The Elohist source (E), so-named on account of its use of the Hebrew elohim (“god/s”) to designate the deity prior to Yahweh’s revelation to Moses in Exodus, clearly orients itself around the traditions, cultic sites, and patriarchs of the northern kingdom, and is thus accredited with the north as its place of composition. E’s date of composition has variously been assigned to the 9th century BC reign of Jeroboam, as a counter narrative to the pro-Solomonic Judean narrative of J, to any time prior to the northern kingdom’s fall in 722 BC. It is the shortest in length of the Pentateuchal sources making its first appearance midway through the book of Genesis (20:1)—presenting itself as a doublet to J—and extending itself into the book of Exodus where it has its strongest showing. Both in the book of Genesis and in the book of Exodus, E is often presented as narrating the same story as J, however, with contrasting narrative details and theological emphases to those of J. These differences might be accounted for by similar traditions being absorbed and modified in different geographical and political contexts, and the varying historical circumstances of its audiences. Or, as a growing number of recent scholars contend, E was added to J in a manner to supplement the J narrative, in an attempt to reinterpret and moralize the J narrative, especially with respect to J’s characterization of Jacob as a trickster and usurper. Of course, there are passages were E does not double J at all. These include E’s stories about the origins of northern cultic centers such as Bethel and Shechem, E’s plague and Passover narratives, which will receive contradictory interpretive insertions by the later Priestly writer (#196-201), and E’s covenant ceremony and the giving of the law at mount Horeb—although here the Yahwist tradition does record a variant and contradictory covenant ceremony, but at Sinai and with a completely different set of Ten Commandments (#57-59)! Contrary to the Yahwist, the climatic event in the narrative of the Elohist is the Moses story. In fact, the Elohist’s primary hero is Moses, and this may account for the fact that the Elohist was most likely written by Levites or at least scribes sympathetic to Levite concerns. This is brought out in episodes like the golden calf narrative.
The north had particular cultic practices that, although strongly condemned by the southern writers, particularly the Deuteronomist, were most likely more ancient than the Yahweh-centered cult at Jerusalem in the late 8th century BC. In the north, Yahweh was strongly identified with El and his cultic symbol, the bull (#26). Additionally, a number of E texts speak of El and/or Yahweh at Shechem, Beth-El, or with Jacob in general. In all likelihood the body of literature known as the Elohist is rather a collection of traditions from the north which had a preference for non-anthropomorphic depictions of God, prophecy and divine revelation, and a penchant for moralizing tales. Additional features of the Elohist include its emphasis on the figures Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Joshua, on prophetic traditions of the north and prophecy in general, on divine providence and dreams as the mode of divine communication, and moral propriety often portrayed through the fear-of-god motive.
An excellent page about Elohist source! :)
I hope you don’t mind if I use information about E and Y sources from your website; I find it amazing how different authors with different sources/traditions managed to write Torah. (Full of contradictions, yes, but still very beautiful work!)
Are there any texts which have each individual author ? It would be interesting to read a text with only the Elohist excerpts.
Molecules-
check out “The Bible with sources revealed” by Richard Elliott Friedman… it is excellent!
I took a challenge from a pastor at my Christian Church of GOD to read the bible in a year. I could have “read” it in a year or less but I took the challenge further and I said to myself I will not just read it, I will understand it. I have been in a state of confusion since Genesis. So I got an old dictionary and started studying each word. I have come to this conclusion. The powers that be are outside of our laboratory. We are their experiment. We are basically computers. The Israelites were the base model and man or sin corrupted the language (the seed). To make it stronger, wiser, GOD like. Israel, Jerusalem, Zion all of those places are in what man calls Antarctica. And the Israelites (the remnant) is there too. Prisoners of the World’s Rulers until the appointed time when he comes to save them. Everyone thinks I am a nut, my family hates when I speak of it but I know it’s true. I have come to this point where I know his name is OH, in ancient hebrew that would be…ayin – watch,know,shade and also hhets – outside,divide,half. OH my EL. The letter j is only 500 years old so if you remove the J from books like J-OEL you have O EL. Or like the band ELO. What do you think? Am I a nut?
You not a nut, but you are reading to much into it. The Bible usually reveals itself, by other scriptures in the Bible. My suggestion to you, is to read the Bible and pray to God, for Holy Spirit to guide you or to send some one who can..
The word Elohim in Hebrew is NOT spelled as “Elohim.” It is “Alueim” this brew word does NOT mean God or god. It means “Powers” or Mighty Ones since Alueim is a plural nou. Although it is a plural noun it is sometimes used with a singular verb. In the Hebrew Bible, an “Alueim” can be a King, a priest, or anyone having “power” or authority over another.The Hebrew Power is named YHWH in Hebrew (Yahweh in English) meaning “He-Is” or the “Ever-Living.”
In English it’s “Jehovah” and it means “He who causes to be” from the verb “hawah” to be.
Or YHWH could very well mean “God of Chaos” or “God of Noisome.”
The archaeological evidence showing largely indigenous origins of Israel in Canaan, not Egypt, is “overwhelming” and leaves “no room for an Exodus from Egypt or a 40-year pilgrimage through the Sinai wilderness”.[6] Many archaeologists have abandoned the archaeological investigation of Moses and the Exodus as “a fruitless pursuit”.[6] A century of research by archaeologists and Egyptologists has arguably found no evidence that can be directly related to the Exodus narrative of an Egyptian captivity and the escape and travels through the wilderness, leading to the suggestion that Iron Age Israel—the kingdoms of Judah and Israel—has its origins in Canaan, not in Egypt:[7][8] The culture of the earliest Israelite settlements is Canaanite, their cult-objects are those of the Canaanite god El, the pottery remains in the local Canaanite tradition, and the alphabet used is early Canaanite. Almost the sole marker distinguishing the “Israelite” villages from Canaanite sites is an absence of pig bones, although whether this can be taken as an ethnic marker or is due to other factors remains a matter of dispute.[9]