Jahwist

The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the four major sources of the Torah postulated by the Documentary Hypothesis (DH). It is the oldest source, whose narratives make up half of Genesis and the first half of Exodus, plus fragments of Numbers. J describes a human-like God, called "Yahweh" (or rather YHWH) throughout, and has a special interest in the territory of the Kingdom of Judah and individuals connected with its history. J was composed "c" 950 BC and later incorporated into the Torah ("c" 400 BC).Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.]

Background

The Yahwist author of Genesis was first identified in 1753 by the French physician, Jean Astruc (1684–1766) in his "Conjectures sur les mémoires originaux dont il paraît que Moïse s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Genèse" ("Conjectures on the Original Memoirs Apparently Used by Moses to Compose the Book of Genesis"). The term became "Jahwist" in later German scholarship, in accordance with the German transcription of the name Yahweh.

Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) incorporated the hypothesis of the Jahwist source into his Documentary Hypothesis, which became a foundation of higher criticism.

Nature of the Yahwist text

In this source God's name is always presented as the tetragrammaton, YHWH, which scholars transliterate in modern times as "Yahweh" (or as "Jahweh", after the German spelling: "Jahweh"), and in earlier times as "Jehovah". In most English translations the name is rendered "the LORD".

J has a particular fascination for traditions concerning Judah, including those concerning its relationship with its neighbour Edom. J also supports Judah against Israel, for example suggesting that Israel acquired Shechem (its capital city) by massacring the inhabitants.

While J supports the priests descended from Aaron who were established in Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, J also treats God in a fairly early or unsophisticated form as a human-like figure, capable of regret, and being dissuaded, appearing in person at events. In many cases in J, God is presented as about to embark on some terrible vengeance over mankind, and is dissuaded. For example, concerning the activities in Sodom and the other cities of the plain, J presents God as about to destroy the cities, but gradually being dissuaded by Abraham, until God consents to save it if there are even only as few as 10 worthy individuals within it. Likewise, during the exodus, J presents the complaints of the Israelites, and their failure to obey the laws strictly, as leading to God being about to abandon them, destroy them all, and raise Moses' descendants instead, but "repented from the evil he thought to do to" them when Moses dissuades him (Exodus 32: 14).

In attempting to identify the author of the Jahwist text, fundamentalist Christians and Jews suggest that this original "core" of the Torah was written by Moses himself, and that the obviously post-schism pro-Judah material was added by the JE redactor to balance the pro-Israel material of the Elohist. This would put the origin of the original Jahwist text somewhere around 1300-1500 BC. This is not accepted by non-fundamentalist scholars.

Contrast with the Elohist

The Jahwist's story begins much earlier than the Elohist's; in fact, it begins at the beginning. Consequently, it introduces stories concerning the general human condition, both large tales such as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, as well as brief stories, like that of the Curse of Ham, and the tower of Babel. It also includes general creation stories, such as that of creation itself, the flood, and the badly truncated, and thus difficult to interpret, story of the Nephilim.

Unlike the Elohist, the covenant involving Isaac in the Jahwist tale is one in which God freely makes it to an adult Isaac. The Jahwist thus contains a tale of Isaac meeting his wife, when she comes out at the provision of water, and repeats the tale of Abimelech confusing a wife for a sister with Isaac and his wife rather than Abram and his. Jacob later is described as meeting his wife in similar circumstances, his having helped some sheep to drink. This repetition may be deliberate, or may reflect variant versions of the same story being placed in the same work but with different names, possibly indicating two earlier sources on which the Jahwist work could be based.

It is noticeable that the Jahwist predominantly contains stories concerning the southern kingdom of Judah, which became an important regional centre only after the eclipse of the northern kingdom of Israel, which are not present in the Elohist source, which is more concerned with the north. For example, the Jahwist describes the tales of Esau, the eponymous ancestor of Edom, his anger against Jacob, and his reconciliation (which the Elohist also mentions), as well as a list of Edomite kings, which famously includes kings postdating Moses, the person traditionally said to have written the work, including that list of kings.

As well as Edom, the Jahwist, unlike the Elohist, is concerned with the cities of the plain, and their eponymous ancestor, Lot. The tale of Sodom and Gomorrah is from the Jahwist, and demonstrates the Jahwist's very human-like god, easily dissuaded from his original intent by Abram's bargaining. The story denigrating Moab and Ammon, the nations by the plain, as being descended from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters, is also part of the Jahwist narrative.

The Jahwist also provides some tales describing the political situation of the southern tribes, the most relevant of which is the tale of the rape of Dinah, a story which both explains the ownership of Shechem, and why the tribes of Simeon and Levi lack territory. The Jahwist also seeks to explain why, despite being the firstborn, Reuben has little territory. Though the story involving Reuben and Bilhah in incest is widely regarded by academics as having been abruptly truncated during redaction, only one line of it remains in the torah.

Despite the pre-occupation with the southern tribes, the Jahwist isn't entirely favourable to Judah, as it includes tales in which all of Judah's children are in some way blemished, Er being wicked in an unspecified way, Onan refusing to perform Levirate marriage, Shelah as being childless, and Pharez and Zarah being the children of prostitution and incest. The Jahwist also humiliates the northern hero of Joseph as the victim of attempted rape by Potiphar's wife, rather than the interpreter of dreams that the Elohist presents, and also casts Moses as a murderer in his youth.

Compared with the Elohist, the Jahwist's tale extends further in time, presenting the description of how the Israelites were dissuaded from a direct invasion of Canaan by the report of spies. The Jahwist also describes the circuitous route they took instead, conquering certain eastern lands as they went, leading to the presence of Israelite tribes east of the Jordan, despite this being a northern story. It is sometimes difficult to separate the Jahwist and Elohist (unlike the very distinct Priestly source), and it may be the case that this tale actually belongs with the Elohist, the Elohist thus describing a central/northern conquest of Canaan by the northern tribes, and the Jahwist describing a southern invasion into the southern territory, the second half of the Jahwist tale, involving the invasion after the rebellion was quelled, being lost to redaction.

The Jahwist's religious concerns differ from those of the Elohist - it is the Jahwist that introduces the practice of circumcision, which, curiously, is not found in the Elohist source. The first circumcision, of Ishmael, is told in the Jahwist tale, as is the tale of Zipporah at the inn, which is widely believed to be very truncated in the surviving torah, and consequently not very well understood, academically.

Generally, the Jahwist presents a less supernatural world than the Elohist, for example, by Moses having no supernatural powers, but instead acting as an intercessor who begs God to undo each of the Plagues of Egypt, after the Pharaoh has equally begged Moses for help. Nethertheless, the Jahwist is the only source involving talking animals, both in the tale of Adam and Eve, and also in the episode of the Ass of Balaam, neither of which appear in the Elohist work.

Origin of the Jahwist text

J is thought to have been composed by collecting together the various stories and traditions concerning Judah and its associated tribes (Levi, Judah, Simeon, and Reuben), and weaving them into a single text. J also contains traditions associated with Edom, and with the plain - Moab and Ammon, nations which bordered the southern tribes, and which Judah considered to have the same ethnic origin as itself, being descended from Esau, and Lot's two daughters, respectively.Some independent source texts thought to have been embedded in it include
*The Blessing of Jacob, a poem used at Genesis 49:1 - 27
*The Song of the sea, a poem used at Exodus 15:1 - 18

J is thought to derive from amongst the Aaronid priesthood, and to reflect their polemic opinions in the text. J has a reduced focus on Moses' importance (the priests of Shiloh were more likely to be descended from Moses than from Aaron - hence "Mushites"), and supports the symbols controlled by the Aaronid religion such as the Ark and the Jerusalem Temple. J never mentions the "Tent of Meeting" or the Nehushtan associated with the Shiloh priesthood. J also reflects the polemic against the King of Israel's changes to the religion, attacking the Golden Calves he set up (having one of the ten commandments against "molten" gods - the Cherubim of Judah's temple were only gold plated).

J also advances the interests of the Davidic dynasty, tracing David's ancestry back through Jesse to Pharez, eldest son of Judah, and thus the inheritor of the birthright of Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Shem and Noah - in effect, the eldest sons of the human race, and God's chosen among all men.

Alternative Views

Richard Elliot Friedman [Friedman, Richard Elliot, "The Hidden Book In the Bible" (Harper)] unlike the earlier views of Bloom, who argued that J applied only to Genesis, states that the J source shows strong thematic continuity and also includes much of the story of Joshua and Samuel, down to the "court history" of the reign of Solomon, and was composed by someone, possibly a woman, sometime after Edom had broken away from Judah (in 815 BCE) but before the collapse of Israel in 722 BCE. He argues that J commences with "On the day in which Yahweh made Heaven and Earth", and that the whole epic of the six days of creation is no part of J.

Israel Finkelstein [Finkelstein, Israel and Silberman, Niel Asher (2001), "The Bible Unearthed:Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts" (Free Press)] argues that the form of society described in the reign of David and Solomon only appeared after the collapse of the northern Kingdom of Israel, during a period in which Jerusalem, swollen with refugees from the north, grew by over 500%. He argues that the J source comes from at or after this period.

References

* Bloom, Harold and Rosenberg, David. "The Book of J". Publisher: Grove Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8021-4191-9.