Loading...I have been discussing the sources of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), sometimes also called the Torah or the Law of Moses. So far I have explained the kinds of literary problems that led scholars to realize that these books were not the writing of a single author, but represented a combination of earlier written accounts. 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. Here is how the hypothesis worked, in nuce. (Again, this is taken from my textbook on the Bible).
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- The J source was the first source to be written. From it comes a number of the stories in Genesis and Exodus, including, for example the second creation account and the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3. The source is called J because its preferred name for the deity is Yahweh – which in German is spelled Jahweh (and so, it is named after the first initial of the deity’s name). It is widely thought that this source was written in, and based on oral traditions in, the southern part of the land, that is, in Judah (which is a second reason it could be called J).
Very interesting !
Are there stories in the Bible older than the Pentateuch? I’ve heard that Job is the oldest book.
Job is nearly impossible to date (it’s two different books spliced together, and neither is easy to date; the prose portion esp.). So are other books. So we don’t really know what the earliest stories were.
I realize Prof Ehrman is aware of this, of course, but might I recommend for my fellow blog readers “The Bible with Sources Revealed”, Richard Elliot Friedman’s edition of the Pentateuch with indications for the proposed sources for each of the sections/verses/phrases of the text.
(As Prof Ehrman indicates above, many of the precise details are, by necessity, conjectural. But this book —together with Friedman’s “Who Wrote the Bible”— provides an excellent resource for those here who are interested in perusing this topic in greater detail.)
If anyone is interested in a really good book on this subject see Joel Baden’s THE COMPOSITION OF THE PENTATEUCH: RENEWING THE DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESIS from the The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library series (at all the usual outlets).
I may have got this wrong but I’m sure that I have read that one of the (JEDP) sources could have been written by a woman (presumably not the P source). I forget the arguments used but recall that they did impress me at the time.
Yes, its the idea that J may have been by woman. And yup, sure, that’s possible. It’s possible that Homer was a woman too, or the author of Ecclesiastes, or the author of Luke. Most anything is possible! But most experts think there’s really not good evidence…. (Most peole were illiterate at the time, of course, and the vast majority of those who were literate — teh very great vast majority — were male, given the times….)
I think you meant female.
QUESTION: In Gen32 we have the account of Jacob wrestling, perhaps under duress with a bodily problem, with an angel in a nightmare, and subsequently getting a new name, something like: “God’s in charge!” — (replacing his earlier name, Jacob, something like: “Takeover Artist”) — and then claiming to have seen God “face to face” and living to tell of it. ¿What are we to make of this?
It’s a terrific myth!
Terrific and ambiguous. Did Jacob wrestle with God, or an angel of God? Or did “angel” simply mean “incarnation” or “manifestation” here? Or was he in fact wrestling with his cheated brother Esau, who face he compared to that of God? Why is Esau, who showed great magnanimity in forgiving and embracing his brother, treated in the rest of Scripture as a villain?
It appears to be a manifestation of God as an angel. There are lots of ambiguities like that in the Pentateuch — famously, e..g, in the account of the Burning Bush in Exod. 3.
Do you think the existence of other sources like the Ras es-Shamra text (dated 4th CE) which is pretty similar to P which may be be based on ancient sources as old as J which would make a straight line literary analysis difficult? Not only do we have materials coming from different periods of time and from different groups, and not only are these materials brought together and blended at different periods of history, but those who added the extra materials maybe used an interpretive principle in accordance with their theological convictions expanding, and, in a sense, expounding the writings with which they worked. Moreover (I know you like that word), at some points the fusion of materials is so complete that it is impossible to distinguish sources – particularly where J and E are combined. After all, it is just a Documentary “hypothesis.”
I think it just depends what you want to do with a text, and there are lots of options, mnost of them completely viable and not necessarily in competition: figure out when it was written? By whom? With what sources? What the dates of the soruces were? What each source orgiinally looked like? When they were written? What they meant on their own? What they meant when combined? What the text in the final form appears to mean? How creative the final redactor was? Each of the questions, and others, can be prioritized by one person or another as the thing most interesting. The problem is when an anaysis claims that it’s question is the only one that matters.
Hi Dr Ehrman, this is an off-topic question.
Matthew 10:23 is Jesus talking to the disciples and telling them that they will not complete their mission to preach to all of the towns in Israel – here’s the sticky bit – “heós” the Son of Man returns.
It seems most translations say ‘before’, but some say ‘until’ (judging by Bible Hub results). Strongs gives the meaning of “heós” as ‘until’ (again according to Bible Hub).
What is the/is there a correct way to translate this?
The meaning would be based on what makes best sense in the context. Many readers would thing “before” makes good sense but “until” is conceptually difficult (i.e., it’s hard to know what that might mean).
Thanks for the reply 🙂
You may or may not have guessed why I was asking.
JWs, and I expect some other sects, would prefer ‘until’ to fit with their theology.
JWs like to claim that in Matt 10:23:
– Jesus wasn’t just talking to the disciples but was talking to all Christians up to this day
– He meant the whole world/earth (as Matt 24:14 puts it) rather than just the towns in Israel
– Thus, the preaching mission is still going on and Jesus’ words are not yet fulfilled.
Claiming the above would be more difficult if the correct translation was ‘before’, as they need to make Matt 10:23 and Matt 24:14 mean the same thing.
Best Regards.
Great new series from Useful Charts on who wrote the Torah / Pentsateuch that you might enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY-l0X7yGY0
“…with its emphasis on the Sabbath day…”
I am curious and would love for you (or a guest poster if that makes more sense) on the origin (historical) of the sabbath tradition. Was it widespread in Canaan among other peoples? Was it invented at some point by the priestly class? Why? When do we think it entered the culture? Was it difficult to enforce (i.e. are there many textual exhortations to keep it?)?
Did keeping it cause problems for adherents in the Exile, or under the Greeks, the Romans?
Interesting idea. I’ll think about it. And yes, it definitely caused problems at times.
think Jeremiah could see the writing on the wall….ooops, that’s the Book of Daniel…..and over that 11 years decided he better write things down. He has Baruch and maybe Hilkiah. Deuteronomy and Exodus was done during Josiah’s time so next he decided to write Lamentations, Kings, a “how it all began” book and then Numbers and Leviticus and finish with Jeremiah, all between 625 and 580-ish BCE
Wouldn’t the influence of babylonian sources for some of the stories indicate a composition during the exile? Perhaps even some of the Jewish scribes being forced by Nebuchadnezzar II to learn akkadian cuneiform, with these source stories making up the curriculum?
Possibly — but influence from other Ancient Near Eastern cultures could have happened long before the destruction of the Babylonians, since there would be lines of communication going back for centuries.
Would it be logical to assume that if it hadn’t been for the Babylonian Exile that the Torah would never have been written?
Not sure. I guess there’s no way to know….
Thanks!
I would be curious as to why anyone would write a national origin myth about a people suffering under the yoke of slavery if you weren’t undergoing some sort of similar crisis in present day. Why create Moses if you are at home safe and sound?
It’s an interesting question. My sense is that people always feel both threatened and persecuted, even when they’re not. Witness American evangelical Christianity. Stories circulate all the time about how they are downtrodden, even when they’re running the show. Part of it is “relative deprivation,” but another part is surely the need to feel underappreciated underrepresented overlooked and widely opposed in order to create cohesion and purpose for the group. BUt I’m no anthopologist….
For a highly edifying look at the compilation of the different sources presented for the book of Genesis I, I would highly recommend Smith, Mark S., The priestly vision of Genesis I. This work gives insight into the mind of the editor responsible for putting the various sources together and the sources would also include the ugaritic non-biblical ritual texts predating literature of Israel.
Dr. Ehrman, do we have any evidence as to who wrote Job or how old it is? Also, am I right to assume that Job was written in order to combat the Deuteronomist/Orthodox point of view that suffering and misfortune is caused by sin? I have heard that other surrounding cultures had parallel Job stories as well?
Thanks,
Steve
Job is an intriguing book (do a word search on the blog an you’ll see dsome posts devoted to it). It is actually two books, by two authors, living at different times, that havbe been combined together into our current book by a still later third author (we don’t know their names or dates). The prose beginning and ending (the older part) do attack a standard view of suffering: Job suffers even *though* he is righteous. THe friends in the poetic section affirm the standard view; JOb rejects it; and God intervenes with a rather unsatisfying answer that Job is not allowed to ask why he suffers….