The Documentary Hypothesis

There is some truth to the Documentary Hypothesis insofar as, when you think about the process of transmission, the text comes to us after having been compiled over time & having been edited enough that we can see that the writer/editors (whoever they were) made scribal errors (thus showing signs of having been meticulously copied from source material — but not so meticulously copied that there are no signs of manual transmission.  

Put another way, the Bible is the written Word of God & simultaneously the product (as to its transmission from God’s mind to the earthly or even heavenly page) of a collaborative effort on the part of God & the authors & editors of the text.    Human beings make mistakes when copying one document to another by hand.    

The contention between those who positively affirm the Documentary Hypothesis & those whose views on it range from skeptical to adamant it is in error & ought to relegated to the dustbin of history strikes me as, in part, a failure in communication.   If the Fundamentalists would just sit down & listen to what the Liberals are saying, they might just realize that, given what we know about literature composed & compiled before the beginning of the Common Era, we should expect some signs that the text in our hands today was assembled by people who were deeply concerned about content — men like Ezra who was trying to assist and teach his (& God’s) People to avoid the wickedness, sorcery, and idolatry of past generations while at the same time    preserving their religious & cultural heritage given to them by a covenant keeping God who revealed Himself progressively over time.    

By way contrast, here in the 21st Century AD/CE now have a super stable set of preserved texts available to us. Our concerns are far more like those of Tyndale, Wycliffe, Erasmus who were concerned with accuracy (as best as possible), transmission, & public publication in the age of Bibles chained to pulpits & civil and ecclesiastical opponents of Sola Scriptura.   In addition, the rise of Classical Liberalism in both the churches & the Academy led the Classical Evangelicals to put aside differences (for a time) & work together, circling the wagons against the Encroaching Liberal menace to set forth a declaration of principles (The Fundamentals) & work to preserve & protect Evangelical Christian Theology. 

This movement splintered into what now consider Fundamentalism & (Neo) Evangelicalism.   Consequently, when the Documentary Hypothesis is colloquied or taught, the response among theological conservatives ranges from a willingness to listen & take the good & leave the bad to “Oh hell, nah!  Ain’t nobody got time for that!” 

This is all to say to Evangelicals & Fundamentalists, “Be honest, we know God is a God who uses means.  We also know that Stone, Bronze, & Iron Age civilizations & societies in the ANE changed hands or collapsed altogether.   Do any of us, deep down, really believe the narrative that the text as we have it today was written as if there is a Trail Of Tears reaching from Moses to the LXX &/or the Council of Jamnia as if there is a (mostly) unbroken golden chain of preserved texts positively traceable to Moses & Aaron in & around Sinai itself?”  

One of the reasons good (& bad) people get upset over this issue is a great many Evangelical & Fundamentalists have been indoctrinated & conditioned to look away &/or even avoid the issue altogether or perform our God-given duty to actively oppose & confute both it & its representative.   

That sort of conditioning makes having a rational conversation about the process of inscripturation & how the OT text in general came to be & how the Pentateuch in particular was authored & edited together & came to us have today difficult.   The Bible, by way contrast encourages us to take the good & leave the bad while abstaining from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:21$. 

Instead of relying on a theory of authorship that results in what amounts to a Wikipedia article that is easily refuted by “You know what, that very well might be true, but, like The Trail of Tears, the existence of Q (Quelle), & Rome’s propaganda about Petrine Primacy — that’s just a conspiracy theory unless you have some bona fide documentation to underwrite your claims,” we would be better off leaving the debate between the Documentary Hypothesis for another time & place.   Instead, let’s just accept that the text we have, as to its transmission is what it is.   Scripture itself & its inspiration, authoritative transmission, & preservation are not arbitrary processes.  Scripture tells us that the Word of God is sufficient for all faith & practice.  

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.  (2 Timothy 3:16–17, ESV)

When you think about, this discussion is similar to discussions & theologies about God’s immanence, transcendence, unity & diversity, immensity, & intensity.   The traditional POV leans toward God’s intensity & transcendence over His immensity & immanence and His unity over His diversity. The Non-Traditional POV (the principles underwriting the Documentary Hypothesis & their conclusions) trend toward God’s immensity over His intensity, His immanence over His transcendence, & His diversity over His unity. 

Since Romans 1:20 teaches us that the purpose of the created order is to testify & magnify God’s existence, attributes, & authority — and since God’s attributes are, simultaneously, both internally & externally harmonious by way of both the immanent Trinity & the economic Trinity — we ought to both look for & expect the truth about how the OT in general & the Pentateuch in particular came to be to reflect God’s image & authority in a manner that accurately reflects his perfectly symmetrical simultaneous unity & diversity.

With that in mind, what can we positively learn from the Documentary Hypothesis? 

J - Yahwist - The authors knew & believed, and clearly placed a high value understood the covenant (See our articles titled Covenant Theology In Outline Form).  This speaks to its monotheistic origin & overall authority in matters of faith & practice. 

E - Elohist - references to locations like Horeb instead of Sinai & Inc speak to the editors/authors’ concern for the inclusion of the their “lost” brothers & sisters (the 10 Tribes of Israel) who once comprised the Northern Kingdom.   

D - Deuteronomic - Repetition as to internal structure & content to said contents of Deuteronomy’s relation to the rest of the Pentateuch.    This speaks to its rationality & usefulness for teaching. 

P - Priestly / Levitical - Speaks the piety Scripture is intended to convey and engender. 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17, ESV)