Theories
Advocates of Julius Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis believe the Torah was compiled in the fifth century BC from several independent, contradictory, hypothetical (nonextant) documents, including the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomic, and Priestly sources and the book of generations. Advocates attribute Levi's genealogy to the "book of generations". Scholars attribute Moses's birth narrative, which also mentions Amram and Jochebed, to the earlier "Elohist source". According to these scholars, the genealogy is an aetiological myth reflecting there being four different groups among the Levites, the Gershonites, Kohathites, Merarites, and Aaronids, and Aaron, the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids, could not consistently be portrayed as a brother to Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Their hypothetical reconstruction of the "Elohist source" mentions only that both parents were Levites (without identifying their names; Exodus 2:1-2). Some scholars suspect that the "Elohist source" accounts to Moses both matrilineal and patrilineal descent from Levites in order to magnify his religious credentials.
Read more about this topic: Kohath
Famous quotes containing the word theories:
“A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.”
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)