documentary hypothesis

The documentary hypothesis (DH) proposes that the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, known collectively as the Torah or Pentateuch), represent a combination of documents from four originally independent sources: the J, or Jahwist, source; (The name Yahweh begins with a J in Wellhausen's native German).the E, or Elohist, source;the D, or Deuteronomist, source;the P, or Priestly, source. The editor who combined the sources into the final Pentateuch is known as R, for Redactor.
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