Documentary Hypothesis

Definition and Meaning

The Documentary Hypothesis is the theory that the Pentateuch, the five books from Genesis through Deuteronomy, took shape when source documents from different periods and communities were later edited and combined into a single work. It is also commonly called the JEDP hypothesis, after the initial letters of its four sources.

• J (Yahwist source): material that chiefly refers to God by the name Jehovah (Yahweh)
• E (Elohist source): material that chiefly refers to God as Elohim
• D (Deuteronomist source): material forming the core of Deuteronomy
• P (Priestly source): material containing genealogies, sacrificial regulations, ordinances for the tabernacle, and similar content

Biblical and Historical Background

The Documentary Hypothesis draws on several features of the text, chief among them passages in which the same event appears to be narrated twice, differences in style and vocabulary, and variations in the use of divine names. The passage in Exodus 6:2–3, in which God says that He was not known to the patriarchs by the name "JEHOVAH," is frequently cited as evidence of distinct sources.

An early attempt at source division is generally attributed to the eighteenth-century French physician Jean Astruc, who noticed the differing use of divine names in Genesis and sought to distinguish sources on that basis. The discussion continued in German scholarship, and in the late nineteenth century Julius Wellhausen systematically set out the order and dates of the four sources, giving the theory its classical form. In the process, Deuteronomy was linked to the book of the law found in the temple during the reign of King Josiah (2 Kings 22), and the Priestly source came to be regarded as material dating from the period of the Babylonian exile or later.

Since the late twentieth century, revisions and criticisms of the classical Documentary Hypothesis have multiplied, even within Old Testament scholarship. Alongside objections that the four sources cannot be clearly separated, alternative models of the Pentateuch's formation have been proposed, and fewer scholars today are said to accept the Documentary Hypothesis in its classical form.

In Practice in the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the Documentary Hypothesis has been addressed in the context of debates over biblical inerrancy and biblical criticism.

• Conservative Presbyterian denominations and many evangelical denominations generally uphold the traditional view that Moses was the principal author of the Pentateuch. They point out that Jesus and the New Testament writers cited the Pentateuch as "the book of Moses," and they criticize the Documentary Hypothesis for undermining the authority of Scripture.
• Denominations and seminaries in the progressive theological tradition accept historical-critical methods as scholarly tools and teach the Documentary Hypothesis as one of several theories explaining how the Old Testament text was formed.
• After Korea's liberation, the acceptance of biblical criticism became a point of contention within Korean Presbyterianism, and this controversy is regarded as one of the factors behind the Korean Presbyterian schisms, which led to the breakaway of Kim Jae-jun and the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea.

In the sermons and Bible studies that ordinary church members hear, the traditional expression "the Pentateuch written by Moses" is generally used. The Documentary Hypothesis is treated mainly in Old Testament courses at seminaries.