Hypothetical Sources for the Hebrew Bible
This is a little further elaboration of the hypothetical sources for the Pentetuech. Remember: This theory is based on inconsistencies that people have noticed in reading the Penteteuch, and is an attempt to explain these (so the theory begins with and is rooted in the text itself).
GRAF-WELLHAUSEN HYPOTHESIS: A theory concerning the origins of the Penteteuch which, was most persuasively argued by K.H. Graf (1866) and Julius Wellhausen (1876-84). According to this hypothesis, a "J" (Yahwist) document (ca. 850 BCE) and an "E" (Elohist) document (ca. 750 BCE) were combined by a redactor around 550 BCE; the Deuteronomic Code ("D," 621 BCE) was added by a redactor around 550 BCE; the Priestly Code ("P", ca. 450 BCE) constituted the final document added by a redactor around 400 BCE. (There have been numerous revisions of this hypothesis).
Further elaboration of these parts is as follows:
D: DEUTERONOMIC CODE is the name for the nucleus of laws (ch. 12-26) in the book of Deuteronomy; some scholars identify it with the book found in the Temple in 621 BCE, during the reign of King Josiah (see 2 Kings 22-23).
E: ELOHIST (from Hebrew Elohim, "God") is the accepted designation for one of the sources employed in the composition of the Pentetuech, derived from the source's preferred Hebrew name for the deity, namely Elohim. The provenance, date, and extent of E are much disputed. Of all the sources (trad. J, P, D, and E) its location in the Pentetuech is most difficult to ascertain. According to Otto Eissfeldt, E views God as more remote and awesome than does J; its interpretation of the covenant is less materialistic and less nationalistic (see Ex. 19:5-6 and Num 23:9, 21), and most obviously, the terminology is different: God is called Elohim, not Yahweh; the sacred mountain is called Mt. Horeb, not Sinai (Ex. 3:12); Amorites, not Canaanites, occupy the Promised Land (Gen 48:22, Ex. 23:23), and so on. The general opinion is that E arose in the 9th or 8th c. BCE in northern Palestine (Ephraim), from traditions that were much older.
J (YAHWIST) is the customary designation of one of the four major but hypothetical sources (with E, D, and P) used in the composition of the Penteuch. The unknown author of this source is called the Yahwist, from the English spelling of the author's preferred name for God (Yahweh). The symbol J, however, comes from the German spelling of the same name (Jahweh). In English Bibles, Yahweh is translated "Lord." The existence, extent, date and nature (written or oral) of the J source are widely debated. Nevertheless, the majority of scholars believe that it was composed from ancient folk traditions during the 10th or 9th c. BCE in Judah (southern Palestine), perhaps during the reign of Solomon as a charter of the national faith. In style and subject the document can be described as an epic, at once, patriotic and religious. It ascribes the origin and well-being of Israel to Yahweh's promises to Abraham, namely that his seed would become a great nation, that they would be a blessing to all nations, and that they would receive at the Lord's hand a land flowing with milk and honey (Gen 12:1-4, 7). It sketches the long journey to the land of promise, from the Patriarchs, to the vicissitudes in Egypt and in the wilderness, to the conquest of Canaan. Most scholars are of the opinion that this source was supplemented with a later, northern tradition (E), by a Redactor, perhaps in the 8th century BCE
P (PRIESTLY CODE): According to the majority of scholars, P represents the latest stratum of material used in the formation of the Penteteuch, deriving its name from the Hebrew priests whose traditions and theological point of view it contains. It is marked, among other things, by a concern for geneologies, tables of nations, dates and measurements, cultic ordinances, and literary formulae (e.g. Gen 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 27, 25:12, 19, 36:1, 37:2) and in its repetitious and judiciously exact diction (Gen 1:11- 12, Ex. 7:9-10, 8:1-2, 12-13, etc.). In content, the P code sketches the origins of the people of God, their sacred institutions and cultic laws from the creation of the world (Gen 1:1-2:4) to the settlement of the promised land, a history divided into four great periods marked by the revelation of the divine law first to Adam, then to Noah, Abraham, and finally, to Moses.