the Documentary Hypothesis by Julius Wellhausen

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The Documentary Hypothesis by Julius Wellhausen

Even before the 17th century , many authors have tried to digest and explain who actually wrote most accounts of the Torah or Pentateuch . It was allegedly the Europeans who were enlisted to have noted the first records as to the emergence of this collection of books (Torah or Pentateuch ) composed of first five books of the Old Testament namely Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy . Generally , all these documents

are said to have been taken form originally four independent and diverse sources including : the J , or Jahwist source the E , or Elohist source the D , or Deuteronomist source and the

or Priestly source . According to research , the final Pentateuch which combined aforementioned sources was known as R or Redactor (editors This proposition is then referred to as the documentary hypothesis (DH

One of the highly regarded formulations of the DH was delivered by the German biblical scholar and Orientalist , Julius Wellhausen . During the end of the 19th century , he published a series of books and articles which espoused a harmonious view as to the roots and origin of the Pentateuch for all of the century thereafter (20th century . These pieces of work included Die Komposition des Hexateuch ( The Composition of the Hexateuch ) and Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels ( Prolegomena to the History of Israel . The former voices Wellhausen 's theory of the four sources of the Pentateuch while the latter

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outlined the development of the religious beliefs of the primeval Israelites from a worldly perspective

The Wellhausen (or Graf-Wellhausen ) hypothesis believed that the Torah or Pentateuch is based from four traditional sources : the J , or Jahwist source the E , or Elohist source the D , or Deuteronomist source and the

or Priestly source

With rich literary content , the Jahwist or Jerusalem foundation is said to be the oldest source (950 BC ) composed mostly of narratives which contributed to the books of Genesis , Exodus and Numbers . Furthermore this source depicts God as parallel to humans (called as Yahweh or YHWH . This portion disclosed that God does things with us like walking and talking . It used the Tetragrammaton as God 's name . It gave special attention to the southern Kingdom of Judah and the people involved in its chronicles . It also placed importance on leaders

The Elohist or Ephraimitic source is similar with J in terms of its narratives though it was less expressive . It also contributed to the books of Genesis , Exodus and Numbers . Here , God is primarily called Elohim as the divine name . Later , it was changed to Yahweh after Moses and Israel received the Tetragrammaton which was exemplified by the episode of the burning bush in Mount Sinai . Contrary to J , this source spoke in a refined manner about God . This source centered on the Kingdom of Israel , composed in 850 BC

The entire book of Deuteronomy allegedly came from the Deuteronomist source . The books of...