Preliminary
remarks concerning Higher or Historical Criticism were made previously in the
chapter on Contemporary Theology. Here we will trace briefly the history of
this discipline. Although attacks have been made on the Scriptures from ancient
times by such groups as the Gnostics and Ebionites, Higher Criticism is
considered to have had its beginnings with a French physician by the name of
Astruc in the 18th century who noted the fact that in Genesis different names
were used for God (Elohim, Jehovah) and from this fact he developed a theory
that Genesis was a composite of several ancient documents. Eichhorn further
developed Astruc’s theory by pointing out literary differences as well. Then De
Wette, at the beginning of the 19th century, assigned the greater portion of
Deuteronomy to the 7th century B.C. Hupfeld, fifty years later, believed he had
discovered the influence of another document which used the name of Elohim, which
he designated as the second Elohist. This documentary theory assigned certain
letters to identify the supposed documents (J for the one using Jehovah in Genesis,
P and E for the two Elohist sources, and D for the source of the bulk of Deuteronomy).
Further refinements have resolved these documents into different strata: P1,
P2, P3, J1, J2, etc. It was further supposed that Joshua was compounded from
these same documents, so that we have a Hexateuch instead of a Pentateuch.
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