Critical scholars are divided over their interpretation

Critical scholars are divided over their interpretation of these texts. The classic form of higher criticism was Julius Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis, first published in 1878. Wellhausen argued that the Torah contains within it three strata of law that were composed at three distinct periods in the history of Israel: a Jahwist/Elohist strata (following the names used for God; the Jahwist is generally associated with the Kingdom of Judah and the Elohist with the Kingdom of Israel) from a time when there were multiple sanctuaries and altars and little distinction between laity and clergy; a Deuteronomist source composed at the court of King Josiah (649-609 BCE), when the authority of the Temple as the sole site for sacrifice was first definitively established; and a Priestly strata composed at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, who led Jews out of the Babylonian Exile mid-fifth century BCE, which reflects the dominance of the Temple and priesthood in the absence of the monarchy. According to this scheme, Exodus 20-23 and 34 were composed by the Jehovist and "might be regarded as the document which formed the starting point of the religious history of Israel."[15] Deuteronomy 5 would then reflect Josiah's attempt to link the document produced by his court to the older Mosaic tradition. In the decades following Wellhausen, many historians sought to refine the documentary hypothesis, for example by identifying different strands of Jahwist or Elohist sources. The argument was always that Israelite religion progressed from less to more ritually complex, and less to more legalistic. Dating a text first required determining how ritualistic or legalistic it was.

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