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The Elohist Text

Entertainment / Literature / The Elohist Text: (Also called the E Document or the Elohist Text) Not to be confused with 'electronic' or digital texts, the term E Text comes from biblical scholarship of the Torah. Based on the date of its language, elements of anthropomorphism, and certain folkloric qualities, most biblical scholars think the section from Genesis 2:4-3:3 comes from an older textual tradition than the material found in Genesis 1:1-2:3. Scholars think the section from Genesis 2:4 onward was once part of a separate textual tradition known as the 'E Text' or the Elohist Text because the writer in this tradition uses Elohim as the plural name of God (singular El) and because it is written in a dialect probably associated with the Northern kingdom of Israel around Ephraim. Paleography and linguistics would date this section to about 799-700 BCE in the northern kingdom of Israel. Contrast with the P Text and the J Text, or click here for more detailed discussion. If students are reading a study Bible like the Anchor Bible series, the editors helpfully mark in the margins which sections come from the E Text, the J Text, or the P Text.
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