The Deuternonomist Argument Essay

Since the eighteenth century, scholars have researched, “Who wrote the Pentateuch?”, and more specifically who was the author of Deuteronomy. The Documentary Hypothesis asserts that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, but was composed from four distinct narratives and woven together into one final version centuries after Moses had died. When these documents were put in chronological order, it appeared as the following:

The Yahwist (J)
The Elohist (E)
The Deuternonomist (D)
The Priestly Source (P)

JEDP is the acronym for the theory. Each of these letters represents a source of oral and written traditions about the history of Israel. The Documentary Hypothesis was developed in the 19th century by several scholars. One of the
Many modern scholars accept some version of this theory. One of the contemporary scholars who embraces this theory is Richard Elliot Friedman, as can clearly be seen in his book Who Wrote the Bible? He states that editors updated the books of Moses to eliminate what may have appeared to be conflicts or historical errors. In the process he tries to identify the authors of each JEPD source. Scandanavian scholar Ivan Engnell believes the whole Torah was passed along by word of mouth until the post-exilic period, when it was finally written down by one person. Another scholar Gerald A. Larue writes, “Back of each of the four sources lie traditions that may have been both oral and written. Some may have been preserved in the songs, ballads, and folktales of different tribal groups, some in written form in sanctuaries. The so-called ‘documents’ should not be considered as mutually exclusive writings, completely independent of one another, but rather as a continual stream of literature representing a pattern of progressive interpretation of traditions and history.” (Larue, Old Testament Life and