Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bearpecs AT aol.com]

In a message dated 1/27/02 3:17:35 AM Eastern Standard Time, yon_saf AT bezeqint.net writes:

> assuming, of course, that P is a
> unified source and all late. 


See Jacob Milgrom's commentary on Leviticus (Anchor Bible) for a great discussion of this question.  His conclusion (overly simplified) is that H is the older stratum, someone from the H school then redacted H and P together, and finally a post-exilic H scholar added bits and pieces and combined it all with JE and D.

> Today, we would not (I hope) decide such momentous matters as the Mosaic
> authorship of the Torah or the birthday of Jesus by majority vote, but by
> checking the evidence.


I'm not sure that the process is really any different today.  Two differing theories are put forward and eventually the preponderance of scholars agree with one rather the other.  The majority opinion then becomes the standard theory taught to upcoming scholars.  Is the difference between "dogma" and "scholarly consensus" a reality or just something we've invented?

Hayyim
[running for cover]