Friday, December 26, 2008 [Julius Wellhausen 1844 - 1918 an
architect of modern Biblical Criticism] The Documentary
Hypothesis proposes that the Torah was written by several
different authors between about 950 BCE through 450 BCE, at
which point it was assembled into the present single document,
probably by Ezra. This hypothesis is pretty much universally
accepted by secularists. There are several problems with this
theory, in my humble opinion. The first problem is the Samaritan
Pentateuch. The Samaritans have not shared a common tradition
with Jews since the division of the United Monarchy following
the death of King Solomon. According to Ezra 4, the Samaritans
were bitter enemies of the Jews in the time of Ezra. Clearly
they would not have accepted a book composed by Ezra. In
addition to that, the Torah does not mention the city of
Jerusalem, which was the center of Judaism from the time of King
David up until the present. Based upon this, it would appear
that the latest the Torah could have been written w