Contra Orthodox

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I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man!

Thomas Jefferson from a letter written to Benjamin Rush in 1800 in response to Rush's warning about the Philadelphia clergy attacking Jefferson (Jefferson was seen as an infidel by his enemies during his election for President).

May 15, 2006
The purpose of this website is to promote a better understanding of the HB (Hebrew Bible) in light of the latest developments in the Documentary Hypothesis theory. We will generally assume the position first proposed by Julius Welhausen and recently elaborated by Richard Eliott Friedman in his book Who Wrote the Bible and elsewhere, with regard to the Documentary Hypothesis and thus divide the biblical sources into J (Jehovist), E (Elohist), D (Deuteronomist) and P (Priestly).

In the course of our work we will implement several investigative tools in order to gain a better understanding of the Hebrew Bible. We will touch on the points listed below:

When a given literary unit in the bible was written.
If we believe a Biblical passage not to be historical, we will explain how the myth or legend came about and how it developed over the ages.
Etiologicial Episodes. Those are events that may or may not be true. Their purpose is to explain a certain contemporary phenomena that seems to require an explanation or the etymology of a name-place.
Textual Criticism. Unfortunately, the Bible as we have it now (the MT or Masoretic Text) is infested with scribal errors. I will point out these errors whenever possible and provide my best educated guess in attempting to come up with the correct wording. Naturally, I will only resort to textual amendations when the evidence is overwhelming and no other plausible explanation of the Masoretic text is present.
Comparison of recurring motifs in the Bible. Examples are: Water in the Wilderness, Golden Calf, Crossing of the Sea, Wife is Sister, Descent to Egypt, Conquest of Canaan, Revelation at Sinai/Horeb. These events and many more, all occur at least twice in the Bible. We will attempt to explain the relationship between the numerous instances of the motif (theme) and we will contrast the differences.