Everything about Yahwist totally explained
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).
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, or simply as
the LORD, which is the case in the
King James translation.
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 isn't 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's the Jahwist that introduces the practice of circumcision, which, curiously, isn't 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
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 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 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.
Further Information
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