Priestly source - Definition and Overview

The Priestly Source (P) is one of the sources of the torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis

Nature of the Priestly text

This source is thought to have written the majority of the book of Leviticus, as well as stories that parallel those in J (the Jahwist text) and in E (the Elohist text).

P uses Elohim and El Shaddai as names of God. P treats God as a trancendental and distant figure who acts only through priests, and is communicated with via the priesthood. In P, God is unmerciful, but Just, applying brutal punishment when laws are broken.

P emphasises the position of the priesthood and of Aaron, and always presents Aaron as being present when Moses does something on God's behalf, and states that it is Aaron's staff that God works miracles through, rather than Moses'. P also denigrates Moses' ability to continue to perform as leader by stating that, on descent from having become close to god at the mountain where he received the commandments, he was disfigured in such a way that no-one could bear to look at him. The disfigurment of Moses was traditionally considered that Moses was given horns, an idea that persisted even into the renaissance, to the extent that paintings of Moses by Michaelangelo depict Moses as being horned.

P is notable for its repetition of lists, cold unemotional descriptions, and the lack of a high literary standard. P is regarded by the majority of scholars as particularly inelegant, and most think themselves able to recognise a text from P on sight due to this.

The dating of the Priestly text

P is considered by the documentary hypothesis to have been written at a time after the fall of the northern kingdom (as supported by textual analysis, in the same way that modern english would be recognised from the english of Chaucer's time).

Early theories asserted that P was written after the Babylonian exile, claiming that P appears to have been written after the Prophets ceased (since it doesn't mention Prophets, and the Prophets don't mention P), the references to a tabernacle was a coded reference to the temple to support the priesthood and the new temple (because it appears to not be mentioned elsewhere), centralisation is assumed as being normal.

However, later versions of the documentary hypothesis have discredited such a theory, claiming that the lack of mention of Prophets is due to the desire by P to assert that only the priesthood can act as intermediaries with god, that the prophets do use P (for example, Ezekiel uses certain passages from P word for word), that the tabernacle was a reference to an object put inside the temple - under the cherubim (its dimensions corresponding), and that centralisation was something that the creator of P desired to enforce.

Since P follows the layout and stories of JE, but uses a later form of Hebrew, it is thought that the writer of P must have seen the text of JE, and as such P must date after JE was created. JE is associated with the fall of biblical Israel, and thus requires P to have created after 722BC. However, Ezekiel, and other quotes from P, date from the time of king Hezekiah, whose interests P matches, and afterwards, and thus require P to have been written before the end of Hezekiah's reign in 687BC.

The period implied by such working is of some time during the reign of after 722BC and before 687BC.

The origin of the Priestly text

this section describes the opinion of the documentary hypothesis without taking into account the opinion of certain religious groups that hold the texts to be from Moses or from god

King Hezekiah carried out a religious reform, centralising the religion into the Temple at Jerusalem. Hezekiah destroyed the high places (religious centres outside Jerusalem), and eliminated all religious symbols outside the Temple (including the Nehustan).

According to the documentary hypothesis, JE came to the attention of Aaronid priests during Hezekiah's reign after his reforms. JE contained the story of the Golden calf, denigrating Aaron. JE contained stories supporting a human-like God who is merciful, and can act through intermediaries other than priests. JE supported multiple religious locations. JE told the story of the Nehustan. JE had been circulating since 722BC.

The documentary hypothesis states that a priest chose to re-write JE to suit the reform and the Aaronid ideal. As such, their new text, P, followed JE and duplicated its stories, cutting out those elements which did not suit, such the Golden calf story.

Where the author read a story of a personal action by God, or a mystical plant or object, it was rewritten to produce a distant god, or simply cut (for example, P describes a more esoteric creation story, and refers to the idea in it, that the earth is a bubble inside a pool of water, in the flood story - unlike JE which simply claims it rained).

Where the author read a story describing an action by a talking animal, or some other non-Aaronid intermediary, including Moses, P rewrote it to assert Aaron's involvement or that of his descendents (for example, changing things as having occurred due to use of Moses' staff into requiring the staff of Aaron).

Some stories the author changed to assert the sole judisdiction of Aaronid priests, for example by changing the story of a rebellion (JE and P are combined as Numbers 16) from one against Moses by a few challengers, into one against the priesthood of Aaron by non-Aaronid levites.

Some stories were changed because other editing by the author made it necessary, for example, Joshua was added as another scout who supported Caleb's opinion to explain why Joshua became the leader, since the stories about the golden calf (where Joshua was the one who did not succumb) and of Joshua guarding the tabernacle (which P cut as P only allowed priests into the tabernacle) had been excluded.

A few stories are created entirely by P, such as that of the cave of Machpelah, to assert Aaronid claims (in the case of Machpelah, in order to justifying the importance of the Aaronid city of Hebron, in which the cave was situated).

The author of P also desired to assert a set of laws whose opinion suited the Aaronid priesthood and King Hezekiah. P added these into the middle of the text, making it appear as if they were part of the commandments Moses received from god. These appear in the Torah as the majority of the book of Leviticus, specifically chapters 1 - 22, 24, 25, 27, and verses 1 to 38 of both chapters 23 and 26, the remainder of Leviticus being added by the redactor of the torah.

The prophet Jeremiah lived under the king Josiah (a later king than Hezekiah), and originated from the Shiloh priesthood. As such Jeremiah would have been hostile to P, and would have preferred JE in preference to it. On one occasion Jeremiah (according to the Book of Jeremiah) states How do you say "We are wise, and the Lord's torah is with us"? In fact here it was made for a lie, the lying pen of scribes, which many supporters of the documentary hypothesis think is a reaction to P.

Passages ascribed to the Priestly source

The parts of the Torah usually identified as P are

• Genesis

• 1, 2:1 - 2:3 (Creation)
• 6:9 - 22, 7:8 - 9, 7:11, 7:13 - 16(i), 7:21, 7:24, 8:1 - 2(i), 8:3(ii) - 5, 8:7, 8:13(i), 8:14 - 19, 9:1 - 17 (The flood)
• 10:1(ii) - 7, 10:20, 10:22 - 23, 10:31 - 32 (Noah's descendents)
• 11:27(ii) - 31, 12:4(ii) - 5 (Abraham's journey)
• 13:6, 13:11(ii) - 13:12(i) (Lot and Abraham)
• 17 (Abraham's covenant)
• 16:3, 16:15 - 16 (Hagar, Ishmael)
• 19:29 (Sodom and Gomorrah)
• 21:1(ii), 21:2(ii) - 5 (Isaac's birth)
• 23 (The cave of Machpelah)
• 25:7, 25:8(ii) - 11(i) (Abraham's death)
• 25:13 - 18 (Ishmael's descendents)
• 25:20 (Rebekah)
• 26:34 - 35, 27:46, 28:1 - 9 (Esau)
• 31:18(ii) (Jacob's return)
• 35:9 - 15 (Jacob is renamed Israel)
• 35:23 - 29 (Jacob's descendents, Laban and the return of Jacob, Isaac's death)
• 37:1 (Joseph and his brothers)
• 41:45(ii) - 41:46(i) (Joseph meets the pharoah)
• 46:6 - 27, 47:27(ii) - 28, 48:3 - 6, 49:29 - 33, 50:12 - 13 (Jacob in Egypt)

• Exodus

• 1:7 (Descendents)
• 1:13 - 14 (The hebrews become slaves)
• 2:23(ii) - 25 (God hears Israel)
• 6:2 - 12, 6:14 - 25, 7:1 - 9 (Moses' summoning)
• 7:10 - 13, 7:19 - 20(i), 7:21(i) - 22, 8:1 - 3(i), 8:12 - 15, 9:8 - 12 (Moses faces the pharoah)
• 12:1 - 20, 12:28, 12:40 - 49 (The escape of the slaves)
• 14:1 - 4, 14:8, 14:9(ii), 14:10(i), 14:10(iii), 14:15 - 18, 14:21(i), 14:21(iii) - 23, 14:26 - 27(i), 14:28 - 29 (Crossing the Red Sea)
• 16:2 - 3, 16:6 - 35(i), 16:36 (A food supply)
• 19:1 (The holy mountain)
• 20:1 - 17 (The ten commandments)
• 24:15(ii) - 18(i) (The holy mountain)
• 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 (The Tabernacle commandments, The sabbath commandment, The tablets)
• 34:29 - 35, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 (Moses' disfigurment, Creation of the Tabernacle)

• Leviticus

• 1(chapter) - 22(chapter), 23:1 - 38, 24, 25, 26:1 - 38, 27 (Almost all of Leviticus)

• Numbers

• 1, 2, 3:2 - 9:14, 10:1 - 12, 10:14 - 27 (Leaving the holy mountain)
• 13:1 - 16, 13:21 - 22, 13:25 - 26, 13:32, 14:1(i), 14:2 - 3, 14:5 - 10, 14:26 - 38 (The report of the scouting party)
• 15:32 - 41 (Violations of sabbath and clothing)
• 16:1(i), 16:2(ii) - 11, 16:15 - 24(except Dathan and Abiram), 16:26, 16:27(i) (except Dathan and Abiram), 16:32(ii), 16:35 (The rebellion against the official priesthood)
• 17, 18, 19 (Aaron's descendents and the Levites, The red heifer)
• 20:1(ii) - 13 (A water source)
• 20:23 - 29 (Aaron's death)
• 25:6 - 19 (Heresy of Peor)
• 26:1 - 8, 26:12 - 65 (The Census)
• 27 (Zeleophehad's daughters, The appointing of Joshua)
• 30, 31 (Annulling women's vows, the defeat of Midianites)
• 32, 33:50 - 56, 34, 35, 36 (Tribal allocations)

• Deuteronomy

• 34:7 - 9 (Moses' death)

(Where i, ii, and iii denote the first, second, and third sentences in a verse respectively)