James wrote:While I have never heard it referred to as the Documentary Hypothesis before I have heard the theory a number of times, nice to finally have a name to put to it.
It's also called the JEDP Hypothesis (after the four postulated sources), or sometimes even the Graff-Wellhausen Hypothesis, even though neither Graf nor Wellhausen invented it. Maybe these names will ring bells for someone.
J wrote:Personally I don't buy it. And i won't get into arguing every point that the authors make because it becomes it would take forever. I will however get into why I am not a proponent of it. It is based entirely on source/textual criticism, something which attempts to objectively quantify a subjective thing.
I respect that; it is a quite reasonable response since you don't claim to be 100% that what purports to be the Torah isn't at least slightly corrupted.
J wrote:The basics is they take 5 books and decide because one uses this name or phrase frequently and this one doesn't that it must have been written by different authors. So because one uses Yahowah more and another uses Elohiym more then they where done by two different authors.
Sorry, this is a major misconception. The theory posits that the several sources were used to compile
each book (except for "Leviticus", which is thought to have been mostly the work of the Priestly Source, and Deuteronomy, which is believed to have been largely the work of the Deuteronomist, Jahwist, and Elohist sources). Here's a graphical representation of how the theory attributes authorship of the first four books:
J wrote:...
And that is the crux of it, style is subjective, and tailored to the people and the topic you are addressing. So for example using the name issue, which is one of the biggest points of DH, Yahowah is used when showing God in a personal way and in direct relationship with man, where as the title Elohiym gets used more often to describe His role as creator, and God. It's much the same way friends of a person in office switch between using the persons name and their title. If you are good friends with a mayor and are having dinner at there house you call them Bob, but if you are in public you refer to them as Mr. Mayor.
And that's just one example. Differences in text do not necessarily mean different authors.
No disagreement on this last point: it will take more evidence than mere textual analysis to confirm the DH. However, I personally believe it deserves interest, not even so much because learned Jews and Karaites privately acknowledge it, but also because there are records in the Prophets and Writings (like in Nehemiah, wherein the Persian military helps impose some new "law" on the newly-returned exiles, whereat the latter weep) that strike me as arcane messages intended only for the comprehension of the "enlightened" that our version of the Torah is distinct from the oldest Israelite tradition. (For what it's worth, genocide, circumcision, and animal sacrifices are not to be found in the hypothetical "J" text, thought to be the oldest of the four sources.) Any more information would thus be appreciated.
FlintFace, we're all special, and I'm really just trying to learn here.