Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jeremy Sasser" <jeremy AT fish.pair.com>]

In the introduction of Genesis in The NIV Study Bible:

 

During the last two centuries some scholars have claimed to find in the Pentateuch four underlying sources.  The presumed documents, allegedly dating from the tenth to the fifth centuries B.C., are called J (for Jahweh/Yahweh, the personal OT name for God), E (for Elohim, a generic name for God), D (for Deuteronomic) and P (for Priestly).  Each of these documents is claimed to have its own characteristics and its own theology, which often contradicts that of the other documents.  The Pentateuch is thus depicted as a patchwork of stories, poems and laws. However, this view is not supported by conclusive evidence, and intensive archaeological and literary research has undercut many of the arguments used to challenge Mosaic authorship.

 

Whatyathunk?? :-)