Reading the Torah
To understand the Torah, it is helpful to begin with a brief history of ancient Israel. If you haven’t done so yet, read our review here.
Sources making up the Torah
Most countries have their own national identity, myths, stories, holidays and legends. These traditions serve to unite the country with a common history, set of values, culture, and self-understanding. Even countries that share a common heritage (like England, Canada, and the United States) developed different icons to express their different national identities. For example, the British have the Magna Carta and “God Save the King;” Canadians celebrate a bilingual country and a Charter of Rights and Freedoms; while Americans have the War of Independence, the Star-Spangled Banner, and Uncle Sam. Naturally the Brits and Americans have very different understandings of the War of Independence or the War of 1812.
Similarly, although Judah and Israel claimed to worship the same god, they grew to have some differences in the way their understanding of God emerged. The five books that we consider the Torah or the first books of the Hebrew scriptures come from a number of different sources. Different themes, different names, and national heritage all help us to better read and understand these books.
While exiled in Babylon after 589 BCE, the Jewish priests began to compile the various written and oral traditions of their faith into the Hebrew Scriptures we have today. Their goal was to compile a collection of their stories, teachings, and history to keep their culture and religion alive during the exile. Eventually Persia conquered Babylon. King Cyrus of the Persians allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Palestine about 50 years later, in 538 BCE with their newly collected and written book of scripture. There were a few books of the Hebrew Scriptures not yet written (namely Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ruth, and Jonah) but the exiled returned with much of the Hebrew Scriptures in the basic form and organization that we find them in today.
To compile the Torah, the priests had 4 different sources available to them. As a group, they worked to merge these various stories and literature into a single statement of their faith:
- The written history of the Southern Kingdom of Judah with its emphasis on the worship of Yahweh (Because the “Yah” sound is spelt with a “J” in German and Yittish, German scholars called this history the Yahwist, or the “J Source.”)
- The written history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel as recorded by the refugees arriving in Judah (Because this source emphasized the name “Elohim” for God, it is called the Elohist the “E Source.”)
- Stories, editorials, and other content made up by the priests themselves to offer further instruction in the Jewish faith (this source is known as the Priestly or “P Source.”) P is also seen as the source for the Books of Chronicles which is part of the Kithuvim.
- An alternative history to the dominant cultural narrative that emerged independent of the other three sources. Because this is a “second” version of the law, it has become known as the Deuteronomic or “D Source.” The D source also seems to be the primary source for the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Jeremiah.
Let’s look more closely at these four different sources…
The traditions of Judah or the Jahwist (J)
In Hebrew there are two different words for god:
- Elohim (אֱלֹהִים)–Is a generic plural word for god (or in fact any god) and seems to have been more common in Israel. In English bibles, we’ll see this word translated as “God.”
- YHWH (יהוה)–Is the name which God apparently gave to Moses in the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3.13. In English bibles it is translated as “Lord” in small caps. This word is so special to Jews, even today, Jews almost never pronounce it outloud. Instead they replace it with the Hebrew word “adonai” (אֲדֹנָי) which is usually translated as “Lord”. To make sure that they don’t accidentally say it when reading scripture, many version of the Torah will replace the vowels (which in Hebrew are usually represented by the dots and small dashes under the consonants) with the vowels from adonai*.
*This merging of YHWH with the vowels from adonai create a new syncretic word: YaHoWaiH. Because so many Jews have German roots, and so many biblical scholars were German, they tended to use German phonetics to name and pronounce words. Since the letter “Y” in German is pronounced with a “J” sound and the letter “W” is pronounced with a “V” sound, some religious groups have incorrectly used this mismash of letters to give God the name, “Jehovah.”
The scriptural tradition used in Judah almost always uses YHWH to represent the name of God. Because of German phonetics, we generally refer to scripture attributed to this source as “J.”
The traditions of Israel, or the Elohist (E)
The scriptural tradition of the northern kingdom of Israel uses “Elohim” as the name for God throughout Genesis and only begins using YHWH after Exodus 6. For this reason this source is often referred to as “E” or the Elohist.
There are other differences as well. The Elohist is much less focused on Jerusalem as the centre of Jewish religion (since Jerusalem was located in Judah). It sets more stories and traditions in the northern parts of ancient Israel. There is a higher use of the phrase, the “fear of God.” Mount Horeb, instead of Mount Sinai, is where God revealed the ten commandments. There is a heightened emphasis on dreams as a source of divine inspiration.
The E tradition seems to be a collection of independent stories and traditions rather than a unified book of scripture. It is suggested that refugees from the northern kingdom who fled to Judah after its fall to Assyria were responsible for writing down the stories and oral traditions of the northern kingdom.
The editing of the Priests (P)
The priests who were exiled to Babylon seem to be ones who were responsible for first writing down the oral history, teachings, stories, and legends of their people. Because they had no idea of how long the captivity would last, or if they would be allowed to maintain their faith and culture, they felt it was important to record what they could to try and preserve the Jewish identity of their people.
In this way, they took the sources from the Yahwist and Elohist and edited them together. However, they also added their own values and teachings into the mix. In this way, they tried to help their people not only remember their history, but also live, honour, and celebrate it.
For example, while the Jahwist already had a creation story (Genesis 2.4b-25), the Priests added Genesis 1.1-2.4a as a second creation story. Although both stories are very different in their narrative, they share some common themes:
- The world was created to be good.
- Humans have a special place in creation and responsibility for it.
- Not one thing exists that wasn’t created by God.
But the Priestly story sets its narrative in the structure of creating the universe in six days with the conclusion that, “God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation” (Genesis 2.3). This is intended to be an instruction and directive that even in exile, Jews should remember and honour the Sabbath as a way of setting them apart from their captors.
The Deuteronomist (D)
A fourth source exists in the Torah. This source is responsible for writing most of book of Deuteronomy and as such is called the Deuteronomist. D also shares common themes with the prophetic books of Joshua, Judges, Samule, Kings, and Jeremiah. D does not seem to have had any role in the writing or editing of the other four books of the Torah.
D is generally viewed as being a work produced by priests from the northern kingdom who fled to Judah around the time of the Assyrian conquest. This source tradition may have emerged at a time when Assyria was in rapid decline and the people of Judah had new nationalistic aspirations to reassert their independence. It seems to have had support from the Jewish aristocracy (known as “people of the land”). Key features were the removal of the worship of all other gods besides YHWH, making YHWH the monarch and replacement for the Assyrian king,