Monday, November 9, 2009

Biblical Criticism Study (2) The authorship of The Torah


bible011.blogspot.com The Arabic Translation by the same author . The Picture is for the Tabernacle which the Torah has described
    All the ideas of the critics ,were not familiar among the Christians, at the end of the eighteenth century ,until "J.G.Echhorn1*" published his book "Einleitung",1780-1783. At first he adopted the idea of "Astruc" ,about the authorship of the Torah by "Moses" , but he refused that idea later ,and denied any relation between "Moses" and the authorship of the "Torah" , but he adopted also the idea of the the two Elohitic origins E1,E2 ,and the Yahoatic origin J, he denied the Mosaic authorship especially in concern of the book of Exodus , because ( in his point of view ) it  was impossible to "Moses" to record some events before his birth at Ch1 and Ch2 .
      At the end of the eighteenth century "Karl David Ilgen 2*" published his book "Die Urkunden des Jerusalemischen Templarchivs"in 1798, and adopted the idea of the last two critics about the different origin of the book of Genesis,and added that the origins were 17 documents , and the writers were three persons, he called them J,E1,E2, so the Elohitic document referred to two writers, thus he paved the way ,in the future, to "H.Hupfeld 3*".
        It was famous at that time ,the arguments between those who accepted "Moses" as the author of the Torah, and those who denied that idea .
        "Alexander Gaddes 4*" was a Scotch  priest who wrote at 1792-1800 , to defeat against the "Memoirs" of "Astruc" and against the bad results of the "Documentary hypothesis Theories" ,and who denied the Mosaic authorship.
         Two German writers attacked him, the first one was "J.S.Voter 5*"who published his book "Commentar uber den Pentateuch,3Vol,1802-1805"to proclaim that there were 30document which were used as references to the Torah and that those documents  were used by the old cultural societies .
          The second man was "De Wette 6*" who published his book "Beitrage zur Einleitung in das Alts Testament",1807 comparing between the legal texts of the Torah and the legal texts which were familiar among the old nations , to assure later while he was preparing his message to the Doctorate degree ,1805  that the Torah reflected a modern ages than "Moses times, perhaps during ,or after the reign of "Joshia" 622 B.C ,he was influenced by the opinion of "Jerome" who said that  idea 1400 years before him ,So, he divided the Torah into three sections J,E,D (D was the same section which was called by "Elgen"  E2 ) .
           At the middle of the nineteenth century the critics began to try to find which origin was the oldest one , and which origin was the newest , "H .Ewald 7*" ,1831, suggested that the oldest one was E , but the newest one was J  , it was a kind of a folkloric writings (from his point of view) which were modernized from time to time using the contents of J to help them in creating a revised editions .
            "F.Bleek 8*" in his book "de libiri Genesis origine",1836, also "F.Tush 9*"1838, in his book "Genesis" paved the way for  "H.Hubfeld" at 1853 who began a new age of the documentary hypothesis age when he wrtote his book " 10*Die Qullen der Genesis undrie Artihrer Zusammensetzung" to revive the theory of "Ilgen" and developed it , he accepted the idea of "Ilgen" in concern of the three origins E1,E2,J ,suggesting that the oldest one was E1 and the newest one was J , but E2 was between them in date and it was recent to the two origins , but he added D as a fourth origin ( which  was called by other critics E , or P according to it priestly contents) .
             "E.Riehm 11*" adopted the same idea about the three origins E1-E2,J,D and recorded it in his book 12* "Die Gesetzgebung Mosis in Land Moab ", 1854 .
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The Image is for Qumran Caves where some old testament manuscripts were found
             "K.H.Graf" 1*has collected the total of the late critics views and added some of the views of "E.G.Reuss" 2*,"J.F.L.George 3*" and "W.Votke 4*" and published his thoughts without  adding any ideas from his owns except his view about P as the oldest origin instead of E1 , paving the way for "A.Kuenen 5*" 1869,followed by "Julius Van Weellhausen  6*" the most dangerous critics in the history of the Biblical Criticism.
              at the late period of the 19th century "Julius Van Wellhausen " has published his book "Die Komposition des Hexateuchs" his style was bold and explicit in criticize the matirials of the Torah.
              The title Komposition told us how he was bold and explicit in his criticism , he based his theory upon the unity of the six books Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers , Deuteronomy and Joshuah were in one book at a non specific point of the old history ,before it was divided after that date into six books, but during the period of their unity there were many sources , have been employed to revise that book ,using these documents E, J , D , P , these four letters are the symbols of his suggested sources, and some writers  ( R ) added from these documents some of its contents to that book along a definite date.
                He suggested that , J, was the oldest document at 850 B.C ( according to his assumption).
                At 750 B.C it was  E some writer  R  dealt with it and added some from its contents to the document J so it changed to be 1RJE
              At 621 B.C it was D another writer dealt with it and added some of its contents to the composed book to change it to be 2RJED ,that book was settled at 550 B.C .
              At last between 500 - 450 B.C another writer found the document P and added some of its contents to 2RJED to be 3RJEDP .
               Thus, the contents of his book contains a serious claims, he was affected by Matching between the Jewish religion history which has been recorded in the Torah,with what he thought it was the real history as the available data which was between his hands at his times, also he was influenced with the evolution theory of Charles Darwin at his days.
              This assumption have influenced with another assumption which was the Wellhausen's views about the  sort of thinking along the various periods of the history while we think that the periods were influenced with the Torah commandments.
               As for example he said that at a certain period the worship were central so the parts which recorde4d the central worship as it was belonged to that period was related to that period as if he thought that the commandments has written to report the actual happened events not what would happen in the future 
               The summary of his view is :- While the worship was based on a single sacrifice during the patriarchal ages in a family atmosphere without observance of rites and priestly duties, but the situation was developed to offer the sacrifice by priests due to the priestly duties, on a private alter, any person had not authority to change it's place, or it's rites , that was due to his opinion at a later period after the exile, so these parts have been related to that period.
              The theory of Wellhausen tended to divide every thing up for different periods of growth for the thoughts as the successive assumed theory of Darwin.
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leave a comment .                                                  Dr, Rev.Joseph.

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