Editing Julius Wellhausen (section)

==''Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels'' and documentary hypothesis==
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Wellhausen was famous for his [[Biblical criticism|critical investigations]] into Old Testament history and the composition of the ''[[Hexateuch]]''. He is perhaps best known for his ''Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels'' (1883, first published in 1878 as ''Geschichte Israels''){{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} in which he advanced a definitive formulation of the documentary hypothesis. It argues that the [[Torah]] had its origins in a redaction of four originally-independent texts dating from several centuries after the time of [[Moses]], their [[Mosaic authorship|traditional author]].

Wellhausen's hypothesis remained the dominant model for Pentateuchal studies until the last quarter of the 20th century, when it began to be advanced by other [[biblical scholars]] who saw more and more hands at work in the Torah and ascribed them to periods even later than Wellhausen had proposed.

Regarding his sources, Wellhausen described [[Wilhelm de Wette]] as "the epoch-making opener of the historical criticism of the Pentateuch."  In 1806, De Wette provided an early, coherent mapping of the [[Old Testament]] writings of the J, E, D, and P, authors.  Soon after, he was cast out of his university post. Young Julius Wellhausen thus largely continued the work of de Wette.