jereth said:
FYI:
"Documentary/JEDP hypothesis": theory that Genesis was written very late (eg. after the exile), comprising 4 different sources. J=Yahwist, E=Elohist, D=can't remember, P=priests. Moses had nothing to do with it.
Not quite right. JEPD considers that J and E both lived and wrote centuries before the exile during the period of the Two Kingdoms.
J was written in Judah, the southern kingdom. J is the author of the second creation story, the story of the fall, part of the flood story and most of the stories about Abraham. Beyond that, he seldom speaks of anything that does not relate to the southern region and the tribe of Judah. He consistently uses the name YHWH for God.
E was written in Israel, the northern kingdom and focuses more on Jacob and Joseph and matters that pertain more to the northern kingdom than the southern. E never uses YHWH to name God until that name is revealed to Moses (an E story). E almost always mentions Moses alone, rather than "Moses and Aaron". Whenever E does mention Aaron, it is to put him in a bad light. The story of Aaron consenting to the creation of the golden calf is an E story.
When Israel ceased to exist as a kingdom after the conquest and deportation by the Assyrians, Israeliste refugees brought their story to Judah and at some point the two stories were interwoven into a single JE narrative.
P, the priestly narrative which constitutes more than half of the Torah (all of Leviticus and much of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers) is usually considered to be an exilic or post-exilic composition, though Richard E. Friedman makes a case for it being a late pre-exilic work. The first creation story is a P narrative as is part of the flood story. The sections of Exodus dealing with laws, including the Ten Commandments (both Exodus versions) and the building of the tabernacle are all P stories. Like E, P never uses the name YHWH for God until after its revelation to Moses.
D stands for Deuteronomist, the author of Deuteronomy. It is an independent narrative composed about the same time as P, but by someone who was not an Aaronic priest. It has many similarities to the writing of Jeremiah which make some scholars believe it was composed either by Jeremiah or someone close to him like Baruch. Interestingly, Jeremiah had close ties to a priestly community that traced its lineage back to Moses rather than Aaron. It is theorized that Deuteronomy is the book of the law discovered during the renovation of the temple by Josiah.
The four narratives were brought together after the exile, some believe by Ezra. The reading of the law which occurs in Ezra may be the first reading of the Torah as we know it today. Prior to this time, the various strands existed in separate scrolls.
It should also be noted that JEPD theorists do not claim any of the writers composed in a vaccuum. All drew on earlier traditions, oral traditions of course and possibly writings which are no longer extant such as the Book of the Wars of Yahweh mentioned in Judges. It could well be that Moses was the author of earlier writings which one or more of the JEPD writers used as a source.
