Posted: May 24, 2015 6:33 am
NamelessFaceless wrote:I recently read a most excellent book called Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliot Friedman. It's a detailed explanation of the Documentary Hypothesis and Friedman gives his explanations on who he believes wrote each source, and even who was the most likely redactor that combined the four sources into a single compilation. In some cases he even names names, although I don't want to spoil it for you.
Anyway, he explains in detail why sometimes Moses is the hero and sometimes Aaron is the hero and it really makes a lot of sense.
There are various people who've written about the DH. It's fairly generally accepted now that the OT "history" was written from oral tradition, during the middle of the first millennium BCE, and that it was put together by priests.
Here's some further info: In his Prolegomena to the History of Israel, Wellhausen refers to the hypothesis suggested by Leopold George, Wilhelm Vatke, and Eduard Reuss who he calls “disciples of Martin Leberecht de Wette (1780-1849), the epoch-making pioneer of historical criticism in this field.”
Here's another easy read on the subject: Dr Jason Long, Biblical Nonsense.
Regarding Moses,as I said in my earlier post, the clues are there, in Genesis that it was written much later than the events that people believe. I'm not at home, I'll get some sources when I'm back next week.