Elohist

Diagram of the 20th century documentary hypothesis.

According to the documentary hypothesis, the Elohist (or simply E) is one of four source documents underlying the Torah,[4] together with the Jahwist (or Yahwist), the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source. The Elohist is so named because of its pervasive use of the word Elohim to refer to the Israelite God.

The Elohist source is characterized by, among other things, an abstract view of God, using Horeb instead of Sinai for the mountain where Moses received the laws of Israel and the use of the phrase "fear of God".[5] It habitually locates ancestral stories in the north, especially Ephraim, and the documentary hypothesis holds that it must have been composed in that region, possibly in the second half of the 9th century BCE.[5]

Because of its highly fragmentary nature, most scholars now question the existence of the Elohist source as a coherent independent document.[6] Instead, the E material is viewed as consisting of various fragments of earlier narratives that are incorporated into the Jahwist document.[7]

  1. ^ a b Viviano 1999, p. 40.
  2. ^ a b Gmirkin 2006, p. 4.
  3. ^ Viviano 1999, p. 41.
  4. ^ McDermott, John J., Reading the Pentateuch: A Historical Introduction (Pauline Press, 2002) p. 21. Via Books.google.com.au. October 2002. ISBN 978-0-8091-4082-4. Retrieved 2010-10-03.
  5. ^ a b Kugler & Hartin 2009, p. 48.
  6. ^ Carr 2014, p. 436.
  7. ^ Gnuse 2000, pp. 201−202.