The Bible with Sources Revealed

The Bible with Sources Revealed: A New View into the Five Books of Moses by Richard Elliott Friedman is a very helpful book for students of the Bible. Friedman's opening two chapters are amazingly succinct. In a very few pages, Friedman lays out an incredibly compelling case for what is known as the Documentary Hypothesis. This is the widely accepted theory that the first five books of the Bible are a compilation of four main documents, known by the letters J, E, P, and D, which were woven together by later editors known as Redactors. After the introductory material, the book is a translation of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In his chapter, "Collection of Evidence," Friedman catalogs the seven main arguments for accepting the Documentary Hypothesis. They fall into these categories: linguistic, terminology, consistent content, narrative flow, connections with other parts of the Old Testament, relationships among the sources, and convergence of the evidence. I find Friedman's explanation clear and convincing. What does it matter whether you buy into the idea that sources by J, P, E, and D form the Pentateuch? Because, if you are somewhat familiar with this concept, certain "problems" with the text suddenly become clear as you read the new English translation that follows Friedman's opening chapters. By using two different ink colors (blue and green) and a variety of fonts, average Bible readers like you and me can easily understand various contradictions and redundancies in the text. The four strands are clearly set off, thanks to the wonders of modern technology in printing. Here's an example of how seeing the sources helps you understand what's going on in the Bible texts. The story of Noah's ark is told in Genesis, chapters 6 through 9. Both J and P originally told the story. The Redactors blended these two accounts. With The Bible with Sources Revealed, I learned that in the P version there is only one pair of each animal, whether pure or impure. See Genesis 6:19-20; 7:8, 9 15. In P, there are no sacrifices until the establishment of the Tabernacle in Exodus 40, so two of each animal is sufficient. However, J specifies seven pairs of pure and one pair of impure (see Genesis 7:2, 3.) This fits with the fact that in the J account, Noah will offer sacrifices at the end of the flood, so he needs more than two of each animal--or else his sacrifice would end a species. Friedman's footnotes clarify such differences throughout the Pentateuch. Friedman's translation is unique because the text is so clearly marked in terms of sources. You won't be disappointed.

Why is the Bible so hard to read? The answer lies in the Documentary Hypothesis, conceived over a hundred years ago. This book presents a comprehensive collection of evidence supporting this theory, all in a concentrated format in the first 31 pages. The rest of the book presents the author's translation of the Torah (1st 5 books of the Bible), coded to alleged authorship, with extensive footnotes & explanations. What a job! The short version is as follows: "J" wrote a story representative of Southern Judean interests. "E" wrote one about Northern Israeli interests. When the North and the South united, the Priests in charge could not get rid of either well known document, so he (they) wrote "P", making the story more to his (their) liking. King Josiah "took charge" at age 8. Because of his age, he was heavily influenced by the priests. After he attained young adulthood, the main priest conveniently found "D" (mainly a set of laws) that so impressed the young king that he had the whole tome read aloud to the masses. All these sources and editions were put together by an editor, called the "Redactor" into the final 5-book work. The Redactor may have been Ezra, a priest of the Second Temple after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon. Evidence for this elaborate theory consists of differences in linguistics, terminology, content, narrative flow, connections with other parts of the Bible, relationships among the sources to each other and to history, and convergence (several different lines of evidence converge). This data is fascinating, well-presented, and quite convincing. The above is my light summary of the Documentary Hypothesis. The heart and soul of the book, however, is in the text of the Torah itself, which is color coded. This makes it quite convenient to read each source individually as a flowing text. When read in this fashion, the improvement in continuity is striking. The footnotes are helpful in bringing out political considerations of the authors and the Redactor. Friedman is also the author of "Who Wrote the Bible", a book which creates a mystery out of the authorship delimma. That book I also recommend, and suspect a person who likes one book would like the other. The book under review here appears to be the definitive work on the Documentary Hypothesis. It belongs in the library of anyone interested in the Bible, with the possible exception of literal interpreters, and I recommend it highly.

Centuries of copying, moving, editing and tinkering have caused monotheism's "holy book" to viewed with some doubt. The "Hebrew Bible", or Torah, transmogrified into the "Old Testament" by Christianity, is the fundamental origin of the faith of millions. Once thought to be authored by Moses, who would have had to pen much of it after his death, scholarship finally concluded that The Book was the work of many authors. Friedman has done an outstanding job of sorting out who [at least in the abstract] produced the texts accumulated into what was known as The Books of Moses. A proponent of the Documentary Hypothesis, he has lined out with vivid clarity which author created which text of The Book. In his Introduction, Friedman insists that whatever interpretation of authorship is to be followed, it must be based on evidence. This challenges the idea that "faith" is sufficient support for how the authorship of this anthology should be viewed. Empirical evidence, he argues, is the only solid basis to consider in assessing origins. To perform this feat, he has accumulated "the largest collection of evidence ever assembled". He then presents the source texts to demonstrate their artistry, their notions of the divine, the history of their nation and how they view humanity. The books, he notes, were assembled from sources as any historical rendering should be done. He identifies the authors by letter designations, mostly arbitrary, but clearly distinct. Each author has an identifiable reference in time and place. The first two, "J" and "E", and their editor ["redactor"] "RJE" are scribes from the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. "J" is a resident of the southern kingdom of Judah, while "E" is an Israelite priest in the north. Their use of the name of the deity, Yahweh or Elohim respectively, is the major clue to the author. Using these sources, the "RJE" editor compiled their work after the Assyrian conquest of Israel. A third author, "P" follows, probably in the 6th or 5th century, who added much on the law and stories of creation, exile and captivities. The final author, "D" composed the book of Deuteronomy, which assembled the "J" and "E" sources and covered the last acts of Moses. Friedman lists seven methods of analysis he used in compiling and evaluating the material to determine authorship. These are: Linguistic, which reflects the variations of Hebrew over the centuries; Terminology, the use of words and phrases by the various authors; Content, which includes the names of the deity and various sacred objects; Continuity, in which the "narrative flow" is revealed by separating the texts and re-reading them for stylistic indicators; Connections, parallels in or between various Books; Relationships, placing the texts in historical context; and Convergence, showing how different lines of evidence come together. It was clearly a monumental task Friedman has undertaken and achieved. In presenting this mass of material in understandabl

This is exactly what I wished I had when I was first getting into Biblical studies - a Pentateuch with the J, E, P and D sources all colour-coded!A word of caution, though. Friedman's own most recent book, "The Hidden Book in the Bible", makes a very good argument that the J source and the "Court History" in the book of Kings were written by the same authour. So if you want the whole text of J, you may have to consult that as well.

This is the best new research published on the origins of the five books of Moses in some time. As most anyone interested in biblical scholarship is aware the five books of Moses comprise the Torah and the number of Hebrew letters in the Torah has always remained the same since it was first recorded into its present form. Thus one can be assured that when you read the bible(whether it be the Hebrew, Catholic or King James) you are receiving the same stories, with some translation difference in English. The question this book delves into is the question of how the Torah came to be and why so many contradictions and repetitions appear in the five books of Moses. As an example; why is the story of the creation of earth told twice? This author is at the forefront of biblical(old testament) scholarship by showing that in fact the five books of Moses are most likely a series of different books combined and then redacted into one form. There is the Books of J and E and then there are additions and some commentary in a book of D(Deuteronomy) and a further layover of the Redactor who brought these varied books together. The argument here is relatively simple, if far fetched for those not familiar with it, namely that two bibles existed in ancient Israel Books J and E. These most likely were due to the civil war between the two Jewish states(Southern and Northern). The author presents his case clearly, if briefly, and explains that these two books were combined to form the beginning of the modern day Torah. Yet the chapter of Leviticus was later edited to be made mostly a legal diatribe on the Rabbinical Priesthood, while Deuteronomy was edited to be put in line with Samuel and the god/Israel relationship. A redactor was able to combine these varied plots and lobby's to create the text we know to be the Torah and the one that we know to be correct, one that has existed for three thousand years(plus or minus a few hundred). No other religious book comes close to the Torah in its exactness, for instance the New testament is retranslated and seemingly changed every few decades. Rest assured this book is a revolutionary look at the origins of monotheism but a quick flip through and you will see this is a must have as a companion to any biblical research. A must have and a joy to read this will open your eyes to biblical scholarship and shed light on the imprint man has given the interpretation of God. An essential work by an eminent scholar. Seth J. Frantzman