1.A 03. Some Discrepancies

Some Discrepancies As a brief illustration of this let us look at the discrepancies which we noted in the Flood story. In Genesis 6:19 Noah is bidden to take two animals of every kind, and we note that this instruction occurs in a passage in which the speaker is God, that is, Elohim (Genesis 6:13). In Genesis 7:2 there is the instruction to take sevens of the clean beasts and twos of the unclean beasts and we note that this instruction occurs in a passage in which the speaker is the LORD, that is, Jehovah (Genesis 7:1). Further we note that the passage which says that the beasts went into the ark two by two is a passage in which the divine name is God, that is, Elohim (Genesis 7:9). This is an illustration of how the two documents were put together, and how in their earlier sections they can be distinguished by the name of God which each of them uses.

J, the document which calls God Jehovah from the very beginning, is one of the supreme religious documents of the world’s literature. H. H. Rowley says of it; "The literary genius of its author will make it live, if only as literature, so long as men read literature." It thinks and speaks of God with a lovely childlike simplicity. Jehovah, makes man from the dust of the earth and breathes life into his nostrils (Genesis 2:7). He makes woman, man’s partner, from a rib taken from man (Genesis 2:22). Jehovah plants a garden and walks in it in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). When Noah has embarked Us cargo and himself safely into the Ark, Jehovah shuts the door after him (Genesis 7:16). There never has been any book which has spoken with such a lovely, childlike simplicity about God. When we further study this document called J, we find that it is specially interested in Judah and in the Southern Kingdom of Israel. It is in Hebron that Abraham dwells, and it is to Hebron that the spies go when they enter the land, and in the story of Joseph it is Judah who is the leading figure. We, therefore, may say that this document is the document which was produced in the land of Judah and in the Southern Kingdom to tell of the early history of Israel. The document which is called E, as we have seen, does not call God Jehovah until after the revelation of that name of Moses. That is why in the Pentateuch we find one line of thought which says that, although Abraham and the patriarchs knew God, they did not know Him by His name Jehovah., and another Hne of thought in which the name Jehovah is used from the days of Eve. E does not begin with creation; it begins with Abraham. It is not so simple and childlike as J is; it is specially interested in dreams and angels and in blessings and farewells. When we study it, we find that it is specially interested in Northern Israel. In its version of the Joseph story it is Reuben who plays the leading part. In the time of the Exodus it gives special prominence to Joshua who was from Ephraim; and in the Jacob story the centres are Bethel and Shechem. We, therefore, may say that this document is the document which was produced in the Northern Kingdom to tell of the early history of Israel. It is convenient for memory to make the letters J and E stand not only for Jehovah and Elohim, but also for Judah and Ephraim, so that they may also remind us of the parts of Israel from which these two documents came.

So, then, when Deuteronomy emerged, the Israelites already possessed the incomparable epic history contained in JE; and, since Deuteronomy was taken to be the work of Moses, it was amalgamated with JE, and inserted in the narrative, before the death of Moses. Thus slowly the Pentateuch was being built up, and the divine library was taking its first steps to growth.