Why I think the Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis of biblical criticism is both valid and correct.

Introduction

In this essay I will use the readings by John J. McDermott under the title ‘Reading the Pentateuch’. I accept that the Pentateuch is ‘a history’ of the Israelite people and I posit that the Pentateuch was written from an oral tradition passed down for centuries, and composed to written texts either in exile in Babylonia (587 B.C.E) or shortly after the release (537 B.C.E).

In explaining the assumptions behind this view I will also say why I agree with them. I shall look closely at just one article from the Pentateuch, the birth of Moses (EX 2:3) to show that this is one of many ‘stories’ added to the Pentateuch, borrowed from other peoples in the ancient Near East that in my view seriously undermines the complete authenticity of the story contained in the texts. Whilst such a statement may alarm some, I do not believe it to be a requisite that one must accept and believe the entirety of the Old Testament to be a believing Christian, or Catholic for that matter. I will provide my rationale for this position in the paper.

Wellhausen and his trail of enlightenment

As the article clearly states from the outset either Moses himself composed the Pentateuch or it was composed by another or others at some time in the past[1]. McDermott describes the fragmentation of the texts in what has been widely accepted by the great bulk of biblical scholars as the Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis (D.H.). This has at least four different authors for the Pentateuch and they are:

1. Priestly Source – In that God is referred to as ‘Elohim’

2. Yahwist Source - Used during the time of Solomon to write a national epic

3. Elohist Source – Also calls God Elohim and is concerned with ethical issues.

4. Deuteronomist Source – A repetition of laws contained in other writings

The documentary Hypothesis posited by Wellhausen is systematic and coherent and the conclusion reached is in my view an accurate explanation of how the Pentateuch was finally composed. I agree wholeheartedly with this assessment:

“at some time after the exile, the final form of the Pentateuch took shape. According to Wellhausen, the Yahwist and Elohist sources were combined into a single narrative during the monarchy. The Deuteronomist source was written later in the monarchy but remained a separate work until it was added to the end of the narrative. The Priestly source represents a reworking and expansion of the narrative after the exile.”[2]

As there is no ‘original’ manuscript that one could determine and point at as a ‘definitive text’ of the Pentateuch, it is in my view not an issue as to who wrote it because at the end of the day, it is a text that is meant to be read to an audience. I will posit that the entire Pentateuch was written for its audience, the Israelite People and composed predominately by priests. I personally do not believe that Moses wrote anything at all and am open to the suggestion that He and other stories contained in the Pentateuch were merely fiction written into the history of the Israelite people as stated, probably after the return from exile in Babylonia. The whole idea of ‘covenant’ in my view was borrowed from the religions and cultures of the Ancient Near East as was the idea of Priesthood. Joseph Ratzinger writing in ‘Readings in Moral Theology No.2, 1980’ makes a defence of the ‘Ten Commandments’ but concedes:

“What has been said makes it clear that though individual parts of the Ten Commandments come from an environment outside Israel, this does not prove they do not belong to the faith of the covenant.”[3]

This is in my view a very convenient way of explaining away a major problem that exists about the Old Testament. In the John Barton reading ‘Covenant in Old Testament Theology’ he posits the idea that the Ten commandments represented the general ethical principles of Israel and not something that flowed from Yahweh’s contract with Israel.[4] I also hold this view and read a whole, it is no wonder that a simple set of 10 rules quickly become 613 with the work of some crafty priests. Even the offering of ‘sacrifices’ to God on altars all over the Middle East as practiced in the intertestamental period shows clear evidence that they were the practice and culture of the whole people in the Ancient Near East, nothing novel or exclusive to Israel. The complete Moses narrative simply does not stack up. I am more inclined to believe the commentary that says:

“Moses is portrayed as coming from a priestly family, the tribe of Levi; and its striking that the several biblical figures with Egyptian names (Moses himself, Holphni, Phineas and Pashhur) are Levites. Indeed, it may be that the Levites were the people who sojourned in and departed from Egypt, becoming dispersed among the highland communities of Canaan without territories of their own, and functioning as guardians, transmitters, and shapers of the past”[5]

The suggestion that Yahweh as displayed in the Old Testament is an accurate depiction of ‘Our Father’ that Jesus speaks of, is utterly incomprehensible. What is most revealing is that my concerns about the Old Testament are quite widely shared. At this juncture one must ask how much of The Old Testament is God and real, and how much is fiction and ordinances transcribed by priests to suit their own purposes. Exodus 3:14 is where Yahweh is named as the God of the Israelites as he says “This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations” well, Jesus who was no doubt a Jew from Nazareth called God “Abba” (Father). I am one hundred percent sure that Jesus’ use of that term did not just denote His relationship to God as the second person of the trinity but moreover a view of God that is much more caring and loving. A God who forgives if we forgive, who asks us to see a part of Him in everyone. One need look no further than the beatitudes to see why Jesus’ message has become cluttered when so called ‘Christians’ use the Old Testament to justify anything from polygamy to slavery and everything in between. The time has come for a new apologetic for the Christian faith that deals with the issue of the Old Testament in a coherent and palatable manner.

Problems with the entirety of the Pentateuch

The two stories of creation in Genesis, the tree of knowledge, the tower of Babel, the flood of Noah, the birth of Moses are all ‘stories’ co-opted into the Pentateuch to create a history that actually was never there. I have good reason to reject that God made any such promise to the Israelite people via Abraham or Moses that they could “take the land of Canaan” and the fact that natives of the region today are killing themselves and others to retain their ancestral homeland is evidence enough to me that God was not the originator of such a divisive and deadly promise.

Thanks to the Old Testament there is something fundamentally obscure about the Jewish people which just cannot be airbrushed away from history. Upon reading the Old Testament it is full of nauseating detail about how special the descendants of Israel are and how other people are to be attacked, enslaved and dispossessed. Whichever way you look at it the Jewish religion of the Old Testament is a supremacist religion maintained through a strict genealogy. To an outsider (non-Christian) it would be difficult to design a religion which was more arrogant and uninviting to the rest of humanity if that was your aim. I fully accept that the Old Testament is a story of a people and their journey with God, but I also accept that the stories as they are presented today represent the edited work of a Priestly Source particularly as this Priestly tribe of Levites feature prominently in all the Pentateuch. It is for me a confirmation of their ‘cementing’ it all together.

Moses and the Legend of Sargon

Now I shall look at the obvious similarity to any onlooker that the story of Moses' birth is based on the legend of Sargon, a story which predates the book of Exodus by several hundreds of years:

“Ancient text: The Birth of Sargon,

“Because my mother did not want anyone in the city of Asupiramu to know that she had given birth to a child, she left me on the bank of the Euphrates River in a basket woven from rushes and waterproofed with tar. The river carried my basket down to a canal, where Akki, the royal gardener, lifted me out of the water and reared me as his own……I became King of the black-headed people and have ruled for 55 years”[6]

Exodus 2 says “…she set him adrift on the Nile River in a small craft of bitumen and pitch (Ex 2:3) it is interesting to note that bitumen was not a material that was used in Egypt at this time:

“tar. This need not be true bitumen, mostly imported from the Dead Sea area, but any sort of resin or pitch. Since the Egyptians seem not to have used such caulking on their vessels (Herodotus Histories 2:96; Landstrom 1970; 19), this feature of the story may derive from Mesopotamian tradition” [7]

As the story goes it was not until Moses reached adulthood that he went to see how his brethren (The Hebrews) who were enslaved to the Egyptians were faring. This is the same Moses who kills and Egyptian soldier (Ex 2:12) Who supposedly negotiates with Yahweh (Ex 32:12) not to let Yahweh be seen as “Evil.” The same Moses who lets his brother Aaron and other Levites live whilst he tells them to kill everyone else? I can accept the story of a broken people wanting to do good and serve God, but I cannot accept words placed into the mouth of God that seem to go against His very nature.

Conclusion

As I stated in my introduction, I believe that the story of the Israelite people is no different or special to the story of other civilizations within the same region. God was as much with them in principle as he was and is with those of other faiths. The Yahweh of the Old Testament, for me does not equate with the God that Jesus spoke of. Too many Christians of past and present have accepted carte blanche that “everything that is contained in the Old Testament, is the word of God” I contend it is always the words of men, transcribed in a way that uses God for their own purposes and this is a big problem.

It is not reasonable to expect other people to meekly accept that the traditional myths about God giving land to the Jews constitutes an unquestionable authority backed by the ultimate trump card of religion. Jews do have a right to worship God, even in modern day Israel, but they must also allow others to worship Him their way too. The Palestinians are entitled to a homeland too and unless something gives soon, the world is doomed to see death and destruction in the ‘City of Peace’ Jerusalem for a very long time to come.

A Priestly source/tradition was responsible for the Pentateuch in its current form and this is no different to our modern Church which is run by priests who decide what is in and what is out. I do not think this was the mission and purpose of Christ’s coming to bind all holiness and sanctity in the world encircled by some esoteric ‘priesthood’. Jesus did say, “no one can come to the father except through me” (Jn 14:6). He is and always will be our only intermediary. Priests serve a purpose leading people in the worship of God as a congregation, but they are not set apart and they certainly are no more special to God than any of his other children. Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and his earthly example is for us to live by.

REFERENCES

[1] McDermott J. John, Reading the Pentateuch. (Paulist Press 2002) Course reader. 14

[2] McDermott J. John, Reading the Pentateuch. Course reader. 18

[3] Curren & McCormick, Readings in Moral Theology (Paulist Press Illinois, 1980) 179

[4] Barton. John, Covenant in Old Testament Theology (Oxford Press 2003) Course Reader 25

[5] Carol Meyers, Exodus (New York Cambridge University Press 2005), 15

[6] Meyers, Exodus, 43

[7] Propp, Exodus 1-18, 149