ESATEUCH.
- A name given by many modern Protestant and rationalist critics (Ewald, Knobel, Kuench, Wellhausen, Holzinger, Driver, Cornill, Gautier, etc.) to the complex formed by the first 6 books of the Bible, because they hold that Joshua (v.) forms a single compilation with the Pentateuch.
Joshua too is held to be composed of the same “documents” as the Pentateuch: in the historical part there would be the “documents” J (Yahwistic) and E (Elohistic); in the geographical part P (priestly code); the Deuteronomist (D) would likewise have set his hand to II. The adherents of the “critical” theory are, however, far from agreeing as to the identification of these “documents.”
Apart from the fundamental arguments against the critical theory of J. Wellhausen (v. PENTATEUCH), the theory of the E. must be rejected, because Joshua, the first of the “former prophets,” was historically always distinct from the Law (or books of Moses); the Samaritans, who admit only the Mosaic Pentateuch, do not even possess II.
The Wellhausen theory was extended by other critics also to Judges and Samuel (“Octateuch”), and sometimes also to Kings (“Enneateuch”).
Vincento M. Iacono