Pitts Michael McGinnis Biblical Perspectives Notes 2/08/08 3-part lesson, "Source Criticism- Authorship of the Pentateuch" 1. Traditional- Moses wrote the Pentateuch 2. Medieval/ Modern- People began to wonder why there were apparent holes in the Scripture. Those who questioned it were persecuted. Reasons by which it was questioned include that the "humility" of Moses described in Numbers probably wasn't written by him, otherwise he is not so humble. Also, how could he record an account of his own death without divine revelation? There are issues of chronology found in Genesis 36:31. There are geographical considerations such as if the author writes of Moses being "Across the Jordan", the author must be on the other side and is obviously not Moses. During medieval times, the people's answer for these contradictions was that Moses wrote the majority of the work while later writers came back and tweaked it. People do not like not knowing who wrote the Scripture. Some of the larger issues that brought the beliefs of the medieval period into the light of the modern period include the existence of doublets and the changing use divine of names. Doublets: Examples of doublets: Creation, Abraham and the covenant with God, and the variations of the Flood story. Read page 22 of "Who wrote the Bible?" Some doublets were written with different aspects. Divine Names: The use of both Yahweh (YHWH) and Elohim. Yahweh is the creator of Genesis 2. "LORD" all caps means Yahweh in Scripture. Elohim= God. El= God, ohim= singular. 3. Documentary hypothesis- Criticism: what type of questions are you asking? Example: source criticism= asking questions about the source/author of a work. Examining the doublets/ divine names to research who wrote the Bible. Examples of doublets: Writer #1 Writer #2 Creation doublet #1: Uses "Elohim". Creation doublet #2: Uses "Yahweh" Abraham doublet #1: Uses "Elohim". Abraham doublet #2: Uses "Yahweh".
Yahweh takes on a character in doublets 2 of having regret in the flood, has more emotion/ human characteristics (walks in the garden, looks for Adam.) Elohim takes on a character in doublets 1 of being in control, powerful, transcendent (does not have human characteristics/ is very mysterious).