Hopefully, now, I will be less busy. Sigh... been working way too much, and finally, it's time for a much needed vacation. ;)
Before I go, I'll follow up on a promise (quite a while ago) to blog about JEDP. [As an aside, I really do miss the Tyndale classes which were mentally, spiritually, and even emotionally stimulating. However, I'm thankful for the small opportunities here and there that allow me to do the same thing on an informal basis...]
You can easily read more into JEDP at Wikipedia. However, as a summary, as part of biblical research, there is a study called "documentary hypothesis". The Documentary Hypothesis studies how the Bible came into its final form, especially focusing on the Jewish Torah, also known as the Pentateuch of the Bible -- the first five books. Although the Pentateuch is generally attributed to the hand of Moses, the hypothesis proposes that there were four "root" sources: the Jahwist (J), Elohist (E), Deuteronomist (D) and the Priestly (P) sources. These four sources had their own writings and collections, and finally, some redactor (or, editor, but academically referred to "R") took pieces of each of J, E, D, and P, and put together what is known now as the Pentateuch.
Researchers have come up with this hypothesis as a result of different and unique styles that occur throughout the Pentateuch, most prominently through the words used to describe God (hence their names) and other foci for each of the four sources.
Anyway, I won't explain too much more... the documentary hypothesis isn't studied that much anymore -- it is more of a "modernist" approach starting during the mid-to-late 1800's. Whereas it is interesting to dig into the possible sources of each studied text, the more "postmodern" approaches take the Bible as a text as it is presented in its final form [what we generally do now]. Many older Bible commentaries will, however, go into the nuances of each JEDP source for each verse -- and that was what I was sifting through for my assignment on Exodus 1-15.
That's all!
So... other than getting some much needed rest from work, I hope the vacation does give rise to some reflection time; probably not difficult at all as we take in some views of God's amazing creation.
Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.