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The Fundamentals. reached by the higher critics. It is concerning the analysis of the Pentateuch, or rather of the Hexateuch, the Book of Joshua being included in the survey. “The Hexateuch is a composite work whose origin and history may be traced in four distinct stages: (1) A writer designated as J. Jahvist, or Jehovist, or Judean prophetic historian, composed a history of the people of Israel about 800 B. C. (2) A writer designated as E. Elo- hist, or Ephraemite prophetic historian, wrote a similar work some fifty years later, or about 750 B. C. These two were used separately for a time, but were fused together into JE by a redactor [an editor], at the end of the seventh century. (3) A writer of different character wrote a book constituting the main portion of our present Deuteronomy during the reign of Josiah, or a short time before 621 B. C. This writer is designated as D. To his work were added an introduction and an appendix, and with these accretions it was united with JE by a second redactor, constituting JED. (4) Contemporane ously with Ezekiel the ritual law began to be reduced to writ ing. It first appeared in three parallel forms. These were codified by Ezra not veiy much earlier than 444 B. C., and between that date and 280 B. C. it was joined with JED by a final redactor. Thus no less than nine or ten men were engaged in the production of the Hexateuch in its present form, and each one can be distinguished from the rest by his vocabulary and style and his religious point of view.” Such is the analysis of the Pentateuch as usually stated in this country. But in Germany and Holland its chief represen tatives carry the division of labor much further. Wellhausen distributes the total task among twenty-two writers, and Kuen- en among eighteen. Many others resolve each individual writer into a school of writers, and thus multiply the numbers enor mously. There is no agreement among the higher critics con cerning this analysis, and therefore the cautious learner may well wait till those who represent the theory tell him just what it is they desire him to learn.
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