Page 11 - Genesis: Book of Beginnings and Science Behind it

called the “Documentary Hypothesis” and has been applied to Genesis and the other books of the
Pentateuch and to Joshua, also, to a lesser degree, to other books of the Old Testament. It is also called
the J, E, D, P Hypothesis. Each letter stands for a different period. J stands for “Jehovist Document,” and
they supposedly were written in 850 BC. The use of the divine name Jehovah marks them. The E stands
for the “Elohist Document,” dating to 750 BC. It is marked with the use of the divine name Elohim. The D
stands for “Deuteronomist Document,” and it was supposed to be a further editorial on the first two and
was written about 620 BC. The P stands for “Priestly Documents,” representing an editorial revision by a
group of Jewish priests around 500 BC.

Those who hold this peculiar notion attempt to justify it by supposed peculiarities of language and style,
references to customs and cultures, and other internal evidence, which seem to suggest to them this
patchwork approach to the study of the book’s compilation. No doubt, however, is their desire to hold
to their evolutionary ideas about man’s origin and development. Often, they cite the idea that writing
was not developed by Moses’ time, so it must have been written later. These often call themselves
higher critics and seem to focus on disputing the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Anthropologists have
disproven many of their claims, including discovering that writing appeared almost simultaneously in the
Indus Valley, Egypt, and Mesopotamia between 5000 and 6000 years ago. The time of Moses was only
about 3,500 years ago.

Many first-rate scholars have demonstrated that there is no real difference between the languages of
the four different documents to warrant the belief. It has been concluded that those theologians who
hold this view rely on extra-biblical information and subscribe to evolution and an old-earth view.

2. Moses as the Author
Probably most conservative scholars hold this view. This has been the uniform view of
both Jewish and Christian scholars. The first five books of the Bible are called the
Pentateuch and Torah, or the Law of Moses, in the Jewish tradition.

In Mark 12:26, Jesus said, “Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book
of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” In Luke 24:27, referring to Jesus’ post-
resurrection interaction with His disciples, we read, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He
explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” We find additional references
in 2 Corinthians 3:15 and John 1:45 as well.
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Assuming that Moses wrote the book, there are three basic thoughts about how this could have
occurred.

1. He received the words as a direct revelation from God and wrote them down. He received them
either as audible or visual images and then was guided by the Holy Spirit to write them down.
2. He received them as oral traditions handed down from father to son and then wrote them down by
the Holy Spirit.
3. He took actual written records of the past, collected them, and brought them together into a final
form again, as guided by the Holy Spirit.

The first two do not correlate with Scripture since visions and dreams are relegated to prophecy, such as
Daniel, Ezekiel, Revelation, etc. The direct dictation method was mainly used in the Ten
Commandments and the book of Leviticus, etc. Genesis is written in narrative form and is comparable

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