LA JOLLA, California — This is an example of the current status among scholars on how the Torah text came to be, referencing an essay by Haaretz reporter Elan Gilad. He is a prolific writer, with degrees in philosophy/political science and Hebrew (Master’s level) from Tel Aviv University.
Modern scholarship on how the Torah and several of the following books in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) were written had beginnings in the 19th Century of the common era. Before that, commentators generally believed that the Torah was given directly by God and written down by Moses. This, despite that they were clearly aware of conflicts within the text. These included obvious duplications of stories, often with contradictory details between them. Also, the flow of the text was not seamless. They rationalized on the problematic passages.
A major breakthrough was the Documentary Hypothesis, proposed by a German Lutheran scholar, Julius Wellhausen, in 1878. He concluded that there were four major writer/contributors to what he called the Hexateuch, which included the Five Books of Moses plus the Book of Joshua, which follows. He named these writers, respectively J (Yahwist), E (Elohist), P (Priestly writers), and D (Deuteronomist). The J source was so named because the writer named God Jehovah (pronounced Yahweh in German). The E source was so named because references to God named Him Elohim. The P sources were attributed to a group of priests, and the D source, also priests responsible for writing Deuteronomy (Moses’ Last Discourse) and a few subsequent books, such as Joshua. The original individual works were lost in time, but per this Documentary Hypothesis, were preserved mixed within the texts of the six Bible books here mentioned. The work of redactors/editors brought together our received text.
This theory held sway through most of the 20th Century, however modified in stages throughout the century, with multiple re-assignments of passages from one of these sources to another. It was also concluded that each of these sources, were actually multiple persons.
The Bible text’s evolution has a key clue from the time of King Josiah. The practices of the Judeans then were clearly pagan, when Josiah in 622 BCE, embarked on a housekeeping job in the Temple. Hilkiah, his High Priest, ‘discovered’ a scroll on a dusty shelf, reported by the scribe Shaphan, which scroll we now know contained much of the laws of what became Deuteronomy. (2 Kings 22:10-11) The scroll distressed Josiah, as he became convinced that he and his people had violated God’s Law for centuries. Modern scholarship actually places the actual writing of this scroll at about 700 BCE.
Josiah ordered sweeping religious reforms, with a turn to ethical Monotheism, plus centralization of the sacrificial cult to his Temple in Jerusalem. This required seasonal pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the Festivals, etc. (2 Kings 22:13)
There were originally two competing Hebrew Kingdoms, Israel in the North) and Judah (in the South). The Northern Kingdom was the more successful and powerful, while the Southern was a backwater vassal kingdom. However, the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the invader Assyrian empire, which came from its north, in 722 BCE.
The South’s writings were of Yahwist origins. They were merged by Judean scribes with the writings from the North, making a single Torah. The writings included the ‘found scroll’ from King Josiah’s time, with added embellishments, most notably an expanded list of Deuteronomy’s laws. There were additions to the text to satisfy a sense of a completlye fused storyline. Theories suggest that the chief writer of Deuteronomy was the above scribe Shaphan. However, some think the writer was the prophet Jeremiah, e.g. Richard E. Friedman, formerly of UC San Diego.
The Northern kingdom priests had seen themselves as descendants of Moses. In contrast the Southern kingdom priests saw themselves as descended from Zadok, the first High Priest in Solomon’s Temple. The Judean priestly writers concluded their final revision of the story to include the Northern hero Moses, along with Aaron, (declared Moses’ big brother) as the initiator of the High Priest lineage.
This well edited version was mostly completed into its final form during the Babylonian exile of Judeans, after they were conquered by the new power empire of the area, Babylonia, in 586 BCE. Ezra, the scribe is believed to have been a contributor to the final version of the Torah, i.e. the Books of Moses, which is essentially what we have to this day. Perhaps newer theories may arise in the future to tweek this beloved story.
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Dr. Jacobs is a freelance writer who frequently delivers Torah commentaries at Congregation Beth El, as well as to his chavurah.