140 of 145 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Explanation of the Documentary Hypothesis, January 23, 2005
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.
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85 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Light will be thrown . . . ", November 6, 2004
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 understandable form, Friedman has put the publisher to an immense task. Verse by the various authors are presented in varying fonts and colours in direct contrast to each other. A key to the sources is presented, which the reader would do well to review closely. It's the expression of Friedman's analytical prowess and dedicated scholarship. This book, as a reference, is hardly light reading, nor is it intended to be. It demonstrates fully the human basis of the collection. Authors draw on one another for material, then restate it in their own terms, or create new text where they feel omissions require explanation. Friedman dodges the question of "divine inspiration" adroitly, but it's clear The Book, revered by so many, is work of men's hands. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very handy reference work, July 1, 2004
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.
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