Elohist tradition

Scheme of the documentary hypothesis.

According to the documentary hypothesis, the elohist tradition is one of the four sources from which the books of the Tanakh (for the Jews) or Old testament of the Bible (according to Christians). It is dated around the 9th century B.C. c.

This source is called Elohist, abbreviated E, because its writers often refer to their god as Elohim. It presents a powerful god, less anthropomorphic than the god YHWH of the earlier Yahwist tradition, the J.

Since the late 19th century it has been argued that the Elohist tradition was written in northern Israel (Ephraim region) around 850 BC. C., and together with the Yahvist tradition formed the JE (Yahvista-Elohist) version around 750 B.C. C., and were finally incorporated into the Torah around 400 B.C. c.

Elohist tradition promotes Israel more than Judah, and Levite priests more than Judah's Aaronite priests. It includes Abraham and the mission to sacrifice Isaac, Moses and the plagues of Egypt, Aaron and the golden calf, the Covenant of the Alliance, and Joseph as an interpreter of dreams.

Recent reconstructions suggest that the Elohist tradition may have been written before the Yawist tradition, or consider it to have existed independently of J without a prior JE merger taking place prior to the final edition of the Pentateuch, or else neglect it entirely the Elohist tradition, proposing a DJP (Deuteronomist, Yawist, Priestly) sequence, written from the reign of Josiah until the post-exilic period.