Week 2 Review - Formation of the Pentateuch

Question 1

What are the challenges to Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch?

Answer 1

Account of his own death
3rd person narrative
Anachronisms
Doublets and triplets (multiple versions of the same story)
Contradictions about the divine name

Question 2

Who conceptualized the multiple source theory?

Answer 2

Jean Astruc (because of the differing names of God - Elohim and Yahweh) - J and E - 1700’s

Question 3

What sources did Jean Astruc define?

Answer 3

J - Yahwist

E - Elohist

Question 4

What sources did J.G. Eichorn define?

Answer 4

D - Deuteronomist
P - Priestly material
1800’s

Question 5

What did DeWette contribute to the Documentary Hypothesis?

Answer 5

Focusing on D, he suggested that the book of the Law that was “found” at that time, wasn’t actually found, but that it was written at that time (621 BCE) to justify the renovations to the ritual practices Josiah was undertaking at the time. 1800’s

Question 6

What is the one piece of the Documentary Hypothesis that has not changed since it was suggested?

Answer 6

DeWette’s theory about D in the 1800’s

Question 7

What was Wellhausen’s notion of the evolution/devolution of religion and why was is Anti-Catholic and Anti-Semitic?

Answer 7

That a religion starts off pure and individual/community relational to God, then gets cluttered and clouded with legalism and ritual to its detriment. Both Catholicism and Judaism were criticized at the time for being so legalistic.

Question 8

What was Josiah known for doing?

Answer 8

Preserving the Shema - the part of Deuteronomy describing how to love the lord. pivotal figure in the reformation of the Southern Kingdom’s religious life

Question 9

Who was Herman Gunkle?

Answer 9

Father of Form Criticism - examining the literature of the bible in a form/genre lens, and compare against the other types of literature that were being translated from the ancient world. All literature occurs within certain genres (though ancient genres are not the same as modern)

Question 10

What is “sitz im leben”?

Answer 10

Setting in life - acknowledges the facts that all of our forms of literature has specific situations in which they can be found.

Question 11

What is Form Criticism

Answer 11

Genre, situation, and technology analysis of literature

Question 12

What did Gunkle believe about the origin of the Pentateuch?

Answer 12

Short oral forms - like work songs and tales, grew into longer forms without being written down, eventually written, and then collected into the documents J-E-D-P

Question 13

Who was Gerhard von Rad?

Answer 13

Student of Gunkle AND the theology of Karl Barth. Argued we have a hexateuch - narrative flow from creation of the world through the call of Abraham (blessing that he would have progeny and land) in the book of Joshua. The genuis of this narration is the Yahswist (J). Credo for Isreal’s existence

Question 14

Who is Martin Noth?

Answer 14

Scholar in the line of Wellhausen - argued for a tetrateuch. First four books as a literary unit. Deuteronomy belongs with the Deuteronomistic history (Josh, Judges, 1&2 Sam, and 1&2 Kings). Agreed with Wellhausen’s 4 sources and orders, regardless of the criticism.

Question 15

Who is the J source?

Answer 15

Yahwistic - United Monarchy - 10th Century. Probably an earlier source (G - Ground). Has a southern (kingdom of Judah) perspective. Anthropomorphic, and imminent diety - gets down in the dirt. Used the name Yahweh. Called Mt. Sinai Mt.Sinai. Focus on a revelation of the divine form to humans. When people see God, they get excited. Moses’ father is known as Rauel (instead of Jethro)

Question 16

What’s the first text that the J source material appears

Answer 16

Genesis 2.4b

Question 17

Who is the E source?

Answer 17

Elohist - Divided monarchy - 9th Century, northern (kingdom of Israel) perspective. Used the name Elohim. No one is calling Yahweh Yahweh until the Exodus account. Transcendent diety - available through dreams, visions, intermediaries, and prophecies. When God shows up - people are scared. (noth understood E to be combined with J, and fragmentary). Mt Sinai is called Horeb (to avoid relating that place with the moon God Sin), and Moses’ father is Jethro.

Question 18

What’s the first text that the E source material appears?

Answer 18

Genesis 15 - a version of the call of Abraham

Question 19

When and how are J and E combined?

Answer 19

In the 8th century after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE, by a redactor.

Question 20

Who is the D source?

Answer 20

Composed or reshaped or reformulated as part of the Josianic reformation in 621 BCE. There is a northern origination to much of the themes found because of the refugees from the North that came to Jerusalem in 722 after the fall of the North. Can connect with much prophetic literature.

Question 21

Who is the P source?

Answer 21

Written in the 6th century in the exilic period after the fall of the Southern Kingdom - Judah. In the absence of a temple and absence of a king - redefines what it means to be a Jew outside of the land by writing down all the rituals and procedures, establishing the guidebook for the reestablishment of the Jewish cult once the return to the land happens.

Question 22

Who is R?

Answer 22

The redactor according to Noth.

Question 23

Who suggested the fragmentary hypothesis and what is it?

Answer 23

Rendtorff and Blum. No evidence of a specific link between oral forms and specific sources. Fragments of traditions collected over time based on an Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob tradition. Collected and gathered into two compositions D and P (KD and KP). Fundamental challenge to the whol Documentary Hypothesis.

Question 24

Who suggested the Supplementary Hypothesis

Answer 24

Van Seeters. D - Deuteronomy is the core, supplemented by J and P later. D is analog to the Hellenistic period - 484-420. Suggesting that almost everything in the history is made up because its so far from the history. Many disagree, and there’s a lot of cross-referencing that disproves his theory.

Question 25

Who suggest the P source is pre-exilic and why

Answer 25

Richard Friedman and Jeffrey Tigay. Based on the linguistic evidence identifying specific words from P that are unique to the source and the dating within history

Question 26

Why is P controversial?

Answer 26

There are competing theories about whether P is a source, multlple sources, or a redactor, and the dating as well. Multiple P’s have been suggested - patriarchal, egalitarian, P’s of Genesis, and Exodus and Leviticus.

Question 27

What’s the H source?

Answer 27

Source within P - Holiness Code - introduced by Isreal Knol. Evident in Leviticus 17-26. Is H a rival of P, a final redactor, does P incorporate H within a larger structure.

Question 28

What’s the Canonical Approach?

Answer 28

Brevard Childs - Can’t be sure about sources but can be sure of the final form, so let’s examine what’s going on with the whole canonical text.

Question 29

What’s the difference between the Neo Documentary Hypothesis approach and the Redaction critics?

Answer 29

Redaction critics are trying to fillet the text by bits of verse. Neo Documentary Hypothesis critics are looking at large blocks of text.

Question 30

What did Wellhausen add to the Documentary Hypothesis?

Answer 30

He ordered the sources as J - E - D - P, but his ordering reflected his worldview.