BOOK X GENESIS and SAMUEL – under the spotlight
What do theological students do at theological colleges? The following may give you some insights into the work theological and bible colleges undertake on behalf of the churches that abrogate their responsibility to teach their people about the Bible.
A typical question the students may be asked to research could be something like the following: “Examine the double or multiple accounts in Genesis and 1 Samuel and determine whether some biblical scholars are correct in seeing them as just single events that are turned into double or multiple events. These single events are embellished by different authors then put back into a primary document like Genesis or I Samuel”. Determine the truth or otherwise
…show more content…
They say that there are editors, termed redactors, who have placed portions of documents about the same event
• either side by side as for example Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:4a (from the E source which uses the Word God or Elohim) with Genesis 2:4b to Genesis 2:23 (from the J source which uses the word LORD or the Tetragrammaton, יהוה)
• or in close proximity by interweaving them as for example Genesis 6 -- 9 to produce a continuous narrative from Genesis to Deuteronomy. This is commonly known as the Documentary or JEDP hypothesis. These source critics claim, with a reasonable amount of accuracy, to be able to identify each of the sources in the text.
The Documentary hypothesis has been subjected to close scrutiny by Umberto Cassuto (1883 – 1951). He subjected the five pillars supporting the entire structure to close analysis and dismissed them. The five pillars are:
(a) Use of different names for the Deity
(b) Variations of language and style
(c) Contradictions and divergences of
…show more content…
Some of these are O.T. Allis, E.J. Young, W.H. Green, R.D. Wilson and James Orr. While dismissing this way of analysing the Pentateuch, one is not necessarily denying that some sources were used in the compilation of Genesis. All one is saying is that the text as it now stands is not capable of objective division.
(ii) The Phenomenon in 1 Samuel
In examining 1 Samuel, a case appears to be presented for accepting that the present work is compiled from sources. There is biblical evidence that the compiler of I and II Samuel (originally one work) either
• used a source like 1I Samuel 1:18 indicates: (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher).
• or used multiple sources. I Chronicles 29:29 says: Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer and in the book of Nathan the prophet and in the book of Gad the seer.
However, can the individual sources be distinguished?
Two typical analyses by scholars shall be