Essay on Documentary Hypothesis and Sources of the Torah

The Torah is the fundamental, sacred book of Judaism as well as they laid the foundation to Biblical texts. At the same time, the sources of the Torah remained unclear for a long time, while Judaist referred to the Torah as the sacred book granted to Jews by God and his prophets. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the Wellhausen hypothesis, or Documentary hypothesis, which identified four basic sources of the Torah, including Jahwist source, Elohim source, Deuteronomist source, Priestly source, which were created in different time and in different parts of

Israel.

Jahwist source was written in 950 BC in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Jahwist source attributes anthropomorphic descriptions of the God, Yahweh. This source presents the history of theology and uses personal references to Yahweh as well as personal appearance of Yahweh. In such a way, the earliest source of the Torah was anthropomorphic. In this regard, it is possible to presuppose that this source was created, when the monotheism was just rising in power and the concept of monotheistic God was not fully shaped. As a result, the God in Jahwist source depicted the God as a deity that was close to humans and creators of this source even attributed some human characteristics to the God.

Elohim source was created about one hundred years later after Jahwist source in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Elohim source refers to the God as Elohim instead of Yahweh. Elohim is more impersonal name that stresses the impersonal nature of God. Therefore, Elohim source refers to the God as impersonal deity, instead of more personal view on the God, which was the characteristic of Jahwist source. The personal appearance of God is rather abnormal for Elohim source compared to Jahwist source. Therefore, Elohim source marked the next stage in the development of views of Jews on the God, which had become the supreme and only deity, superior to humans, controlling the life of people. Hence, human qualities and characteristics could not be attributed to God any more.

Deuteronomist source was written in the 6th c. BC in Jerusalem during a period of religious reform addressing Jews in exile in Babilon. This source depicts sufferings of Jews in exile as deserved punishment for disobedience to Israel loyalty to Yahweh. At the same time, this source attempted to return Jews to the traditional Jewish lifestyle and values promoted by the sacred texts and priests. In such a way, this source, created in a period of religious reform, was quite conservative since its author or authors attempted to revive traditional values and worshiping of the God.

Finally, priestly source was created by priests in exile in Babylon. In terms of this source, the God, Yahweh, was interested in ritual. Yahweh presence and messages were mediated to people not by the King but by the high priest. In such a way, the source created by priests made priests mediators between the God and humans. At the same time, Priestly source attempted to draw believers to temples and respect priests.

Thus, diverse sources of the Torah were created in different time in different regions of Israel and Babylon. These sources have different interpretation of the God, creation and humans. These differences result from the different socio-cultural environment in which the sources were created.