| Documentary Hypothesis (DH) |
.... But today, it must be conceded, the majority of biblical scholars in American and European universities are convinced by the idea of the Pentateuch's multiple authorship. Even if no absolute proof exists, they say, some theory of different authors is the most logical and parsimonius way to make sense of the evidence. ...The Documentary Hypothesis (DH) holds that the Torah is composed of texts by 4 or more authors ("sources") plus some text added by one or more redactors to make the texts fit together. The DH is over 100 years old and is a usual starting point in study of Bible origins. It is plausible and self-consistent; it is also unprovable as none of the component texts have been found separately. The DH markings are those of Richard Elliott Friedman's book, Who Wrote the Bible (Second Edition) (WWB), HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 1997, ISBN 0-06-063035-3, using the tables and associated notes on pages 246-260. This a fascinating and inexpensive ($12) book. These tables and notes do not indicate the splitting of the Hebrew verses into subsections and, in some places, have ambiguities as to text markings. The publisher has tried to resolve these matters through Friedman's later book, The Bible with Sources Revealed (BSR), HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 2003, ISBN 0-06-053069-5, which describes slightly different text markings. The markings of the texts and their associated notes are given in a table below. The publisher would appreciate suggestions on these matters relative to the WWB. Please note that in accordance with WWB, the set of markings depends on the book. That is, Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers have different markings than Leviticus and Deuteronomy as shown in the table below. Two methods of viewing the DH markings are provided in the DH pull down list in the righthand column of each Torah book page.James L. Kugel, How to read the Bible,
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-3586-0,
2007, p 42.
| Unmarked book | Marking specification file | Sources | Marked book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis.xml | DHSpecification.Genesis.xml | J, E, P, and R | Genesis.DH.xml |
| Exodus.xml | DHSpecification.Exodus.xml | J, E, P, and R | Exodus.DH.xml |
| Leviticus.xml | DHSpecification.Leviticus.xml | P and R | Leviticus.DH.xml |
| Numbers.xml | DHSpecification.Numbers.xml | J, E, P, and R | Numbers.DH.xml |
| Deuteronomy.xml | DHSpecification.Deuteronomy.xml | Dtr1, Dtr2, Dtn, E, P, and Other | Deuteronomy.DH.xml |
| 27.3 |