the Documentary Hypothesis

A framework for much of the Bible

ver. : 10 June 2008 xml

Documentary Hypothesis : the theory that the first Five Books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were not written by a single author, but were assembled and edited from other works and different writers.

Ancient Jewish and Christian tradition says that Moses wrote the first Five Books, but the tradition was clearly mistaken, even by the face value content of the writings themselves. Moses was a subject not an author, and he surely did not write about his own death in Deuteronomy 34:5. Though there were many Bible scholars over the centuries who thought that there were several authors, the first to devise a useful system for it was Julius Wellhausen, in 1877. He used the scientific methods that were being used on other literary works on the Bible to determine how it was written. Various forms of Wellhausen's theory quickly became accepted by most Bible scholars. The main version of the theory holds that there are four main sources for the books : J (characterized by using YHWH as God's name), E (characterized by the use of Elohim as God's name), D (the source for King Josiah's Deuteronomistic religious reformers), and P (the final editors of the work, after the Exile to Babylon, who added material of Priestly rules). This process also includes Samuel, Kings, Joshua, and Judges.

The documentary hypothesis makes a lot of sense, and answers a lot of questions. But there's one problem : there are no J, E, or P manuscripts, nor any ancient reports that any such books ever existed. Many of those who hold the theory do not really expect to ever find separate J and E manuscripts, since they represent collections of what was passed along for many generations mainly by way of oral storytelling (J in Judah, E in the Northern Kingdom), plus material from official records, much of the content of which was probably more bureaucratic than religious. D's core document was Deuteronomy itself, giving a different angle on the founding events of the Jewish people, but its way of thinking is found throughout the Five Books as well as in Joshua through Kings. P wrote mostly as an editor. Also, other written materials were used : Wars Of the Lord (Numbers 21:14-15), Jashar (in both Joshua and Samuel), and various books of records and prophets (in Kings). These, plus other sources we don't know about, would have been outside resources held in common by J, E, D, and possibly P. The only way we can know about J, E, or P is by way of literary analysis, but that always leaves wide open the possibility that the supposed 'separate sources' are more the figments of method than facets of reality.

The similarities between J and E, both in language and form, are often more striking than the differences. That should be no surprise, since both come from around the time that the Kingdoms split, when the common bonds were still strong. J and E tell many of the same stories from a slightly different angle, but more subtly than how the Gospels tell about Jesus' life from different viewpoints. And D raises a chicken-and-egg question : did Judah's Deuteronomist reformers create Deuteronomy (so the main theory), or did the rediscovery of an already-written Deuteronomy cause the Deuteronomistic reforms (as described in 2 Kings 22:8)?

The sounder versions of the documentary hypothesis see the oral histories taking shape during the days of the Judges (starting at about 1150 BC), with J jelling in Rehoboam's reign (910 BC); E in Jeroboam's Northern reign (910 BC); Deuteronomy late in Hezekiah's reign (700 BC), but lost or forgotten until Josiah's (621 BC), with Josiah-type reformers finishing Kings from exile (550s BC); and Ezra and his Priestly colleagues bundling the histories together and adding worship material after the return from exile (400s BC) in order to aid rediscovery of their national identity. But any dating of these eras is rough, and there are many variants of the theory, enough to make it more of a family of theories. It's some 800 years and hundreds of people in the making. And the Spirit was working with each person at each step along the way, so that the truth would come out.

What must be kept in mind is that very little of what the Documentary Hypothesis talks about has direct bearing on what the Bible is saying to you. It helps a bit in figuring out what the original authors may have been up to, and why the stories were passed along, but not much more than that. The lessons that God is trying to teach you are the same whether it was written by 4 writers over the course of 800 years or 400 writers over the course of 8 years. Your task is to read it and sort it out for yourself as to where God is leading you. The Hypothesis is just a scientific look at the Histories for literary reasons, which may or may not be of any use to you and those around you. And due to the lack of actual manuscripts and reports, it is well-reasoned theory, not proven fact.
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(This is not to be confused with the Hypothesis of Documentaries, which states that eventually the nature, history, showbiz, and educational cable TV channels will have made a documentary for each historical person or incident, in order to satisfy their constant need for programming. Some hypothesize further that they will eventually make a documentary for most of the people alive today, probably including you, even if you're a couch potato and total bore.)