Outline of The Hypothesis (Wellhausen's Formulation)
Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis proposes that the Torah was originally four distinct narratives, each complete in itself, each dealing with the same incidents and characters, but with distinctive "messages". The four were combined twice by editors ("redactors") who strove to keep as much as possible of the original documents.
Read more about this topic: Documentary Hypothesis
Famous quotes containing the words outline and/or hypothesis:
“The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we havevery largely if not entirelylost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)