Julius Wellhausen
People. Also called Wellhausen, J. Wellhausen.
| Denomination | Lutheran |
|---|---|
| Nationality | German |
| Death | January 7, 1918, Göttingen, Germany |
| Born | May 17, 1844, Hameln, Germany |
| Major Positions | Professor at the Universities of Greifswald, Halle, Marburg, and Göttingen |
Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) was a German Old Testament scholar and Orientalist. He is widely known for systematizing the Documentary Hypothesis, which holds that the Pentateuch was composed from four sources (J, E, D, and P).
About this articleAI draft from a Korean source. Notes on Korean Protestant practice. No sources listed. Not yet reviewed by a person.
- Origin
Drafted by AI from the Korean church.wiki article, then translated and adapted for English readers on 5 November 2026.
- Perspective
Includes notes on Korean Protestant practice; other traditions are noted where they differ.
- Sources
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Life
Wellhausen was born in Hameln, the son of a Lutheran pastor. He studied theology at the University of Göttingen, where he learned Old Testament and Semitic languages under Heinrich Ewald. In 1872 he became a professor on the theological faculty of the University of Greifswald. In 1882, however, he left the theological faculty, reportedly because he believed his research did not serve the faculty's purpose of training pastors. He then taught Semitic languages at Halle and Marburg, and from 1892 he was a professor at the University of Göttingen, where he died in 1918.
Work and Contributions
His major work, History of Israel, was published in 1878 and reissued in 1883 under the title Prolegomena to the History of Israel. He held that the Pentateuch was not the work of Moses alone but a later compilation of four documents written in different periods:
- J source: the document that refers to God as "Yahweh"
- E source: the document that refers to God as "Elohim"
- D source: the document underlying Deuteronomy
- P source: the Priestly document
He argued in particular that the P source, which contains the laws and the regulations governing sacrifice, was the latest of the four and was written after the Babylonian exile. Because this view built on the work of the earlier scholar Karl Heinrich Graf, it is often called the "Graf–Wellhausen hypothesis." This method of study, which treats the Bible as a historical document and examines the process by which it came into being, is known as historical criticism.
In his later years Wellhausen broadened the scope of his research. He studied early Islam and Arab history and also wrote studies of the Synoptic Gospels.
Perspective: Korean Protestant practiceHow this idea is used in Korean churches, kept from the original Korean article.
Within Korean Presbyterianism, whether to accept the Documentary Hypothesis and historical criticism was long a matter of controversy.
- The 1934 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Chosŏn (Korea) reportedly took up the case of the Rev. Kim Young-ju, who had denied the Mosaic authorship of Genesis.
- After Korea's liberation in 1945, Kim Jae-jun's teaching of historical criticism brought him into conflict with Park Hyung-ryong and other conservatives. This conflict contributed to the separation of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea in 1953 (see Schisms in Korean Presbyterianism).
Among Korean denominations and seminaries, positions still differ today. Conservative denominations that emphasize biblical inerrancy present the Documentary Hypothesis critically and uphold the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Progressive seminaries treat the Documentary Hypothesis as one of the scholarly methods of Old Testament study.
Assessment
Wellhausen's hypothesis became the standard theory in Old Testament scholarship during the first half of the twentieth century. Since the 1970s, however, a growing body of research has questioned the dating, and even the existence, of the sources. In European scholarship in particular, the classical form of the Documentary Hypothesis has been substantially revised.
His theory has also drawn several criticisms:
- It presupposes an evolutionary view of history in which Israel's religion developed from the simple to the complex.
- By portraying postexilic Judaism as a degenerate religion of law, it reflects a bias against Judaism.
- Evangelical scholars hold that his theory undermines the authority and inspiration of Scripture.
His supporters, on the other hand, credit him with laying the foundations of modern biblical scholarship through his meticulous analysis of the discrepancies and repetitions in the biblical text.
See also 8
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