As we saw in the previous article on the Documentary Hypothesis, pastors and seminarians are still being taught that rather than Moses, four guys known as J, E, P, and D wrote the first five books of the Bible (The Pentateuch). We saw how flawed their methods were. But why is this still being taught? Does archaeology support the JEDP Hypothesis?
The JEDP theory ignores archaeology and claims that there couldn’t have been writing at the time of Moses in 11500-1400 B.C.E. Remember, they dated the documents of the Pentateuch at 850 B.C.E. at the earliest. But we have the following discoveries:
Another assumption the JEDP theory makes is that Israel’s history and the Law of Moses must have been late inventions and not from the time period they claim to be. This idea has been completely refuted by archaeological discoveries. For example:
Other archaeological confirmations of Israel’s history include:
It’s quite obvious that the JEDP theory needs to either catch up with Biblical archaeology, or be abandoned as outdated.
See Here for a comprehensive article advocating the abandonment of the Documentary Hypothesis
[1] Gordon, Cyrus, The Journal of Bible and Religion 21, no. 4 October 1955, p. 241, as quoted in The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Josh Mc Dowell, Nashville, 1999, p.438.
[2] Ibid., McDowell, p.440
[3] Archer, Gleason, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 1994, p.177.
[4] McDowell, p.445.
[5]Ibid., pp. 445-446.
[6] Ibid., pp. 446-447.
[7] Kitchen, Kenneth, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 2003, pp. 320-321.352-355.
[…] seen in a previous article that Archaeology shows writing existed in Moses’s time and confirms the antiquity of the Pentateu…. But there is plenty of other kinds of evidence that support Mosaic […]