GENESIS: Part 5
ACCORDING TO JEWISH TRADITION, THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS, WHICH IN GREEK ARE CALLED GENESIS, WERE WRITTEN BY MOSES' OWN HAND UNDER DIRECT INSPIRATION FROM HASHEM, THE TERM MANY JEWS USE FOR GOD. BECAUSE JESUS FOLLOWED THIS TRADITIONAL ATTRIBUTION TO MOSES CHRISTIANS ALSO TRADITIONALLY BELIEVE THAT MOSES WROTE THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS, THE PENTATEUCH.
HOWEVER THE BOOKS THEMSELVES SAY NOTHING OF THE SORT. THIS FACT CAUSED MANY OTHERWISE RATIONALLY THINKING BELIEVERS TO INVENT FANCIFUL SCENARIOS TO EXPLAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, HOW MOSES COULD HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT HIS OWN DEATH, OR STATE THAT HE WAS THE 'HUMBLEST OF MEN'. BUT OTHER QUESTIONS ARISE FROM READING THE TEXT CLOSELY. FOLLOWING THESE ANOMALIES HAS LED SCHOLARS TO CONCLUDE THAT THE PENTATEUCH WAS WRITTEN BY SEVERAL AUTHORS, AND WAS ULTIMATELY EDITED BY EZRA, THE SCRIBE, IN c.460 BCE.
THE BIBLE HAS HISTORY
KEY BIBLICAL STAGES
J TEXT c. 930 - 750 BC
E TEXT c.900 - 750 BC
P TEXT c.700 - 450 BC
D TEXT c.622 BC
EZRA (REDACTOR) c.460 - 400 BC
The dates given above represent the current range of scholarly opinion - from both Christian and Jewish sources. In their widely accepted model Moses' Bible was written between various major events in Israel's history - the division of the Kingdom after Solomon's death c. 930 BCE, the fall of the northern Kingdom to Assyria in c.722 BCE, the fall of the south to Babylon in c. 587 BCE, the return of Exiles from Babylon in 537 BCE, and the arrival of Ezra in c.457 BCE (though some place this at c.398 BCE.)
The Pentateuch is also called the Torah, or Law, and seems to have reached its current form with Ezra - in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra a rough summary can be seen which matches the Torah as it is now. An interesting clue as to how the current Torah came about is revealed by an episode in the time of Ezra. In the book of Nehemiah Ezra is described as reading the Law to the people. Verses 13 - 18 tell of the first celebration of the "Festival of Booths", or Sukkoth, which is described as not being celebrated like so since the days of Joshua, assistant and successor of Moses. Apparently the festival had been added, and it is not unreasonable to imagine that adding sacrifices and festivals occurred over time.
Why would the priests and scribes do this? you might ask, but try to see it from their point of view - they saw themselves as God's representatives, inspired by God. If they added new regulations as the need or desire arose then they would see it as guided by God - that they referred its origin back to the times of Moses indicates their respect and continuity with his leadership. Many of Jesus' sayings might similarly have come from prophets who spoke in his name after his death.
How can this be so? A little understood fact is that many ancient religious documents of the ancient Jews were written as "inspired literature" and contained material that many saw as genuine. Enoch, Noah, Lamech, Levi, Manasseh and a multitude of other Biblical figures provided a rich source for imaginative work written "in the spirit of" which ever Patriarch the author sought to emulate. In the later work, 2 Esdras, the author pictures Ezra the Scribe [Esdras] as being inspired by God over a forty day period to "restore" the Torah which had been lost in the Babylonian disaster of 587 BCE. If such a "tradition" could be taken seriously - and many did so - then there is no reason why the ancient Jews didn't take other imaginative works seriously as well.In the outline above I have mentioned four basic "soruces" or texts that compose our current Torah - J, E, P, D. Or Yahwist ('J' in German), Elohist, Priestly and Deuteronomist. These texts were teased out of the Torah by Bible scholars last century, and while their exact structure has been called into question most believe they represent valid streams of tradition within the Torah.
Recently a notable scholar, Richard Elliott Friedman, has suggested that the J component is actually part of a much larger history, extending right through Samuel and covering the earlier books.Part 2 Discusses a Literal reading of the first eleven chapters of Genesis...
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