Documentary hypothesis
The recent documentary hypothesis is a theory of historical-critical biblical scholarship on the origins of the Pentateuch ( the five books of Moses ) in the Old Testament.
History of Research
With the Enlightenment began in Europe, the historical-critical study of the Bible. Since the 18th century, the Bible was no longer rezipiert only in its capacity as the revealed word of God, but also perceived in shape as historically developed book and studied. Historical criticism conceded from the 18th century on the force for centuries notion that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch. Rather, the Pentateuch has been developed in an ongoing process of growth from different centuries, formerly independent source documents and revised by editors over again. This source writings we now no longer available, but can be reconstructed only by the methods of historical criticism.
Mark the observations of the Hildesheim pastor Henning Bernward Witter The beginning of the historical criticism of the Pentateuch. He discovered in the first three chapters of Genesis a double tradition. The creation of the world is here twice in a row, each with a different focus and each different names for God says, once under in Gen 1:1-2:4 a EU use of God's name Elohim and a second time in Genesis 2:4 b -3, 24 EU under use of the divine name Yahweh. Also found in Genesis further double and multiple traditions, such as in the story of the Flood (Gen 6-8 EU ), the story of the threat to the ancestress ( Gen 12 EU, 20 EU and 26 EU) or the etiology of the sanctuary at Beth -El ( Gen 12 EU, 28 EU and 35 EU). The observations were Witters long time not rezipiert.
Only similar insights of the Frenchman Jean Astruc, which the physician to the French King Louis XV. was met with critical research on the Old Testament. He discovered in the multiple traditions within the Pentateuch (especially Genesis) two continuous and two other shorter, formerly independent source documents that underpin the current text based. This source writings were of Moses in four columns ( Astruc calls these sources A, B, C and D) have been compiled. A later, nachmosaischer Editor 've worked into each of the four sources.
Background: Older documentary hypothesis
In Germany Johann Gottfried Eichhorn extended the thesis Astruc on the text complex Genesis 1 - from Exodus 2 and separated the sources into a pre-Mosaic Elohist (named after the use of the god title "Elohim" ) and a post-Mosaic Jehowisten (named after the use of God's name "Yahweh "). The spelling " Jehowist " corresponds to the former reading of the divine name "Yahweh", which was erroneously read into the 19th century as " Lord Jehovah ." Karl David Ilgen built the thesis Eichhorn from further when he still took on a second Elohist and therefore different three sources. History research this theory was under the name Older documentary hypothesis (also: source hypothesis ) is known.
Recent documentary hypothesis
The recent documentary hypothesis has been in the research history of the Pentateuch to date most determinant explanatory model for the genesis of the five books of Moses.
Developed the recent documentary hypothesis in the late 19th century by the Old Testament scholars Karl Heinrich Graf, Abraham Kuenen and especially by Julius Wellhausen. These researchers were based on though the results of the older documentary hypothesis, but developed other dating and reconstructions.
Wellhausen differed for the entire Pentateuch four sources:
- Yahwist (abbreviated J), dating from about 950 BC
- Elohist (abbreviated E), dating from about 800 BC
- Priestly source (abbreviated P), from the exile around 550 BC
- ( Primal ) Deuteronomy (abbreviated D), dating from the 7th century BC
In the Yahwist source font ( J) Editor ( RJE ) worked from the time immediately after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, the Elohist source (E ), and so created the " Jehowistische historical work " (JE). This was in turn incorporated into the postexilic period in the Priestly source.
Martin Noth put themselves Wellhausen's thesis at the beginning of the 20th century further and helped it through its " tradition -historical studies" of long years of implementation and wide reception in the Old Testament research. After Noth's view of the Yahwist source font was built around 950 BC in circles around the Jerusalem court. It tells the story of Israel from the creation of the world up to the reconnaissance of the promised land ( in the books of Genesis through Numbers ).
Although many of the conclusions of Wellhausen are not represented today, his thesis remains a landmark of Old Testament research.