Synthesis: The Classical Four-Documentary Myth

Documentary Hypothesis was first suggested by a German Anti-Semitic scholar named Julius Wellhausen. He sorted the Torah using style and text to prove that there were multiple authors to the Pentateuch instead of the previously one author claim. Wellshausen was skeptical of reconstructing any part of Israel’s history before the establishment of the monarchy arguing that the wandering of the Exodus could not be reconstructed into any kind of organic story (90). He reasoned that any story before the Exodus was pure legend or myth. Wellhausen instead separated the five books into four documents, creating what would be known as the Classical Four-Documentary Hypothesis. The four documents were Yahwist (J), Elohist (E), Deuteronomist (D), and Priestly (P). It was determined that the oldest document was Yahwist or J document and the Priestly Document or P document was the youngest (90).
J stands for the divine name of Yahweh. Many of the stories in the J document present religious convictions that reveal deep psychological insights into the human condition (90). The document uses strong uses of anthropomorphisms, which other documents do not; where God has intervened in Israel’s history. This document also emphasized the Urban Law of the Divine Right of Kings and stressed God’s covenant with Israel and man. It has been suggested that J document was written as late as the later part of the 9th century in the Southern Kingdom of Judah or as early as 10th century Israel (as a United Kingdom) during the times of David and