The Pentateuch written by just two?

[rgprice]

I'm not a linguist, unfortunately. I don't have a good grasp of the various arguments for why it is believed that there are X sources involved in the Pentateuch. All of my reading of ancient texts is done in English and I have to rely on the commentary of scholars to assess the underlying texts in their original language.

But based on my reading of the Pentateuch in common English translations, it seems to me that there are just two writers involved, an original author of the main body of work, and then a secondary editor who made later additions and finalized the work.

It seems to me that the original composition consisted of something like Genesis 1 - 2:3 and Genesis 11:27 on through Numbers. Then a second writer added Genesis 2:4-11:26 and Deuteronomy. They may have also made revisions throughout the rest of the composition as well.

Are there significant reasons to think that this is not how the Pentateuch was written? What would the case be against such a scenario?

[Secret Alias]

Deuteronomy is a plagiarism of Exodus. Morton Smith "scandalized" religious people by saying that. Part of his charm.

[rgprice]

Deuteronomy is a plagiarism of Exodus. Morton Smith "scandalized" religious people by saying that. Part of his charm.

Right, again why it waws written by a second hand. It seems to me that someone took the original main body of work, as I outlined above, and then added material to it in a way that modified the agenda of the original writer. The original work had a certain perspective and agenda. The secondary writer had a different perspective and agenda. Their work seeks to hijack the the original and redirect it to a degree.

The secondary writer was generally aligned with the agenda of the first, but not entirely. It kind of reminds of like reading Lenin vs Stalin. In this case the first writer would be Lenin and the second Stalin. Both writers have very similar goals and perspectives, but not exactly and certainly Stalin hijacks much of Lenin's work and themes and employs them in the service of his own administration. To me I kind of see something similar here between the wrier of the main body of the Pentateuch vs the writer of Deuteronomy.

[John2]

I'm no expert, but the Documentary Hypothesis still works for me. The Kingdom of Israel had writings (E) and the Kingdom of Judah had writings (J). (Let's call E and J "Lenin.") Then Israel fell and refugees fled to Judah, bringing additional northern writings (D) that were blended with E and J (the Deuteronomistic History).(Let's call this "Stalin.") This takes us from Genesis all the way to 2 Kings. And each kingdom had its share of prophets and priests (P), and that's most of the other OT writings.

It just doesn't seem to need to be any more complicated than this, even factoring in the archaeological evidence (which at least confirms that the Kingdom of Israel and King Omri and such existed). All it requires is accepting that there was once a Kingdom of Israel and a Kingdom of Judah and that people living in them wrote stuff (in a region of the world where writing is thought to have begun).

Now, I'm open to being persuaded of something else, but I'm not seeing anything that "works" for me better than the DH.