I’ve been trying to write this for some time – maybe even since high school. In high school I read Who Wrote The Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman and felt closer to Jewish wisdom than ever before.See, I’ve never believed Torah dropped from Heaven into Moses’ hands. I believe it is a sacred text, but in what way has always been a matter of changing interpretation.
Marrying historical approaches to Torah with more traditional takes on the text was one of the reasons I applied to graduate school in the first place. How can historical criticism and archeology reinvigorate Torah study? How can science enliven narrative?
What I’m talking about, of course, is Documentary Hypothesis. Documentary Hypothesis is just that, a possible answer to the question, who wrote the Hebrew Bible? By the mid-17th century, there were some sizable doubts surrounding Mosaic authorship. But if Moses didn’t write the Torah, who did?
Almost everything I’ve learned about this approach I’ve learned from Professor Joel Baden from Yale University (Hi Professor!). This is very roughly what it says: The Torah is a compilation of four different sources (and maybe five if you count the compiler). The sources have different versions of key stories, different names for places and people, different names for G-d, and different priorities. They even have different writing styles. And, these documents were at some time, pieced together into what we call The Torah/Five Books of Moses/The Pentateuch. So, mosaic authorship, but in another way.
Here’s the thing, the compiler(s) preserved the different versions and names and places in the very structure of the text. So much so, that even the first story of the entire Torah – that’s right, creation – has two vastly different versions. Let me show you.
Creation 1: Genesis 1:1-2:3
In the beginning when G-d created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from G-d swept over the face of the waters. Then G-d said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And G-d saw that the light was good; and G-d separated the light from the darkness. G-d called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And G-d said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So G-d made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. G-d called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And G-d said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. G-d called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas. And G-d saw that it was good. Then G-d said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The Earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And G-d saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And G-d said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. G-d made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. G-d set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the Earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And G-d saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And G-d said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So G-d created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And G-d saw that it was good. G-d blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And G-d said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. G-d made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And G-d saw that it was good. Then G-d said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So G-d created humankind in his image, in the image of G-d he created them; male and female he created them.
G-d blessed them, and G-d said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” G-d said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. G-d saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the Earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day G-d finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So G-d blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it G-d rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Creation 2: Genesis 2:4-25
In the day that the Lord G-d made the Earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the Earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord G-d had not caused it to rain upon the Earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the Earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord G-d formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord G-d planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord G-d made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord G-d took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord G-d commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Then the Lord G-d said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord G-d formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord G-d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord G-d had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
If that was too much Torah for one sitting, I’ll recap some high points. In the first story, people were created last, and were created male and female at the exact same time in G-d’s image. In the second, Adam was created first, animals were created to keep him company (but they weren’t good enough at curing his loneliness), and Eve was created from his side (was Adam the first mother? Another take for another time). In the first story, there is no Garden of Eden. In the second, there is. In the first story, we get Shabbat and creation in six days. In the second, nope. And there are many more differences (not to mention the serpent and the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, etc…which we didn’t even get to).
According to Documentary Hypothesis, the reason for these two versions is simple as pie – they are just two versions of a creation myth, from different groups of people under the Israelite umbrella – maybe even from different times throughout the development of peoples and their culture. The more interesting thing is, that they are both preserved, one after another, at the beginning of the Torah. The compiler didn’t choose which was better, but united them, like an anthology.
Ok, I’ll give you a few more concrete examples of different versions of the same thing:
Moses’ father-in-law is called Reuel in Exodus 2:18 and Jethro in Exodus 3:1. There are two versions of Jacob being renamed Israel, in Genesis 32:29 and Genesis 35:10. Aaron apparently dies in two different places, Mount Hor in Numbers 20:23-29 and Moserah in Deuteronomy 10:6. Look them up and see!
The point of this essay is not to convince you of Documentary Hypothesis, or even to teach it to you in full. I have definitely not done that. If you want to learn more about it, I highly recommend Professor Joel Baden’s book, The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis.
The point of this essay is to claim the following: the Torah was born, already in conversation with itself. It was born, already unresolved in how to tell the story. Or rather, it was born with an understand that “the story” doesn’t mean one version. The Torah, even when bound and held up as one object, is radically discordant. And truth is ripe for spiritual and communal picking.
Let’s go a little bit further. As I argued in my essay, Does The Torah Really Say Don’t Be Gay?, the different sources also had different motivations or goals. For example, the source called the Priestly source or, P, for short, is very concerned with the laws of the priests (and is a bit more monotone than the other sources, if I do say so myself). And the source called the Elohist source, or E, which may be more interested in the role of dreams than the other sources. Now, sure, we can’t know exactly what happened with the compiler or compilers when these texts were put together around the 400s BCE. But I’d like to think that their unique personalities and anxieties and priorities were preserved. And just like today’s global Jewish community, our priorities and anxieties and personalities differ, too. Even contradict. Even drastically, sometimes.
In Torah’s composition we find a reflection of Jewish life. Discord and contradiction. It is almost as if it is in our DNA to be a compiled people. Not only the Torah but we were never cut from one cloth.
So how can this inform Torah study today? What if, when reading parashat hashavuah (the weekly Torah portion) we reached for historical criticism as well as Rashi? Or maybe we can find meaning in the the overlap of priorities – what do the sources agree? Might there be extra importance to be found there? To me, bringing Torah study into the 21st century means also embracing a historical approach.
Finally, a word about sanctity. I believe Torah is sacred because when we engage with it, in chevruta, we allow for the shechinah to join us – a divine energy or spark, if you will. It is that fabulous spark that you get when you learn something new or make a new connection. I also think Torah is sacred because through its study, we become eternal and infinite, like a node connecting the Jewish people through time and space. Like the blessing for after the reading of the torah:
Blessed are You, Eternal One, our God, Sovereign of the world, who has given us a Torah of truth, and planted in our midst eternal life. Blessed are You, Eternal One, who gives the Torah.
I do not believe embracing historical criticism makes Torah any less sacred. And I pose the following question to you: how might considering historical approaches even increase the great life-bringing power of our central words?
Sources:
Baden, Joel S. The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis (Yale University Press, New Haven; 2012)
Collins, John J. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Second Edition (Fortress Press, Minneapolis: 2014)
Also, if you want to learn more, this is an interesting starting place