Message #168020

[Helios]

800 B.C. - Bible Authors - "During the nineteenth century, some German biblical scholars developed a critical method which discerned four different sources in the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These were later collated into the final text of what we know �as the Pentateuch during the fifth century BCE. This form of criticism has come in for a good deal of harsh treatment, but nobody has yet come up with a satisfactory theory which explains why there are two quite different accounts of key biblical events, such as the Creation and the Flood, and why the Bible sometimes contradicts itself. The two earliest biblical authors, whose work is found in Genesis and Exodus, were probably writing during the eigth century, though some would give them an earlier date. One is known as 'J' because he calls his God 'Yahweh,' the other 'E' since he prefers to use the more formal divine title 'Elohim.' By the eighth century, the Israelites had divided Canaan into two separate kingdoms. J was writing in the southern kingdom of Judah, while E came from the northern kingdom of Israel." [A History of God, Karen Armstrong, p. 12]