WHO WROTE GENESIS?
S U P P L E M E N T TO ‘■ '■ THE L I T E R A R Y G U I D E , ' J A N U A R Y , 1S95.
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I t is popularly supposed that Moses wrote the book of Genesis, and the four following books—Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—excepting the passage at the close of Deuteronomy which records his death. Now, there is positively no proof that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Bible. In the present paper it will be our endeavour to show how the opening portion of the Old Testament came into existence. O f course absolute certainty on the question is impossible. In the early ages, when the Bible began to be written, authors were not careful to attach name, date, and place to their compositions. Neither were the readers interested in such points. Manuscripts were treated like houses. Nobody had any compunction in adding, removing, or altering. When, in the lapse of centuries, the old writing became venerated and cherished as national literature, the names of traditional heroes were affixed to them, and a Moses, or a David, or a Solomon was believed to have penned histories, psalms, or proverbs for the benefit of posterity.
We have headed our paper with the question, “ Who wrote Genesis?” But, in answering this inquiry, we shall, as a matter of fact, have to decide the authorship of the first six books of the Bible, or
THE HEXATEUCH ;
that is to say, the Pentateuch (The Five “ Books of Moses ” ) and the book of Joshua. It will be our contention that at ¡east five persons, in various times and places, composed portions of the Hexateuch, and that other hands were concerned in arranging and piecing together these compositions. In our examination we shall rely upon the distinguished authority of
PROFESSOR S. K. DRIVER, D.D.,
Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, whose “ Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament ”* sums up, in a most interesting manner, the results of the latest Biblical criticism.
In the first place, we shall indicate the main elements, and then proceed to give reasons for viewing them as the work of distinct authors. They a re :— r. The Vahvist document. 2 . The Elohist document. 3. Deuteronomy. 4. The Law of Holiness. 5. The Priestly Code. Biblical critics find it convenient to use special letters as symbols of these five documents. The Yahvist (or Jahvist, or Jehovist) document is known as J ; the Elohist as E ; Deuteronomy as D ; the Law of Holiness as H ; and the Priestly Code as P. There is evident, among these documents, such a difference of style and language that it has been found possible to cut out the passages which belong to each and connect them intelligibly together, after allowing for gaps which have been made by the editors, who combined the manuscripts into the present Hexateuch, and who removed a verse here and a paragraph there in order to join the narratives into a continuous and readable whole. And yet these editors were unable to hide the real variety of their materials. The Hexateuch is like a mosaic pattern, in which the fragments
* I11 the “ International Theological Library ; ” 343 pp,, 12s., puli. |,y T . ami T . Clark.
are readily visible to the attentive eye. Let us now review the leading documents of the Pentateuch and book of Joshua in chronological order. We begin with
THE YAHVIST.
If the reader will turn to the book of Genesis, chapters xix. and xx., he will find certain episodes recounted in the life of Abraham. In the former chapter the story of Lot and the angels at Sodom, and the pillar of salt, is given ; and all throughout, in speaking of the divine being, the word “ Jehovah ” or “ Yahveh” is used, and is translated l o r d , (except in verse 29). The latter chapter tells of Abraham's denial of his wife to King Abimelech, and in this narrative the divine being is referred to as “ Elohim,” or God. Now, why should a writer thus change his terms, and speak of the divine being, in thirty or forty verses running, as “ Lord,” and then, in the next twenty verses, as “ God ” ? At once we are led to suspect that there are actually two writers at work. Let us, then, select from Genesis and the succeeding books those passages in which the name “ Yahveh ” or “ Jehovah ” (/'.
The Yahvist first appears in the second chapter of Genesis, verse 4, where he opens the story of the creation as if nothing had been said about it before :—“ The Lord God made earth and heaven. And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up ; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground ; but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul,” etc. (The Revised Version is here quoted.) I f we follow the steps of the Yahvist, we find that he has a singularly free and graphic way of portraying God—the Lord fashions, he breathes, he plants, he places, he takes, he sets, he brings, he builds, he walks, he repents, he goes down, he stands, he wrestles. The Yahvist delights to tell of marvels and picturesque incidents. It is he who describes the making of woman out of the body of the sleeping Adam, the eating of the forbidden fruit, the death of Abel, the sword-song of Larnech, the wickedness of the giants whose fathers were angels, the flight of the dove across the flood, the drunkenness of Noah, the tower of Babel, the adventure of Sarai at the court of Egypt, the wanderings of Hagar, the meal which Abraham prepared for the angels, the troubles of Lot in Sodom, the grossness of Lot’s daughters, Rebecca at the well, Isaac’s wells, the deceit of Jacob, his meeting with Rachel, his abounding flocks, his midnight wrestling with the angel, his reconciliation with Esau, the harlotry of Tamar, Joseph in the pit, the loss of the divining-cup, the pleading of Judah for Benjamin, the famine-policy of Joseph, the blessing bestowed on Jacob’s twelve sons, much of the history of the Ten Plagues, and the curious anecdote of the speaking ass. To the Yahvist
