Yahwist

The Jahwist, or Yahwist, often abbreviated J, is one of the hypothesized sources of the Pentateuch (Torah), together with the Deuteronomist, the Elohist and the Priestly source. According to the basic four-source hypothesis first proposed by Julius Wellhausen, the J Source is the oldest strand of the Pentateuch, dating back to the 9th or 10th century B.C.E.; this dating has more recently fallen out of favor. It originally received its name from its characteristic use of the term Yahweh (German Jahwe, Hebrew יהוה) for God.

During most of the 20th century the dominant belief among scholars was that the Torah had been composed by intertwining four originally separate and complete documents, of which the Jahwist was one—this was called the documentary hypothesis. In the last quarter of the 20th century the consensus over the documentary hypothesis unravelled, and although it still has supporters there are now many alternatives. These alternatives can be broadly divided between "fragmentary" and "supplementary" models. Fragmentary hypotheses, seen notably in the work of Rolf Rendtorff and Erhard Blum, see the Pentateuch as growing through the gradual accretion of material into larger and larger blocks before being joined together, first by a Deuteronomic writer ("Deuteronomic" means related to the Book of Deuteronomy, which was composed in the late 7th century BCE), and then by a Priestly writer (6th/5th century BCE), who also added his own material. The "supplementary" approach is exemplified in the work of John Van Seters, who sees J (which he, unlike the "fragmentists", sees as a complete document) being composed in the 6th century BCE as an introduction to the Deuteronomistic history, the history of Israel that takes up the series of books from Joshua to Kings. The Priestly writers later added supplements to this (hence the term "supplementary") in a process that continued down to the end of the 4th century BCE. However, none of these have garnered the same support in the academic community as the Documentary Hypothesis, variations of which still receive the broadest acceptance.

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