LESSON V

HOW THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS WRITTEN

As was intimated in the last lesson, the student is likely to be confused by the fact that there are two or more versions of most of the early Old Testament narratives. Indeed, until quite recent times even the greatest scholars could not clearly understand the matter. The honest investigator was obliged to admit that the Old Testament contained many passages that seemed to contradict each other. We are fortunate to live in an age when, through the painstaking labor of devoted scholars, a flood of light has been poured upon the Old Testament and many of these dark places illumined. It is now well understood that these variant narratives were written by different persons, at widely varying times and from diverse points of view. The best authorities all over the world are now in practical agreement as to the main facts concerning the development of the Hebrew religion and the date and authorship of the various books of the Old Testament.

The ancient method of writing history. We cannot understand the Bible without knowing something of how it was written. The ancient method of writing history was very different from the modern. The modern historian goes to original sources, examines facts, verifies dates, etc. Having filled himself full of his subject, he sits down to write, using his own words. The ancient historian worked in a very different manner. In the first place, the ancients had no idea of literary ownership. If a thing seemed to

them true, it made no difference who said it, and they did not hesitate to appropriate it. The nearest analogy to this to-day is our attitude toward mathematical truth. In stating the fact that the sum of the three angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles we do not think of giving credit to the person who first discovered and announced that truth, though there must have been such a person. So they felt in ancient times about all truth, but especially about religious truth. If Jehovah had spoken through one of his prophets, the words must be true, and it mattered not who said them. It was the Greeks who gave the world the idea of literary ownership. (Judaism, however, during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era, became interested in the subject of authorship.)

The Hebrew historian gathered his material, then pieced it together, without marks of separation or indications of authorship. The result is that each of the early historical books of the Old Testament is a composite work, written, not by one man at one time, but by several men at widely varying times. It is fortunate that this is so, for scholars are able to unravel the tangled threads and set each document off by itself. Thus we are able to study each period from the account of it written by those nearest to it in point of time.

The beginnings of modern biblical interpretation. -Until the middle of the eighteenth century very few had seriously questioned the rabbinical tradition that had come down to the Christian Church with regard to the authorship and date of the various books of the Old Testament. A French physician by the name of Astruc, who was also a Hebrew scholar, noticed that in Genesis two different names were used for God, Jahweh (or Jehovah), and Elohim; and that

accompanying each of these were always the same peculiarities of language, style, and ideas. Following up this clue, he discovered that there were two distinct strands woven together, which could be separated, each complete in itself. He published his discovery in 1753, and at once scholars recognized the validity of it. He or his followers traced these strands through the other Pentateuchal books, and most scholars now recognize the composite nature of these books.

The documentary sources of the Pentateuch.Each of these documents is now designated by a name. The document using the name "Jehovah" is believed to have been written in the southern kingdom, Judah, in the ninth century, B. C., and is known as "J," or the "J" document. One of those employing the name "Elohim" for God is thought to have been written in the northern kingdom in the eighth century B. C., and is known as "E" or the "E" document. These two strands or threads run through most of the first six books of the Old Testament. As scholars went on with their investigations they found that Deuteronomy and other writings from the same point of view could not have been written by either "J" or "E," so a new name was given to that strand, namely, "D." The name for "God" usually found in the strand is the combination Jehovah Elohim, translated "The Lord your (my) God." In Leviticus and other books a fourth writer appears who has much to say about ritual, law, and temple ceremonial; hence he must have been a priest, and is designated by "P." ("P" uses the name "Elohim" for "God"). "D" was written in the seventh century B. C., and "P" in the fifth. In some cases it is clear that a "strand" was not written by an individual but by a group or school of writers.

How present conclusions have been reached.Scholars have learned these things in numerous ways: 1. By the testimony of language. Different writers have distinctive differences of diction. 2. By historical allusions. If, for example, you find a reference to the Babylonian captivity, you may know the passage was written after B. C. 586. 3. In other ways too numerous to mention, but most of all by different viewpoints and individual peculiarities in style.

Their practical value.-Perhaps one's first thought is that these things are not of interest except to the Bible specialist, but this is a mistake. Even a rudimentary knowledge of how the Bible came to be answers a multitude of questions which the inquiring mind is sure to ask. Discrepancies and inconsistencies are explained and no longer trouble us. For example, it interests us to know that the sacred mountain is always called Sinai by "J" and "P," and Horeb by "E" and "D." According to "J," the name of Moses' fatherin-law is Hobab, but "E" calls him Jethro. In the stories of the ill-treatment of Joseph by his brothers at the time he was sold into Egypt, "E" makes Reuben, of the northern tribes, the hero, while "J" attributes the leading part to Judah, of a southern tribe.

"J" represents Jehovah as walking in his garden in the cool of the day, and calling to Adam and Eve. "E," written a hundred years later, has a more spiritual conception of Jehovah. When he wishes to communicate with men he usually sends a messenger, an angel. As it is believed both these narratives were written after the division of the Hebrew kingdom, the common traditions would naturally develop somewhat differently in the two kingdoms.

This subject will be treated at greater length in a

later lesson. All that is necessary at this point is that the student should be able to account in a general way for the discrepancies and apparent contradictions with which he is constantly meeting.

BIBLICAL SOURCES: Compare these parallel passages, noting differences both in style and subject matter.

The Creation. Gen. 1, by "P." Gen. 2. 4b-25, by "J." The call of Moses. Exod. 3. 2-4a, 5, 7, 8, 16-18; 4. I-16, 19, 202, 22, 23, by "J." Exod. 3. 4b, 6, 9-12, by "E."

QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the difference between the ancient and the modern method of writing history.

2. In what language was the Old Testament written?

3. Give an account of the discovery made by Astruc with regard to the nature of the Pentateuch.

4. By what names are the chief documents of the Pentateuch distinguished?

5. Give a general idea of how scholars have arrived at their present conclusions.

6. How do these discoveries help us to understand the Old Testament?

NOTE. Those who wish to pursue the subject of this lesson further are referred to Hastings's Bible Dictionary, p. 346, or E. S. Brightman, The Sources of the Hexateuch.