3. Composition. The following are the main grounds of the conviction that the Pentateuch is not the original work of one man, but a compilation from previously existing documents.
(1) In the historical parts we find duplicate accounts of the same event, which do not always agree in detail. Sometimes the two accounts are set down side by side; sometimes they are fused together more or less completely; but in many instances no attempt has been made either to remove or to reconcile their differences. Thus two distinct and independent accounts of the Creation are given, one in Gn 1–2:4, the other in Gn 2:4–25. Two accounts of the Flood may be detected on a careful reading of Gn 6–9. Again, we find two sets of instructions for the observance of the Passover in Ex 12, one in vv. 1–13, the other in vv. 21–27. We may also instance the contrasts between such passages as Gn 27:1–45 and 27:46–28:9, where Rebekah is actuated by one motive in the former and by quite another in the latter; Gn 28:19 and 35:9–15, where the name is given to Bethel in very different circumstances; Gn 35:10 and 32:28. Compare also Ex 3:1–6:1 with 6:2–7:13, where the latter section takes no account of the former, but begins the story of the mission to Pharaoh anew, as if 3:1–6:1 had never been written.
(2) Similarly in the legislative portions of these books we find apparent contradictions, and these not in minor or insignificant details, but in fundamental enactments; and the only way in which we can solve the problem thus presented is by understanding that in these books (especially Exodus to Deuteronomy) we have the records of laws laid down at various periods of the national history, and dealing with radically different conditions of life. In Ex 20–23, e.g., we have a set of laws which are evidently suited to the circumstances of an agricultural and pastoral community scattered over a considerable tract of country with their flocks and herds. This legislation is of a very simple and practical nature, based on the fundamental principles of truth and righteousness, and having reference to a primitive state of society. Thus the worship is very simple; altars are to be built of earth or of rough stones at any place where God has blessed them (20:24–26); firstlings and first fruits are to be offered on the eighth day (22:28–30); the law of injuries is ‘eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life’ (21:1–21); murder is to be atoned by the death of the culprit, but the altar gives refuge to the homicide by accident (21:12–14); special reference is made to oxen and sheep, to vineyards and fields of corn, and restitution for damage done to these is commanded (21:33–23:7). Again, the poor are provided for by the produce of the fields every seventh year (23:10, 11); the seventh day is appointed as the sabbath—a day of rest for man and beast (23:12); three feasts are to be kept—two of them agricultural—the feast of unleavened bread in memory of the exodus, and those of harvest and ingathering. The laws are suited to the conditions of life experienced by the Israelites in the wilderness, and in their earlier days in Canaan.
In the book of Deuteronomy we find a more advanced type of legislation, applying evidently to different circumstances. Many injunctions, indeed, are repeated, but many others are changed. The principles are the same as in the older legislation, but the rules are largely modified. Deuteronomy is the Mosaic Law applied to the altered conditions of a later and more complex age. Thus the worship is to be centralised in one place, and local altars are to be abolished (Dt 12:4–6, 13–28), because of abuses that had sprung up in connexion with them; firstlings are to be offered once a year instead of on the eighth day, and in place of the local altars cities of refuge are provided for ‘him who killeth his neighbour unawares’ (Dt 19:2). The conditions of life are different from those in Ex 20–23 the people dwell in cities, not in the camp (Dt 13:12–15; 17:2; 21:6, etc.); a commercial element has entered into the nation (23:19, 20; 25:13–16), and intercourse with foreigners has brought new dangers to religion (13:6, 7; 17:3, 4).
Again, in the book of Leviticus, with parts of Exodus and Numbers, we find another type of legislation, founded still upon the same Mosaic principles, but more elaborate, more priestly, more rigid than that of Ex 20–23 or that of Deuteronomy. Here we find detailed rules for the ritual of the Temple, for the consecration of priests, for many points in ordinary life and conduct. Many of these are found in the other codes; but many are new (e.g. the feasts in Lv 23), and indicate the result of a long process of development. The worship is highly developed and centralised in the Temple; the altar is an elaborate structure (Ex 27:1–8); the duties of priests and Levites are carefully detailed, and the Levites are distinguished from the priests as their servants (Nu 8:19; 18:1–7).
(3) Different parts of the Pentateuch exhibit marked differences of vocabulary and literary style. Many of these differences, especially of vocabulary, can only be appreciated by those acquainted with Hebrew; but any one can see that the book of Deuteronomy is written in a much more rhetorical style than, say, the book of Leviticus, and can appreciate its lofty and inspiring eloquence. Again, in one set of passages, of which Gn 1–2:4 is a type, the Almighty is called God (Hebrew Elohim), while in another set, of which Gn 2:4–25 is an example, He is designated Lord (Hebrew Jehovah); and there are many other points of difference which are most satisfactorily explained by the theory that the writer of the Pentateuch, as we have it, made use of and incorporated into his work documents originally separated.
Following up the clue given by these differences, scholars have endeavoured to disentangle the separate documents from which it is suggested that the Pentateuch was compiled, and we shall now give a brief outline of the results of their investigations.
4. Sources.
(a) There is first what we may call the Primitive source (itself resting upon older written authorities), usually denoted by the symbol JE. It has sometimes been called the Prophetic document, because it reflects the same ideas found in more developed forms in the writings of the prophets, especially their religious and moral teaching. By some, again, it is styled Pre-prophetic, as earlier in date than the prophets, and simpler in its outlook.
It begins at Gn 2:4, and may be said to supply all the more detailed and picturesque narratives in Genesis, and Exodus, part of Numbers, and the first twelve chapters of Joshua. To it we owe entirely the narratives of the Fall and Cain and Abel, the details of Abraham’s trials and wanderings, of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob’s fraud, his journey to Haran and his successful career, and of the life of Joseph. A feature in this Primitive source is its fondness for antiquities. It reaches back into a remote past, and delights to record the traditions and history that centred round the great figures of the race. It is this document that preserves the early legislation already referred to (Ex 20–23) with its permission of local sanctuaries; that gives us the ten commandments, and that records the ancient songs of Lamech, of Moses, and of the conquering Israelites (Nu 21:14–15, 17–18, 27–30). It makes use of the term ‘Jehovah’ for God from the very outset of its narrative. Plausible attempts have been made to analyse it into two components, J and E; but for these reference must be made to larger works. In any case, the parallel threads are closely allied, and may for our purpose be treated as a unity.
This source presents a very simple, vivid, and picturesque narrative, and is characterised among other things by its naïvely anthropomorphic conception of God, i.e. it speaks of God in language that is strictly appropriate to man only. For example, it represents God as planting a garden and walking in it in the cool of the day (Gn 2:8; 3:8), as coming down in order to see what men are doing on the earth (Gn 11:5; 18:21), as shutting the door of the ark behind Noah (Gn 7:16), as smelling the sweet odour of sacrifice (Gn 8:21), and as experiencing the emotions to which men are subject (cp. e.g. Gn 6:6), etc. This bold way of speaking about God, it may be remarked here, is not due to any irreverence or familiarity, but is the outcome of an intensely religious spirit that is completely possessed by the consciousness of God’s immediate presence and power in the world. The Primitive narrative, too, is not careful to conceal the moral faults of the patriarchs. The English reader will form an idea of its style and characteristics from such passages as Gn 2:4b–3:24; 9:22–27; 11:1–9; 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 27, and practically the whole of the history of Joseph.
It seems probable that the older written authorities underlying this Primitive or Prophetic narrative were drawn up not later than 750 b.c., and perhaps even a century earlier; they themselves in their turn being founded on writings like ‘the book of the Wars of the Lord,’ and ‘the book of Jasher,’ as well as on traditions handed down from generation to generation in the tribes of Israel. The early prophets make frequent and confident appeals to events of past history and to promises of God to the fathers which are recorded in this Primitive narrative: cp. Hos 9:10; 11:1; 12:3, 4, 9, 12; Am 2:9; 3:1; 5:25.
https://biblia.com/books/commholybbl/Page.p_xxviii
Dummelow’s Commentary on the Holy Bible
by J. R. Dummelow Publisher: Macmillan Co., 1936
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