User:RekonDog/Sandbox/Abrahamic Philosophy & Science/Torahic Studies

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Documentary Hypothesis

Diagram of the Documentary Hypothesis.

*	includes most of Leviticus
†	includes most of Deuteronomy
‡	"Deuteronomic history": Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings

Within the context of Judaeo-Christian scriptures, from what is inscribed in the Torah, only brevity of events concerns the 'Six Days of Creation', in which 'Man' becomes the pinnacle of creation, Decreed by GOD HIMSELF سبحانه وتعالى, let alone the events that chronologically unfold from Adam to Noah والسلام عليهم The manuscripts, according to those that have most carefully studied the Torah, the period of primeval history—particularly the antediluvian era—are primarily based on four primary documentary sources: the Jahwist source (J), the Elohist source (E), the Deuteronomist (D), and the Priestly source (P).

Being compiled by scribal editors (redactors), the documents threaded the different strands together producing the final form of the Torah, circa 450 BCE: first JE, then JED, and finally JEDP.

Distribution of materials of Jahwist, Elohist, and Priestly sources, as well as the Redactors contribution in the first four books.

J-strand

Written circa 950 BCE in the southern Kingdom of Judah.

The J-document, the oldest source of the manuscripts inscribed, contains dramatic, yet historical importance to Hebrew history, dating back to the B'nei Ysra'el, and the latter tribe of Yehuda. The text that are inscribed within the J-document may have been written down early as ca. 700 BCE, before reaching its present form some time before ca. 950 BCE, perhaps when Assyria–from its base in the Tigris-Euphrates valley (modern Iraq)–was the strongest kingdom in western Asia. Even before Assyria became powerful, the culture of the Tigris-Euphrates dominated western Asia, even as far back as ca. 3,400 BCE, when the Sumerians (who lived in the region prior to the latter, the Assyrians) reinvented writing in the postdiluvian age. The Sumerian legends and their theories of the creation of the Universe, and of early history spread to all the surrounding people, exerting strong influence.

E-strand

Written circa 850 BCE in the northern Kingdom of Israel.

D-strand

Written circa 600 BCE in Jerusalem during a period of religious reform.

P-strand

Written circa 500 BCE by Aaronic priests in exile in Babylon.

The P-document was compiled during the time when the people of Judah (the "Jewish") were in captivity in the Tigris-Euphrates region from circa 600–500 BCE. At that time, the dominant tribe of the region was the Chaldeans, and their capital was in Babylon, so that the P-document picked up what we might call Chaldean or Babylonian views of cosmic history—striking parallelism between the Babylonian creation myth prescribed in the ancient Akkadian Enûma Eliš clay cuneiforms—which in turn were based on nearly three thousand years of thought dating back to the Sumerians.

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1st Book of Moses

Syllable-word frequency pattern analysis, using the chi-square test, identifies significant differences within Genesis chapters 1-4, 6-9, 12-13, 16-21, 26, 28, 30-33, 39 and 41-43.

The statistical results are interpreted to suggest that to an extended composition by an initial Jahweh-writer (J2-4, 6-8, 12-13, 16) four other Jahweh-writers successively added J18-19, J26, J28-33 and J39-43.

In a second major stage of development an Elohim-writer expanded chapters 2-3 (using the dual divine name as a distinctive introductory signature mark), wrote chapters 20-21 and enhanced the stories in chapters 7-8, 28, 31, 33. A second Elohim-writer added the punishments in 3.14-19, enhanced chapters 30-32 and expanded the Joseph story of ch. 41.

Finally, a first Priestly-writer composed 1.1-2.3 to introduce a third major version of Genesis and also enhanced chapters 6-8. A second P writer added 1.11, 22, 28-30 and ch. 9, a third Priestly-writer composed ch. 17 and a fourth Priestly-writer edited the narratives of chapters 12-36.

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The analysis argues against the explanation of Genesis as consisting of layers of tradition; against the thesis that the primeval and patriarchal stories as written were developed separately; and against the use of redactors who combined sources.