, for example, that in the fifth plague, the LORD killed “all of the livestock” of the Egyptians (9:6). So, based on this account one would think that “all” of the livestock were, indeed, dead. But then, just a few verses later
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Where does the name (title?) Sebaoth come from? I understand it mean “lord of hosts” – is that God as a warrior or does it refer to the stars?
I’m afraid I’m not near any of my books and so can’t look it up to make sure I get it right. Sorry!
Can I make a wish – could you or a fellow Bible Scholar who specializes in the OT do a post on God’s various epithets in the OT?
Interesting idea.
Is the documentary hypothesis as it was argued by Wellhausen more-or-less still upheld in scholarship today?
Yup, absolutely — though most scholars prefer more complicated versions of the hypothesis.
Is there still contemporary consensus on the documentary hypothesis among scholars? I read some books about it a few years ago and – if I remember correctly – most scholars over here in Europe accept the idea of the different sources (JEDP) but are divided on the theory concerning the dating of each source and how J, E, D and P were brought together. There are other theories, for example the supplementary hypothesis, if I remember it rightly.
Questions:
1. Is there (still) any scholarly consensus concerning the documentary hypothesis?
2. If so, is this an international consensus or do some regions prefer other theories (e.g. Western European vs. North American vs. Israelian scholarship).
Yes, almost everyone accepts version so of it, but lots of theories are more complicated; European scholars tend to be more skeptical and to date the sources later rather than earlier, though you get a good mix of views on both sides of the pond.
There are different life forms in Gen 6:19 (chaya) and Gen 7:2 (behema) when English translates them as animals it causes confusion.
I think that most fundamentalist preachers scoff at the idea of historical/textual criticism as “liberal”. So, in their world, Julius Wellhausen would be a “liberal”, and you can safely discount everything he wrote. It’s amazing how the term is used now as a derogatory label for anyone who’s ideas fail to conform to the fundamentalist/literalist view. Instant dismissal. Unworthy of serious consideration. Wrong by definition. I wonder how Orthodox Jews handle someone like Wellhausen, or any of the others doing that sort of scholarship? Surely they see the inconsistencies. They read their holy books. They study them. They claim to know them. Do they see what “liberal” scholars see?
Orthodox Jews would completely reject Wellhausen and deal with the contradictions in other ways. Explaining how, say, rabbinic exegesis works would be very complicated, but it is highly intellectual. It just doesn’t work the way most logical analysis in the West generally works, by seeing deep word plays and parallels as they keys for interpreting texts, rather than what most moderns would see as straightforward readings.
What is your assessment of Russell Gmirkin’s theory of a late (very, circa 270 BCE) writing of the Pentateuch and his assertion of its reliance on Plato?
Bogus in every way!
Can you comment on oral tradition analysis (Scandinavian) as writing skills prior to the Exile were perhaps negligible? I know it would rest on many presuppositions as cult legends, traditions and laws were transmitted orally. For example, Isa. 8:16 records the prophet’s intent to “bind up” his words with his disciples, and it is assumed that the “binding” is in their memory. When Jeremiah’s words were written down because he could not deliver them in person and the scroll was destroyed by the king, Jeremiah seemed to have no trouble in reiterating his message, apparently in the same words (Jer. 36). Because there was no real dependency upon the written record, memory was cultivated and could be relied upon. Perhaps too complicated to investigate but certainly could illuminate Form Criticism, No?
I don’t think there’s any way to know for sure, but I tend to side with folk who think that the vast majority of people couldn’t read, let alone write, pre-Exilic. The mightily vase majority.
When I was a child and we gathered for the Passover Seder, when we got to the second death of all the cattle, all of my cousins and I would, in unison, say, “again!”.😂
One of my favorite discrepancies is Gen ch.2 where Moses father in law is named Reuel and in the very next chapter, is named Jethro. Excuses abound! 😁
ha! right. Those poor cattle….
Do you think then the writer of Exodus 6:3 understood the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as having been passed down from people who named god as El Shaddai?
Sorry, I”m not sure what you’re asking. We don’t have any access to what the author of Exod 6:3 thought or understood about his sources of information.
well there doesn’t appear to be any theological reason why the author would make up a story that abraham isaac and jacob would not know that god was called yahweh.
so it would appear that the author understood the story as being passed on from a different culture or ethnic group – one that called god “el shaddai”.
which would be quite extraordinary in itself. Somehow the author of exodus 3 understood the stories of Genesis as being written by some other, non-Jewish, tribe.
Out of curiosity, what do you think about the historicity of some of the characters in the Pentateuch? Do you think there was a historical Moses? What about people further back, like Abraham or Jacob?
I think the Patriarchs are all legendary figures, and if there was some figure behind the historical Moses, he would have been nothing like is portrayed in the Pentateuch. AT least that’s my view.
When you say that the historical Moses would not have been like the Moses in the Pentateuch at all, what do you mean? I understand if you want to say he didn’t part the red sea or see God’s back on Mt. Sinai, but is it implausible that there was a charismatic prophet-figure at the helm of a small band of Asiatics leaving slavery in Egypt, and that this person’s message served as at least some of the basis for later Israelite religion?
I”m saying that in my opinion virtually all the stories about Moses are highly legendary. It may be possible that there was someone of that name who led a small group out of Egypt, of course; but the “people of Israel” appear to have arisen out of the indigenous Canaanite populations, not as a group that escaped Egypt and came in conquest.
Bart Ehrman wrote (June 30, 2016) an article titled “Biblical Anachronisms: The Philistines and Beersheba,” saying Moses was a fictional character (in an Exodus of the 13th Century BC). So, this begs a new question: What, then, “is behind the Exodus account,” that can be pinned down by archaeological findings? My research suggests that two events are being recalled, separated from each other by 300 years, (1) The Hyksos Expulsion from Egypt of circa 1550 BC and (2) The Iron Age I (1200 BC- 1100 BC) settlement of Moab and Canaan by Syrians from Harran (Abraham and sons).
The proof? For (1) the Hyksos Expulsion, we have Jericho’s collapsed last defensive wall and burning attributed by Dame Kathleen Kenyon to Ahmoses I and his Egyptian forces in pursuit of the Hyksos and his conquest of Canaan for 400 years (until circa 1130 BC and Rameses VI) The Bible has Joshua ordering the burning of Jericho after the wall fell. For (2) we have sites in existence in Iron Age I times, like Heshbon and nearby Elealeah, cf. Numbers 32:33, 37, created no earlier than Iron Age I ( in the Bible Reuben and Gad build these two sites).
My view is that there isn’t any archaeological evidence that supports the Exodus account. But of course it’s much disputed, and the “Hyksos hypothesis” was very popular back when I was a grad student in the 70s. It is certainly intriguing. Have you seen the books by William Dever? He’s a top flight archaeologist and shows why the accounts are not supported by the archaeological record.
Thank you for the prompt reply. Yes, I have read William G. Dever on the Exodus, as well as Israel Finkelstein, Eric K. Hoffmeier and Kenneth Kitchen, the latter two Egyptologists argue for a 13th century BC Exodus, citing Egyptian toponymns. I agree with you, the archaeological evidence does NOT support the Exodus as presented in the Bible. But I seek to answer the following question: WHAT THEN IS BEHIND THE EXODUS ACCOUNT IN THE BIBLE that can be archaeologically attested? Proposed Exodus dates: (1) Hyksos Expulsion of 1550 BC, (2) 1446 BC based on 1 Kings 6:1, (3) 1270 BC Ramesside Era, based on Pi-Ramesses in the Delta. ONLY ONE SITE in the Sinai has any kind of archaeological debris in support of ALL the preceding Exodus dates: Jebel Serabit el Khadim and the nearby Hat-Hor shrine. Pharaohonic Cartouches at the Hat-Hor shrine attest to the site’s usage in the general periods of the proposed Exodus dates. Hat-Hor’s devotees honored her with naked, drunken, song and dance as does Israel in adoration of the Golden Calf. Hat-Hor can assume many forms. She is a cow-goddess, patroness of Egyptian miners, seeking copper and turquoise.
If there were no Philistines in Canaan to block a 13th century BC Exodus (they settled in the 12th century BC from the Aegean World), then there is no need for God to detour Israel to the southern Sinai and Mt. Sinai via the way to the Red Sea. There would be no worship of the Golden Calf and smashing of the Ten Commandments. I understand that events at the Egyptian mining camp at Jebel Serabit el Khadim are being recalled as Israel at Mt. Sinai. The Golden calf is worshipped with song and dance by a naked Israel (in the King James Version). The Egyptian cow-goddess Hat-Hor was honored in this way by her devotees. The shattered Ten Commandments reside in an Egyptian museum today.
As regards the Ten Commandments in Egyptian Museums: Moses hurls them down shattering them at the _FOOT_ OF MOUNT SINAI, upon witnessing Israel adoring the Golden Calf with naked song and dance. Near the Hat-Hor shrine were found in the rock scree rubble AT THE _FOOT_ OF MOUNTS, shattered stelae-form tablets bearing Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions asking the Canaanite God EL for help and protection for Canaanite miners who worked the mines with Egyptians. It is my understanding that these shattered stelae were “recast” as Moses’ shattered 10 Commandments! I understand Pharaoh Ahmoses I was recast as Moses and also as the Pharaoh expelling Israel from Egypt. Manetho has the Hyksos being allowed to leave Egypt for Canaan after their defeat. Then, like Pharaoh in the Bible, Ahmoses changes his mind and later pursues after the Hyksos conquering their homeland of Canaan. This later pursuit is recast as Pharaoh chasing after Israel at the Red Sea. Hat-Hor in texts, is the sky-cow-mother of the sun at sunrise, conceived of in texts as the GOLDEN CALF. Tomb art shows this male calf aboard a solar bark/boat. So, the Bible has conflated the Golden Calf sun-disk, with Hat-Hor.