Newer document hypothesis
The newer document hypothesis is a theory of historical-critical biblical studies about the origin of the Torah (the five books of Moses).
Research history
With the Enlightenment , historical and critical research into the Bible began in Europe. Since the 18th century, the Bible has not only been received in its function as a revealed word of God, but has also been perceived and examined in its form as a book that has grown over time. From this time on, historical criticism did away with the centuries-old idea that Moses was the author of the Torah. Rather, it was created in a centuries-old growth process from different, previously independent source scripts and has been repeatedly revised by editors. These source writings are no longer available to us today, but can only be reconstructed using the methods of historical criticism.
The beginning of the historical criticism of the Torah was marked by the observations of the Hildesheim pastor Henning Bernward Witter . He discovered a double tradition in the first three chapters of Genesis . The creation of the world is told here twice in succession, each with a different focus and different names for God: once in Gen 1,1–2,4a EU using the god name Elohim and a second time in Gen 2,4b – 3.24 EU ( mostly) using the divine name YHWH . There are also other double and multiple traditions in Genesis, for example in the Flood Tale ( Gen 6–8 EU ), the story of the endangerment of the ancestor ( Gen 12 EU ; 20 EU and 26 EU ) or the etiology for the sanctuary in Bet -El ( Gen 12 EU ; 28 EU and 35 EU ). Witter's observations were not received for a long time.
Only similar insights from the French Jean Astruc , who was the personal physician of the French King Louis XV. started critical research on the Old Testament. In the multiple traditions within the Torah (especially Genesis) he discovered two continuous and two other shorter, formerly independent source writings on which the current text is based. These source writings were put together by Moses in four columns (Astruc names these sources A, B, C and D). A later, post-Mosaic editor worked the four sources into one another.
Prehistory: older document hypothesis
In Germany, Johann Gottfried Eichhorn extended the Astrucs thesis to the text complex Genesis 1 - Exodus 2 and divided the sources into a pre-Mosaic Elohist (named after the use of the divine title "Elohim") and a post-Mosaic Jehovist (named after the use of the divine name JHWH, reconstructed pronunciation "Yahweh", the name is not pronounced by believing Jews). The spelling "Jehowist" corresponds to the reading of the name of God YHWH at that time, which was erroneously read as "Jehowa" until the 19th century. Karl David Ilgen expanded Eichhorn's thesis further by adopting a second Elohist and therefore distinguished a total of three sources. In terms of research history, this theory became known as the older document hypothesis (also: source hypothesis ).
Newer document hypothesis
In the history of Torah research, the newer document hypothesis has become the most decisive explanatory model for the history of the origins of the five books of Moses.
The newer document hypothesis was developed in the late 19th century by the Old Testament scholars Karl Heinrich Graf , Abraham Kuenen and, above all, Julius Wellhausen . While these researchers relied on the results of the Older Document Hypothesis, they developed other dates and reconstructions.
Wellhausen distinguished four sources for the entire Torah:
- Yahwist (abbreviated: J), from around 950 BC. Chr.
- Elohist (abbreviated: E), from around 800 BC. Chr.
- Priestly pamphlet (abbreviated: P), from the time of exile around 550 BC Chr.
- (Original) Deuteronomy (abbreviated: D), from the 7th century BC Chr.
According to Wellhausen's thesis, an editor worked into the Yahwist source script (J) the Elohist source script (E). The result is referred to as Jehovah's History (JE), the editor as R JE . The work JE was written immediately after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel ( 722 BC ) and was later incorporated into the priestly scriptures (P) in the post-exilic period.
Martin Noth expanded Wellhausen's thesis at the beginning of the 20th century and, through his "studies of the history of tradition", helped it to gain long-term validity and a broad reception in Old Testament research. According to Noth, the Yahwist source script originated around 950 BC. Chr. In circles around the Jerusalem court. It tells the story of Israel from the creation of the world to the exploration of the promised land (from the first to 4th book of Moses ).
Wellhausen's thesis is a milestone in Old Testament research. Many of his conclusions are no longer supported today, but there is no consensus for a similarly catchy genesis of the Torah.
The Pontifical Biblical Commission affirmed in 1906 that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, and rejected any form of a document hypothesis ( De mosaica authentia Pentateuchi ).
literature
- Henning Bernward Witter : Jura Israelitarum in Palaestinam terram Chananaeam, commentatione perpetua in Genesin demonstrata. Hildesheim 1711.
- Jean Astruc: Conjectures sur les mémoires originaux, dont il paroit que Moyse s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Genèse. Bruxelles 1753 (digitized version)
- Johann Gottfried Eichhorn: Introduction to the Old Testament. 3 volumes Leipzig 1780–1783.
- Karl David Ilgen: The documents of the Jerusalem temple archive in their original form. Volume 1: The documents of the first book of Moses in their original form. Hall 1798.
- Julius Wellhausen: The Composition of the Hexateuch and the historical books of the Old Testament. Berlin 1876.
- Julius Wellhausen: Prolegomena to the history of Israel. Berlin 1878.
- Martin Noth: Studies in the history of tradition. Part 1: The collecting and processing historical works in the Old Testament (writings of the Königsberg learned society, humanities class 18.2). Halle: Niemeyer 1943.
- Martin Noth: Tradition of the Pentateuch. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1948.