The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 13 subject some remarkable results are brought out, the most important of which relate to the very foundation upon which the theories concerning the fragmentary character, of the Pentateuch are based. The most prominent clue to the docu mentary division is derived from the supposed use by different writers of the two words, “Jehovah” and “Elohim,” to des ignate the deity. Jehovah was translated in the Septuagint by a word meaning “Lord”, which appears in our authorized version in capitalized form, “LORD.” The revisers of 1880, however, have simply transliterated the word, so that “Je hovah” usually appears in the revision wherever “LORD” ap peared in the authorized version. Elohim is everywhere trans lated by the general word for deity, “God.” Now the original critical division into documents was made on the supposition that several hundred years later than Moses there arose two schools of writers, one of which, in Judah, used the word “Jehovah” when they spoke of the deity, and the other, in the Northern Kingdom, “Elohim.” And so the critics came to designate one set of passages as belonging to the J document and the other to the E document. These they supposed had been cut up and pieced together by a later editor so as to make the existing continuous narrative. But when, as frequently occurred, one of these words is found in passages where it is thought the other word should have been used, it is supposed, wholly on theoretical grounds, that a mistake had been made by the editor, or, as they call him, the “redactor,” and so with no further ceremony the objec tion is arbitrarily removed without consulting the direct tex tual evidence. But upon comparing the early texts, versions, and quota tions it appears that the words, “Jehovah” and “Elohim, were so nearly synonymous that there was originally little uni formity in their use. Jehovah is the Jewish name of the deity, and Elohim the title. The use of the words is precisely like that of the English in referring to their king or the
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker