This episode released a week early for Patreon subscribers. Happy New Year to all, and especially all of my wonderful subscribers here! After the holidays and an extended period of congestion, we’re back in the 570s BCE. I talk about the precious little archaeological evidence for the Torah outside of two magic scrolls, and the overall reasons scholars believe the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, were not only five individual books but also composed of multiple source texts. That’s right, today is the big introduction to the Documentary Hypothesis. There is a whole lot going on here, so I’ve provided some additional resources below for anyone interested in diving deeper, including a link to some helpful companion videos and a chart showing the way the Torah is divided by scholars.

Join the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BibleLorePodcast

David Carr’s video on the composition of the Pentateuch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myY62SoqLPk

A link to Joel Baden’s division of the Pentateuch rendered in KJV, and handy chart showing the composition of the Torah’s sources according to his division: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Bible/King_James/Documentary_Hypothesis

Paul Davidson’s video on Eden’s location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BceHNgc3dzg

Bibliography:

David Carr, ‘Genesis 1-11’;

David Carr, ‘The Formation of Genesis 1-11’;

Joel Baden, ‘The Composition of the Pentateuch’;

Konrad Schmid, ‘Genesis and the Moses Story’;

Marc van de Mieroop, ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’;

Stephanie Dalley, ‘Myths from Mesopotamia’;

Hallo, Younger, ‘The Context of Scripture, Vol. 1-3’;

Herodotus, de Sélincourt (translated by), ‘The Histories’;

Robert Alter, ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’;

Berlin, Brettler, et al, ‘The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition’;

Richard Friedman, ‘The Bible with Sources Revealed’;

https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-tower-of-babel-a-polemic-against-marduks-temple-esagil

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/inscriptions/miniature-writing-ancient-amulets-ketef-hinnom/

https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-decalogue-ten-commandments-or-ten-statements