A century and a quarter ago Julius Wellhausen wrote a book for prospective church pastors in which he outlined the way in which the Pentateuch was formed. Prior to Wellhausen the theory of Graf had been all but neglected. It was Wellhausen who persuaded his readers that the Levitical Law was not accepted as authoritative until the time of Ezra. It was Wellhausen who laid out the standard Documentary Hypothesis.
Wellhausen's theory has been revised and challanged in numerous ways. Some scholars have tried to establish more than four sources. Some scholars have tried to show that there was a different form of transmission. And some scholars have denied that there were ever sources known as JEDP. Umberto Casuto did so on the basis of challanging the presuppositions of the Doccumentary Hypothesis. R K Harrison did so as a traditionalist/
conservative who argued that the Pentateuch was a "homogenous composition in five volumes." (See Harrison's OT Intro. which is available from Amazon.) Even W F Albright operated on the assumption that archaeology would act as a control against unnecessary literary speculation. Despite the attacks of the Copenhagen School and scholars such as Van Seters, Wellhausen's version of the Documentary Hypothesis is still alive today.
Anyone studying the Hebrew Bible will have to deal with this book.
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