Genesis

(Waltke, 22) Today, the Documentary Hypothesis, or the JEDP hypothesis, is the most commonly held view for how Genesis, and much of the Pentateuch, was written. The Documentary Hypothesis was proposed by Julius Wellhausen, a German scholar, in the late 1800's. It proposed that Israel's history was written in four stages that could be discerned based on slight differences in the writing style and word use. The four stages are described as:.
             J. A history using Yahweh as the principal name for God, written in the time of Solomon or shortly thereafter.
             E. A history using Elohim as the principal name for God, written around 750 B.C.E.
             D. A history influenced by the finding of the Book of Deuteronomy during the reign of Josiah (621 B.C.E.). This history is generally dated around 550 B.C.E.
             P. A history written by the priests around 450 B.C.E., adding legal materials related to worship and genealogical lists. (Tullock, 10).
             In Genesis, this difference mainly occurs with the name used for God throughout many of the stories.
             Genesis is presented as a historical work. Starting with the creation of the world, it recounts the primeval history of humanity and the early history of the people of Israel. By examining the text, theologians describe Genesis as being composed of two main parts "Chapters 1-11, the Creation, the Fall, and the consequences of the Fall; and Chapters 12-50, the patriarchs or ancestors of Israel - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph" (Tullock, 37). Both parts contain the beginnings of Israel's history, laws, customs, and legends that have been combined into this single book in a series of ten genealogies. The first five genealogies are known as the Primeval Narratives as they contain stories of creation and the start of mankind; and the second five genealogies are known as the Patriarchal Narratives as they contain stories of the start of the people of Israel. Tullock describes the introduction of the ten genealogies as:.