Deutoronomistic Source? Updates From an Archaeological Perspective

Seminary N235

Before Julius Wellhausen’s documentary hypothesis, De Wette dated the deuteromistic source to the time of the reforms of the king Josiah (Orr 1906: 198). He also argued that the unity of the Pentateuch responds to the plan of one mind (Briggs 1897: 60, 61). At this point, critics introduced the concept of a redactor who would gather all documents and make them coherent sometime in the 6th century BCE. Later, Wellhausen will add the P (priest) source as a new chronological cornerstone for the high criticism, which would appear about the 5th and 4th century BCE. This basic scheme became the standard chronology for the high criticism in subsequent revisions. The theory requires at least two conditions. First, a centric cultic activity during the 6th century without precedents supported by a strong state. Second, a peak or a “golden age” of the Jewish faith at that time manifested in religious remains. This research will attempt to verify if these conditions are consistent with the historic and archaeological information so far available to us, and to what extent. A special attention will be given to the dating of ceramics as means of establishing a chronological sequence to reconstruct the history of Israel during the 6th century, and its relation with monumental architecture.