Introduction

The first five books comprise, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In the Christian Bible they are known as the Pentateuch and in the Hebrew Bible they are called the Torah. As to the question of who wrote them, the Encyclopaedia Britannica provides this answer:

Moses was considered the author of these books, but modern critical scholarship suggests a more complex origin.

The documentary hypothesis proposes that the Pentateuch is a compilation of texts from different sources. The primary sources include the Yahwist (J), the Elohist (E), the Priestly code (P), and Deuteronomy (D). These sources, believed to have originated between the 10th and 5th centuries BCE, display distinct styles, vocabularies, and theological perspectives.

Alternative theories suggest that the Pentateuch’s composition involved various literary forms, oral traditions, and historical contexts. Despite these challenges, the documentary theory remains a comprehensive framework for understanding the Pentateuch’s origins.

So, the Documentary Hypothesis claims that the books comprising the Pentateuch were a late concoctions, not written in the time of Moses.

All liberal Bible colleges and Universities teach the documentary hypothesis.

The importance of the Pentateuch

The whole Bible flows from the first five books. Genesis tells how everything was created and the fact that both Adam and Eve were created in the image of God which characterized their children and all future generations. It tells of the reality of Satan, the reason why we all are born sinners. From this, emerges what God did to bring us back to Himself (Genesis 3:15). Genesis tells why we wear clothes (3:7), why we have a seven-day week and God’s plan of marriage (1:24) and then children (1:28).

The Pentateuch reveals how God chose Abraham and his descendants to be His chosen people. How Abraham’s grandson Jacob and his family (about 70 people) went to Egypt and after 430 years came back as a nation of about two million people under the leadership of Moses. Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy give God’s laws, including the Ten Commandments of how He wants us to live.

The documentary hypothesis attempts to explain what its originators see as problems with a single author:

Two Divine Names, Yahweh and Elohim.

Duplication, two Creation Stories, one in Genesis chapter one and the other in Genesis chapter 2. Abraham claimed Sarah is his sister twice and Isaac saying Rebekah is his sister twice

Internal Contradictions, Specific details differ across narratives, such as the number of animals taken onto the Ark (one pair vs. seven pairs) and differing accounts of the plagues in Egypt.

The development of the Documentary Hypothesis

The Documentary Hypothesis (JEDP) originated in the 18th-19th century as a critical analysis of the Pentateuch, challenging Mosaic authorship by identifying four distinct and much later sources known as J, E, D, P. That is, the Pentateuch is comprised of four documents, hence the name. Its key developments commenced with Jean Astruc (1753) identifying documents J and E, Wilhelm De Wette (1805) adding document D, and Hermann Hupfeld (1853) identifying document P, with Julius Wellhausen (pictured), a German Bible scholar, promoting the model in the 1870s-80s.

Fatal problems with the Documentary Hypothesis

This theory argues that these sources were written over centuries, rejecting Mosaic authorship.  Collin Smith from Alpha and Omega Ministries writes, This (his) paper will, hopefully, demonstrate that at the root of the documentary hypothesis there is not a firmly established, historically defensible presentation of the fragmentary nature of the Torah. Rather, at its root is a theory based on the application of the naturalistic assumptions of seventeenth and eighteenth century humanists to the Biblical text.[1]

The Documentary Hypothesis has big problems, which include a lack of external evidence for the existence of independent J, E, D, or P documents. Critics argue it relies on subjective criteria, such as divine names or doubled stories, which often reflect Ancient Near Eastern literary conventions rather than multiple, spliced sources. The hypothesis has also struggled with mounting archaeological data supporting an earlier, more unified composition of the Torah. The Bible to Life provides four solid reasons why the Documentary Hypothesis should be rejected. They can be found here: https://bibletolife.com/resources/articles/4-problems-with-the-documentary-hypothesis-theory-of-genesis-authorship.

More Criticism

Old Testament scholar Duane Garrett’s book Rethinking Genesis has been called “the most convincing refutation of the documentary hypothesis now in print” offers his readers an alternative yet well-founded method to defend Mosaic authorship and its earlier date of writing while also acknowledging the proper use of form-criticism to account for the seemingly different texts that make up the book of Genesis. He writes:

The time has come for scholars to recognize that the documentary hypothesis is dead. The arguments that support it have been dismantled by scholars of many stripes—many of whom have no theological commitment to the Bible. The theory is, however, still taught as an established result of biblical scholarship in universities and theological schools around the world. Books and monographs rooted in it still frequently appear. Laughably, some of these books are touted for their “startling new interpretations” of the history of the Bible while in fact doing little more than repackaging old ideas.

Garrett’s book put the final nail in the coffin of the Documentary Hypothesis.

Reasons for Mosaic authorship

First, scripture itself attributes authorship of the Pentateuch to Moses for within the Pentateuch itself, it is stated repeatedly that Moses wrote down the words of the law given directly to him by Yahweh (Exodus 17:14; 24:4,7; 34:27; Numbers 33:1-2; Deuteronomy 31:9, 11). Books within the Old Testament also give witness to this fact. The book of Joshua attests to Mosaic authorship in 1:8 and 8:31-32, identifying them as the “book of the law” or the “book of the law of Moses.” The title “law of Moses” is used by David in 1 Kings 2:3 to refer to the first five books as being written by Moses, while 2 Kings 14:6 gives the same title, quoting from Deuteronomy 24:16. Again, refers to the same title of the Pentateuch.

Other references to the Mosaic authorship are found in Ezra 6:18, Nehemiah 13:1, Daniel 9:11-13, and Malachi 4:4. The authorship of the Torah is always attributed to Moses throughout the Old Testament and even into the New Testament. The gospels refer to the writings of the Torah as “Moses” in Acts 3:22. Other places in the New Testament refer to Moses as the author of the Torah, such as Romans10:5. Mark 12:26 states that God Himself uttered the words written in Exodus 3:6 to the historical Moses and Jesus referred His disciples to the writings of Moses, John 5:46-47.

Statements consistent with contemporary Egyptian life and desert wanderings

Second, upon further investigation of the historical events recorded of contemporary issues of Moses’ day of the description of the plants and wildlife, and the condition of the geography and climate has led scholars to believe that the author was originally a resident of Egypt and not of Israel. Investigation has also confirmed that the author of the Pentateuch was an eyewitness of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings, and one who possessed a high degree of education, literary skill, and familiarity with Egypt and Hebrew way of life.

The many geographical details recorded in passages such as Exodus 15:27 suggest that the author was an actual participant in the events themselves. Genesis and Exodus show the author’s familiarity with the land of Egypt and with Egyptian names, expressions, customs, and culture. In addition, the unity and harmony that underlines the Torah also points to a single author of the text. And considering that the Pentateuch was written over a period of about four decades through progressive revelation given by God, we would expect different writing styles.[2]

Therefore, Moses is the most reasonable choice as author as he appears to have possessed all the qualities and training necessary to fulfill the role of author.

Chiasmus structure

If more evidence is required, it can be found in the order in which the information of the books is given. The Torah employs a remarkable literary device known as chiasm, a structure that arranges words, phrases, or thematic elements in a mirrored pattern to emphasize meaning and to create a sense of symmetry. In this structure, the text presents a sequence of ideas or events and then revisits them in reverse order, forming a kind of literary palindrome.[3] This technique, often represented as A, B, C … C’, B’, A’, highlights the text’s intricate design and underscores its holistic nature.[4]

In his 800-page treatise on Genesis chapters 1 to 11, Dr Jonathan Sarfati, explains the topic and gives many examples of chiasmus.^[5] Two of them are reproduced below, a shorter one of Genesis 9:6

A  Whoever sheds

B         the blood

C                     of man

C’                    by man shall

B’        his blood

A’  be shed

A spectacular and fascinating example, is the chiastic structure of the Genesis flood (Genesis 6:1 to 9:19):

A  Noah: the righteous man (6:9)

B      Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth (6:10)

C              Earth filled with violence and corruption (6:11-12)

D                   First divine address (1): earth to be destroyed (6:13)

E                             First divine address (2): Noah to build Ark (6:14-22)

F                                  Second divine address (1): command to enter Ark (7:1-3)

G                                      Second divine address (2): 7-day wait for Flood (7:4-5)

H                                               7 days waiting for flood (repeated) (7:6-10)

I                                                         Beginning of Flood and entry into Ark (7:11-15)

J                                                                  God shuts the door (7:16b)

K                                                                      40 days flood, waters increase (7:17a-18)

L                                                                           Waters prevail, mountains covered (7:19-20)

M                                                                                   150 days waters prevails (7:21-24)

N                                                                                            GOD REMEMBERS NOAH (8:1a)

M´                                                                          150 days waters abate (8:1b-5)

L´                                                                            Waters abate, mountain tops visible (8:5)

K´                                                                   40 days (end of) (8:6a)

J´                                                               Noah opens window of ark (8:6b)

I´                                                       Raven and dove leave ark (8:7-9)

H´                                             7 days waiting for waters to subside (8:10-11)

G´                                   7 days waiting for waters to subside (8:12-14)

F´                               Third divine address: command to leave Ark (8:15-19)

E´                          Noah builds an altar (8:20)

D´                God’s commitment to preserve the earth (8:21-22)

C´           Fourth divine address: covenant blessing and peace (9:1-17)

B´     Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth (9:18-27)

A´  Noah: life and death (9:28-29)

The Chiasmus structure of the Torah shows clearly it was written by an educated man under Divine guidance. Acts 7:22: And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

Conclusion

For the Enclopaedia Britannica to claim that the Documentary Hypothesis is modern critical scholarship is surprising, because it is not modern and it is certainly not scholarship as there are none of the documents that the Pentateuch is claimed to comprise. One can only conclude that they were imaginary and were used to deny Mosaic authorship.

The evidence challenging the documentary hypothesis is substantial, so why does it continue to be taught as the standard paradigm in biblical studies? Again, it is promoted by institutions that would like to bring the authenticity of the Bible into question.

[1] Collin Smith, A Critical Assessment of the Graf-Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis, June 1, 2002. https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/reformed-apologetics/a-critical-assessment-of-the-graf-wellhausen-documentary-hypothesis.

[2] Joseph M Holden Norman Geisler, The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible, Harvest House Publishers, 2013, page 59.

[3] a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backwards as forwards, e.g. madam or nurses run.

[4] Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Girzhel, Jewish Studies for Christians. https://drelisblog.com/what-is-chiastic-structure/#:~:text=Thank%20you%20to%20my%20friends,central%20message%20of%20this%20story?.

[5] Jonathan Sarfati, The Genesis Account, Creation Book Publishers, 2015, pages 12-15.