the Histoire of research on Pentateuque is the history of the critical and philological analysis of these texts, since the first handing-over in question of their attribution, until the recent theories and assumptions.

The first research

Although Philon of Alexandria (Of vita Mosis 1 § 84) allots to Moïse only the composition and the drafting partial of Pentateuque, the old traditions, Jewish and Christian, in general allot of it the total composition and the drafting to him. The account of died of Brace and its burial by God, in Deutéronome 34, poses a logical problem however. An answer is that Josué, the successor of Brace, had continued unfinished work (Talmud of Babylon, treaty Baba Bathra, 14b). In this line, Issac ibn Yasush at the 11th century and Abraham ibn Ezra at the 12th century drew up lists of post mosaïca , in which one observes for example that:

• Genèse 36,31 requires to have spent the time of monarchy
• Nombres 22,1 indicates Transjordanie like the country beyond the river, which requires to write since Canaan; however, Moïse is supposed not there not to be entered
• etc

Thereafter Baruch Spinoza in its Traité théologico-policy (1670) notices a unit between Pentateuque and the historical Books of Josué with Kings and concludes from it that it cannot be written by Moïse. It leans rather for Esdras, after the end of the Kingdom of Juda. The debate developed only at the 18th century.

Perimeter of the sources and diversity of the periods of drafting

When they locate logical ruptures of the account and observe a certain number of doubled blooms for other accounts, Henning Bernhard Witter (1683-1715) and Jean Astruc (1684 - 1766, doctor of Louis XV) works out each one on their side a theory of the sources of Pentateuque. Astruc publishes into 1753 of the Conjectures about the memories originals of which it paroit that Moyse was used for to compose the book of the Genesis . It locates 12 of them and particularly:

• the report has where God is named Elohim
• the report B where God is named YHWH

This work will be regarded as attacking Pentateuque , since he pretends to be unaware of the Unicity of Elohim and YHWH. There nevertheless, one holds the Embryon of the documentary Théorie.

Reading of the Bible in Europe at the XIXe century

The revival of the reading of the Bible (and either of only Pentateuque) in Europe at the XIXe century offers the context to this work.

See also: evolution of the reading of the Bible at the XIXe century

principal models

As a whole, the theories of the sources of Pentateuque answer 3 models of explanation:

• the documentary Theories : Several narrative screens of times and different place of drafting tell the same intrigue with prospects ideological and theological different are joined together by successive writers.

See also: documentary Theory

• the assumption of the complements : a very small core would have been rewritten and would have received many complements by many authors. This model could not be essential and was rejected as of the 19th century because it does not give an account of the many parallel screens like editorial units.
• the assumptions of the fragments : a great number of narrative and legislative texts scattered and are isolated, without narrative continuity. They are joined together by several writers who gives them a chronological framework.

The documentary theory question the drafting of the Pentateuque by Brace by showing that it is composed of a compilation of different and older theological traditions.

posterity of this methodology

See also: History deuteronomist

companies of biblical literature

The interdisciplinarity and internationalization quickly became the keys of research. (to be followed)

Biblical Archeology

Biblical archeology is rested by the American churches néo-Protestant women in the project to give archaeological evidence to the biblical accounts and to feed the Concordisme. The floret as of these archeologists is William A. Allbright. The theological results are not awaited exactly but the archeology of the the Middle East experiences a development without similar under the push of British, American and German teams.

posterity

detailed article Archeology in the Middle East

The good-bye in Yahwiste

It is a European theory (German and Swiss researchers, especially) developed by John Van Seters and others like Thomas Römer and Albert de Pury. It dynamites the preceding theories, creating a debate even more interesting. Perhaps the yahwist est=il only one priest? A consensus growing meets around the idea that the accounts relating to the patriarchs and Moïse were not dependant before the drafting of the sacerdotal code

See also: end of Yahwiste

,

See too

• documentary Assumption

• History deuteronomist

External bonds

• What' S Happened to the " Yahwist"?: Reflections after Thirty Years by Rolf Rendtorff
• tradition against biblical research on the site Religious Tolerance
• Let us return the Bible to traditional Antiquity by André Paul, Historien, biblist and theologist.
• Article of Thomas Römer formation of Pentateuque * An archaeological second reading of the Bible
• François Lenormant, the account of the Bible, Old story of the East (to the medic wars), (9th edition), T.I: “Races and languages”, ED. A. Levy, Paris, 1881, Chapter I, pp. 4-16.

Random links:

1057 | Lake Texcoco | Vernois-lès-Belvoir | Georges Aleka Damas | Al Ahly (handball)