Footnote 1 – Part I: Israelite Origins

Professor Cross speaks of the Epic tradition as embodying the JE strand of the Pentateuch. Scholars divide the pentateuch into four principal authorial strands: J for the Yahwist (Jahwist in German) because Yahweh is the customary appellation of God in this strand; E for the Elohist because Elohim or a form of that name is the customary appellation if God in this strand; P for the priestly code and D for the Deuteronomist. J and E were combined at an early time. In addition, Professor Cross and some other scholars have been able to detect a first and second edition of D. Finally, the whole was put together by redactor often referred to as R.—Ed.