Supplementary hypothesis

In biblical studies, the supplementary hypothesis proposes that the Pentateuch (the first five books of the bible) was derived from a series of direct additions to an existing corpus of work. This hypothesis serves as a revision to the earlier documentary hypothesis which proposed that independent and complete narratives were later combined by redactors to create the Pentateuch.

The supplementary hypothesis was developed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, primarily deriving from a dissatisfaction with the adequacy of the documentary hypothesis, and came to a head in the 1970s with the publication of works by John Van Seters, Rolf Rendtorff, and Hans Heinrich Schmid. In their book, An Introduction to the Bible, Kugler and Hartin argue that “the work of John Van Seters best reflects the revival of the supplementary hypothesis.”

Van Seters’ summation of the hypothesis accepts “three sources or literary strata within the Pentateuch” which have come to be known as the Yahwist (J), the Priestly Writer (P), and the Deuteronomist (D). Van Seters ordered these sources chronologically as DJP.

While the hypothesis is not the only revision of the documentary hypothesis to be made, it is one of the few at the forefront of Pentateuch studies, and has been suggested by many scholars.

While documentarians originally placed the authorship of the Pentateuch in the tenth to seventh centuries BCE, the supplementary hypothesis places the authorship of the Pentateuch later in the seventh to fifth centuries. A major driver of this reassessment has been the evolving understanding of the historical context of the early Israelites. Biblical estimates put the earliest activity of the Israelites in Canaan in the thirteenth century BCE with Joshua's conquest. However, archeologist have found no evidence of a distinct Israelite people in the region at this time. Indeed, archaeologists have found that most of the places referred to by name in the bible, most notably Jerusalem, reflect much later seventh century realities. If, as the archeological evidence would suggest, there was no distinct group of "Israelite" people until the seventh century, the authorship of the Pentateuch is likely to have occurred in the seventh century and later. These archeological findings have caused recent Pentateuch scholars to reject earlier documentarian claims of tenth century authorship, in favor of later authorship, reflected in the supplementary hypothesis.

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