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ELOHIST

One of four sources or strata underlying and composing the Pentateuch. The discernment of such sources is far from assured, nor do those who see sources always agree on their features. Nevertheless, a coherent portrait of the Elohist may be attempted.

The Elohist (E) is typically understood as located in the northern kingdom of Israel in the late 10th or early 9th century b.c.e. The work, perhaps once independent or now truncated, is understood as a supplement to the Yahwist source (J), consequently sharing the J story line of events: the adventures of founding ancestors, the descent of the people to Egypt, their emergence from sojourn in the wilderness. The Elohist adds some vignettes to the Yahwist recital (e.g., the binding of Isaac in Gen. 22, , Moses’ meeting with Jethro in Exod. 18), contributes details (Jacob’s night vision in Gen. 28:10-22), and in certain cases has distinctive vocabulary (Israel for Jacob, Jethro for Reuel, Horeb for Sinai).

The Elohist enhancement of the basic Yahwist narrative is also characterized by stylistic features. The E source is named from its propensity to call the deity Elohim (the plural word for “god”), just as the Yahwist source takes its name from its habit of naming the deity Yahweh. Elohim is more remote than the Yahwist’s deity, more inclined to employ intermediaries like angels or dreams. Human beings respond appropriately, the Elohist reports, with fear of God or reverence. The Elohist multiplies episodes where sons are endangered and specifies northern sites where memorial stones are established and simple worship can occur: Shechem, Bethel, Penuel.

Scholars suggest that the Elohist’s project is reformist, originating to support the act of secession from the Davidic kingdom by the 10 northern tribes, a revolution led by Jeroboam I. The Elohist is, by such reasoning, critical of the power excesses of the southern kingdom of Judah, disparaging of its priestly leadership of the Aaron-descended Zadokite line, eager to sketch forebears who resemble their own rebel king Jeroboam, and desirous of sponsoring decentralization of authority at a remove from Jerusalem. Scholars have tended to describe the Elohist texts as more ethically sensitive than some of the Yahwist’s, but that claim is difficult to substantiate. Some stories credited to E rehearse more explicitly the fraught circumstances.

Dissent to the position sketched here ranges from those who deny the presence of an Elohist source at all to those who disagree on whether or not certain texts should be assigned to it; that the difference in viewpoint can be maintained by the criteria offered above is not always sufficient reason to see them operative in a long narrative like the Joseph story (Gen. 37–50), which works perfectly well, perhaps more artistically without them. As the once-strong consensus supporting the documentary hypothesis continues to crumble, so also will disintegrate confidence in the Elohist as a coherent voice in the pentateuchal symphony.

Bibliography. R. B. Coote, In Defense of Revolution: The Elohist History (Minneapolis, 1991).

Barbara Green, O.P.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ELOHIST

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)