Source Criticism

by Joel S. Baden

Source criticism has been at the center of biblical studies for the last two centuries. In that time, it has produced a wide range of theories and approaches, often conflicting. This book provides a concise overview of the major approaches and positions in the field, helping the reader understand where scholarship has been and where it currently stands, and situating each major development within its broader intellectual and social context.

156 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2024

About the author

Joel S. Baden is professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale Divinity School. He is the coauthor, with Candida R. Moss, of Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby and Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (both Princeton). He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Christian]

Fantastic introduction to the subject, and I appreciated how he shows the development of source-critical theory over time.

The coolest part of the book was the end of every chapter. He showed how the different source critical theories splice the same text differently.

[Noah]

This is actually an incredibly well-written and concise overview. I planned at first to just skim it but quickly found myself reading chapter by chapter, page by page.

[Charles Meadows]

Great little book. Baden outlines the history of the study of Pentateuchal sources. He starts from the earliest ideas and moves to Wellhausen, and then on to Von Rad, Noth, and finally Rendtorf, on whom he spends a good deal of time. In the final chapter he introduces his own approach ("neo-documentarian") and explains how it differs from Wellhausen's JEDP and Rendtorf's atomistic model.

Overall the big picture is very well-represented, and the reader new to this area of study will benefit greatly from this overview. He does spend quite a bit of time on the work of German protestants from a century ago, and relatively little on this generation of scholars. But still a very valuable and readable resource.

[Conor]

I'm sure it would serve well for its intended audience as an intro for undergraduates who intend to do further study in this area.

I understand that there are other academic theories other than JEDP that have gained some traction, these were not addressed. I could be wrong about that, but the fact that I'm left unclear is a weakness in the book.

For me as a lay reader seeking just an overview of current consensus scholarship, the writing could have been simplified, and even at just 150 pages, this was probably more than I wanted to know about the development of different/old JEDP frameworks.

Each chapter ends with a case study of how the Jacobs Ladder story is parsed under the theory discussed in that chapter, which was super helpful.

[addison]

this was really good & really helpful (not just saying that bc he's my prof

[Lance]

Incredible intro to the history of the documentary hypothesis. Very accessible and enlightening.

[Weston]

Probably one of the most accessible summaries of the history of theological scholarship that I’ve stumbled across.

[Andrew Nelson]

Excellent new book by Joel baden