五經研究的歷史

History of Pentateuchal Research

WONG Fook Kong

The study of the Pentateuch in the last one and a half century was dominated by the Documentary Hypothesis. This theory, formulated in its classical form by Julius Wellhausen, states that the Pentateuch was composed from four written sources called J, E, D, and P. Until the 1970s, this theory enjoyed wide acceptance in many scholarly circles. Notable dissenters included Y. Kaufmann, U. Cassuto, and M. Segal. By the late 60s the existence of the J source was being challenged. Hans H. Schmid, following L. Perlitt’s direction, argued that J was really D. Other challenges to the Documentary Hypothesis came from those, e.g., Roger N. Whybray, George W. Coats, Claus Westermann, who contended that the Joseph story in Genesis 37-50 was a unity. In the 1970s Thomas Thompson and John Van Seters argued, separately, that the stories in the Pentateuch evince a late date of origin. Rolf Rendtorf and his student Erhard Blum asserted that the Pentateuch was formed from two post-exilic strands, called D and P, which had pre-exilic roots. K. Schmid recently proposed that the books from Exodus to 2 Kings were a unity and that Genesis was added to the work as a prologue.

Other approaches to the study of the Pentateuch included Form Criticism pioneered by H. Gunkel and his students. This approach tries to isolate the oral tradition behind the written tradition and to study its historical setting. Other luminaries of this Traditio-history school included G. von Rad and M. Noth, W. F. Albright and his students, who combined biblical studies with archaeology, should also be mentioned in this regard. In general these scholars do not see their approaches as complements to the Documentary Hypothesis.

Newer approaches of Bible study have also arisen. They include Structuralism, Rhetorical Criticism, Narrative Criticism, and Reader-response Criticism. Socio-critical approaches like Feminist and Liberation Theology hermeneutics should also be mentioned. Although most of these did not arise directly from Pentateuchal study, they will inevitably make an impact on the study of the Pentateuch in the foreseeable future.