Shemot (parsha) - in Critical Analysis

In Critical Analysis

Some secular scholars who follow the Documentary Hypothesis find evidence of five separate sources in the parshah. These scholars see the bulk of the story as the weaving together of accounts composed by the Jahwist — (sometimes abbreviated J) who wrote in the south, in the land of the Tribe of Judah, possibly as early as the 10th century BCE — and the Elohist — (sometimes abbreviated E) who wrote in the north, in the land of the Tribe of Ephraim, possibly as early as the second half of the 9th century BCE. One such scholar, Richard Elliott Friedman, credits the Jahwist with Exodus 1:6 and 22; 2:1–23a; 3:2–4a, 5, 7–8, and 19–22; 4:19–20 and 24–26; and 5:1–2. And he credits the Elohist with Exodus 1:8–12 and 15–21; 3:1, 4b, 6, and 9–18; 4:1–18 20b–21a, 22–23, and 27–31; and 5:3–6:1. Friedman attributes one small change — making plural the word “sons” in Exodus 4:20 — to the editor (sometimes called the Redactor of JE, or RJE) who combined the Jahwist and Elohist sources in the years following 722 BCE. Friedman then attributes three small insertions — Exodus 1:7 and 13–14; and 2:23b–25 — to the Priestly source who wrote in the 6th or 5th century BCE. Finally, Friedman attributes to a late Redactor (sometimes abbreviated R) two further changes — the opening verses of the parshah at Exodus 1:1–5 and 4:21b. For a similar distribution of verses, see the display of Exodus according to the Documentary Hypothesis at Wikiversity.