RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Hebrew Language
the heroes of the story is the work of D. The latest of the four narratives is that of P (Priestly writer), believed to be of the fifth to the fourth century, and composed in Babylonia. The principal interests of this school are ritual, genealogy, chronology, the sacerdotal office, and origins of institutions and laws. The portions contributed by P partake therefore of the tabular or " schedule " style, being " formal, exact, repetitious " (C. F. Kent, ut sup., i. 45). The vocabulary is limited, statistics are frequently furnished, numbers are multiplied, dates and genealogies are given. In theology the transcendence of deity is emphasized; in ethics, the patriarchs and early leaders are so idealized that their transgressions are passed with the minimum of notice. To this school is assigned the union of all the sources of the Hexateuch, leaving it nearly in its present form, some time in the fifth (or early in the fourth) century B.C. While the separate narratives have the more salient characteristics thus outlined, marking off each from the other, no less noticeable are the linguistic peculiarities, each narrative having its own vocabulary, its own idiosyncrasies of construction, and its choice of phrases not duplicated by the others (cf. C. F. Kent, ut sup., i. 357 sqq.; Driver, Introduction, chap, i., §7). The structure of the first part of the Old Testament, then, presents as a whole the appearance of formation by a rope-like intertwining of strands of different periods, possessing variant characteristics and coloring.
In the prophetical books a different method of
composition was the order. Not until Ezekiel was
it usual to communicate the prophetic
6. Methods teaching to its recipients by writing.
in Pro- Jeremiah indeed dictated to Baruch
phetical " all the words " which up to that time
and Yahweh had spoken to him (which, it
Wisdom is clearly implied, he had spoken as
Literature, they came to him) " against Israel and against Judah " from Josiah's time onward. This doubtless represents the custom of the writing prophets until Ezekiel — delivery by the living voice, record in writing comes afterwards. This is confirmed by the unmistakable sense of an audience which appears in most of the prophetic deliverances, by the disconnection which is so often evident between the components of a prophetical book, and by the fragmentary nature of much of the material. The last feature is explained further by the fact that some oracles in the form in which they have been transmitted are evidently the mere outlines of fuller discourses. On the other hand, not seldom there are present a polish and literary finish which involve painstaking elaboration. These phenomena, with others, such as difference in viewpoint, variation in vocabulary and in literary style, have evoked much study on the part of exegetes and students ; and the very perplexity thus evinced is in itself a justification of the critical conclusions involving variety of authorship in several of the prophetic books, notably those of Isaiah and Zechariah, which have so lightened the burden of the problems of Old Testament study. If it be true that prophetic deliverances were primarily oral, that later the prophet committed them to writing, that these records were kept sometimes on fugitive
rolls or leaves, then it is not remarkable that, in the general process of editing, deliverances by an unknown prophet came to be attached to those of one who was known. In this the purpose was not to deceive; the object was doubtless a laudable desire to save fugitive pieces which were in danger of being lost. By this process of editing are explained such phenomena as the attachment of chaps, xl.-lxvi., relating to the exile, to chaps, i.-xxxix. of Isaiah (mainly preexilic), and the union of separate prophecies under the name of Zechariah. In the " wisdom literature " (so-called from the Hebr. hokhmah, " wisdom "), consisting of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, perhaps Canticles, and certainly some of the Psalms, all didactic in aim, both the methods of compilation and that of straightforward composition are employed. Thus Proverbs (q.v.) is a collection of collections, including a treatise as introduction (cf. i. 1, x. 1, xxv. 1, xxxi. 1), and bearing the marks of successive editings. The dialogue of Job (q.v.) is a single composition, unless the speeches of Elihu are an insert subsequently included. Ecclesiastes (q.v.) is a unit, except for the additions in xii. 9 sqq.
In Jer. xviii. 18 is read: " For the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise,
nor the word from the prophet."
7. Author- Jeremiah here brings together the three
ship. classes from whom practically all of
Hebrew literature was derived. From " the prophet " (or the prophetical school), as has been indicated, proceeded not only what appears in the English Bible as the prophetical books (Isaiah- Malachi), but also three of the four strands of the Pentateuch (J, E, D) and the historical books from Joshua to Kings (which last, be it remembered, were known to rabbinic Judaism as " the former prophets," with the exception of Ruth; see Canon of Scripture, I., 4, § 2). From " the priest " (or those whose interests were priestly) proceeded the fourth strand of the Pentateuch (P), Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, and most of the Psalms. The contribution of " the wise " was, of course, the wisdom literature. Some students would add to these a fourth class, the writers of apocalyptic literature, such as Daniel and a part of Zechariah; but this is a species of writing which is better classed as a late phase of prophecy. On this ground the inclusion by the versions of Daniel among the prophetical books has its justification, though the arrangement contravenes that of the Hebrew Bible (see Canon of Scripture, I., 4, § 2). According to the modern critical school, closer definition of authorship for most of the Old Testament books is impossible. Thus the foregoing statement of the composition of the Pentateuch (see § 4 above) precludes authorship by Moses. The books Joshua-Chronicles inclusive are named from their contents, not from the author. Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah purports to be written by the worthy whose name it bears, and the same is true of Esther and Job. Psalms is a collection from various sources, some of which are named. Most modern scholars affirm that neither Ecclesiastes nor Canticles can be Solomonic, and therefore the title in each (if indeed Ecclesiastes claims
Hebrew Language