• Welcome to the new Internet Infidels Discussion Board, formerly Talk Freethought.

Documentary Hypothesis

Some people grew up a bit, and I think a lot of those who like to discuss biblical history and archaeology went to... umm, I forget the name of the forum. Still some discussion over there though. I'd think Sheshbazzar or Cheerful Charlie would know.

Hahaha... just had to remember CC's omnigenesis argument. BC&H from IIDB has its own forum: http://earlywritings.com/forum/
 
I've read a couple large commentaries on Genesis, and the Documentary Hypothesis, while maybe not exactly correct, seems logical. There is simply too much inconsistency in the scripture. I consider it a bit like a Best Hits album, where you have the entire collection of Hebrew, pre-Hebrew scriptures, and a best of collection is formed. It includes remasters (The Fall), remixes (The First Story of Creation), covers (Exodus), and once thought lost studio recordings (odd references to The Garden in Ezekial (I think) where it is atop a mountain, has gods). The books are not in a chronological order in which they were written. Some stories have older imagery or refer to older imagery.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
I've read a couple large commentaries on Genesis, and the Documentary Hypothesis, while maybe not exactly correct, seems logical. There is simply too much inconsistency in the scripture. I consider it a bit like a Best Hits album, where you have the entire collection of Hebrew, pre-Hebrew scriptures, and a best of collection is formed. It includes remasters (The Fall), remixes (The First Story of Creation), covers (Exodus), and once thought lost studio recordings (odd references to The Garden in Ezekial (I think) where it is atop a mountain, has gods). The books are not in a chronological order in which they were written. Some stories have older imagery or refer to older imagery.
Click to expand...

I think paleographers have identified parts of Exodus as the actual, oldest writings in the Old Testament.
 
Seeing that the Book of Exodus has no basis in history, I would find that hard to believe. Babylonian Captivity would be a more likely time for that book, as was for a bunch of it.
 
The New Jerusalem Bible, which is a Roman Catholic study bible, and the Jewish Study Bible both use the Documentary Thesis when explaining the Pentateuch, or the Torah. These are the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

These were traditionally attributed to Moses. However over the centuries scholars found evidence that Moses probably did not write all of them, if he wrote any at all.

In the late nineteenth century Julius Wellhausen brought together previous theories, and argued that originally the five books of the Pentateuch or the Torah had been four other documents that he called J, E, D, and P. J had probably been written during the reign of Solomon, or shortly afterward. E had been written after J. D had been written later still, and P had been written during or after the Babylonian Captivity.

In his book Who Wrote the Bible? Richard Elliott Friedman modified the Documentary Hypothesis slightly by placing P between E and D. Moreover, he explained E, P, and D in terms of a rivalry between two families of high priests.

Protestant Fundamentalists and Mormons continue to believe that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Seeing that the Book of Exodus has no basis in history, I would find that hard to believe. Babylonian Captivity would be a more likely time for that book, as was for a bunch of it.
Click to expand...

I don't understand the documentary hypothesis as claiming that J,D,P and E wrote literally every part of the Torah. Rather, I understand them to be saying that these books were compiled from older texts and edited, commented upon, and ordered in a specific way to create a comprehensive story from older works that weren't necessarily connected.
 
boneyard bill said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
Seeing that the Book of Exodus has no basis in history, I would find that hard to believe. Babylonian Captivity would be a more likely time for that book, as was for a bunch of it.
Click to expand...

I don't understand the documentary hypothesis as claiming that J,D,P and E wrote literally every part of the Torah. Rather, I understand them to be saying that these books were compiled from older texts and edited, commented upon, and ordered in a specific way to create a comprehensive story from older works that weren't necessarily connected.
Click to expand...

Are you Jesus, because you just resurrected this thread...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom