Julius Wellhausen

I.
Biography

II.
Philosophy

A.
Higher Criticism

B.
Rationalism, Evolution & Liberalism

C.        The
Documentary Hypothesis

III.
Conclusion

Biography. Julius Wellhausen
was born in 1844 in Westphalia, Germany. After his undergraduate studies
Wellhausen attended seminary. His ability to think theologically earned him a
position at a seminary after graduation. During his ten year tenure, year by
year, step by step he moved away from the idea that the Old and New Testaments
came to man by divine inspiration. In turn, he developed a method of
interpreting the OT which was later called higher criticism.

Higher Criticism. Higher criticism is
concerned with studying the literary type, the content, and it’s conformity with
the social customs of the times. Some of this research sheds additional light on
the text and is helpful. However, these higher critical methods eventually
became negative higher critical
methods. Negative higher criticism assumes that the evolutionary history
developed by modern philosophical science is basically correct. Upon this
assumption, the Bible becomes subject to this pre-established evolutionary
history. In short, the Bible is twisted to fit the evolutionary model. These
non-biblical presuppositions become the final criterion for the critic’s
evaluation of the Bible. The ultimate result is that the living Word is reduced
to a mere human drama, a dead book. Thus, negative higher criticism is
unacceptable to the conservative student of Scripture who accepts the Biblical
text as the final criterion for life and practice, regardless of the conclusions
of modern scientific and philosophic speculation.

Rationalism, Evolution, and
Religious Liberalism. Two factors played a role in the development of
Wellhausen’s philosophy. First, rationalism. Rationalism supposed that
man’s finite reason was an adequate final reference point for knowledge. German
rationalism had been on the rise for many years after the Enlightenment in
Europe and Wellhausen adopted this rationalistic framework of thought applying
it to the interpretation of the Bible. Second, Darwin’s evolution. Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859 advanced
Wellhausen’s rationalistic tendencies by providing an evolutionary framework to
interpret reality and harness rationalism. Because Wellhausen was a Christian
and had influence at the Seminary level, rationalism eventually crept into
orthodox Christianity, resulting in what is commonly called Religious Liberalism. Darwin’s
framework of evolution deeply influenced other Christian scholars as well,
causing them to deny the biblical doctrines of Creation, the Fall, the Flood,
the Noahic Covenant, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection and any other
supernatural events because they didn’t fit the uniformitarian premise of
naturalism. Everything in the Bible was re-interpreted in a way that
‘supposedly’ correlated with the scientific data.

The Documentary Hypothesis. The product
of Religious Liberalism was
Wellhausen’s Documentary Hypothesis. This work interpreted the Scriptures
compilation from a strictly naturalistic framework. The Documentary Hypothesis
challenged the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and the date of writing by
placing it much later. Below is a summary of Wellhausen’s conclusions:

Genesis
2:4b-4:26 is attributed to J; 1:1-2:4a belongs to P

Genesis 5:29, J; 5:1-28 and 30-32, P

Genesis 6:1-8, J; 6:9-22, P

Genesis 7:1-5; 7, 10, 12, 16b, 17b, 22a-23a; 8:2b-3a, 6-12, 13b, 20-22;
9:18-27, J

Numbers 15:1b, JE; 14:3-4, J; 14:8, 9, 11-25, JE; 14:1a, 2, 5-7, 10,
26-30, 33-38, P

Deuteronomy 34:1b-6, E;
32:48-52, P; 34:1a-7, 12, P

Deuteronomy 7:6, 8-9, 11,
13-16a, 17a, 18-21, 23b-24, 8:1-2a, 3b-5, 13a, 14-19, 9:1-17, 28-29,
P

Code: J = Jahveh, a man who lived around
900BC; E = Elohist, lived around
750BC; JE = Jahveh/Elohist, an
editor who added to prior resources; D = most of Deuteronomy, the law found
by Josiah in 621BC; H = Holiness
Code in Lev. 17-26 around 600BC; P =
Priestly Code, priests during the exile around 400BC.[1]

Of course,
Wellhausen’s conclusions can only be drawn by denying the authority of the Bible
and it’s claim that Moses was the sole author of the Pentateuch. Since
Wellhausen assumes the evolutionary premise is true he subsequently concludes
that pre-historic peoples were polytheists and later historic peoples evolved
into higher, loftier monotheists, such as the case of Israel. From his
perspective he doubted whether Moses could even read or write, thus, denying his
authorship of the Torah from square one. By subjective methods of interpretation
Wellhausen deconstructed the text and proposed unnamed authors.

Wellhausen’s
presuppositions have led to the downfall of orthodox Christianity. Most
Christians and certainly all non-Christians assume that the Bible is a mere
human book and that finite limited man is the seat of true rationality. The
supernatural accounts in the Bible were written by superstitious observers and
must be interpreted in some naturalistic way. And all this is based on what?
Limited observations by finite fallible men of current scientific laws.

Conclusion. Let’s face it, Wellhausen’s
rationalism resulted in a religious liberalism that has destroyed the Church’s
faith in God’s words. We ask as Satan once asked Eve, “Has God said?” Has God
really said this or is it just compilations of human writings? Is it just a
human book? Wellhausen so destroyed the authority and surety of God’s word that
there are few left who believe that God has said it once for all. Few follow the
maxim that God’s word is the sole
authority in every area of life and every area of life equally. Most,
even within Christianity, are enslaved by the universally-embraced origin myth
of evolution.

[1]
Pache, Rene, The Inspiration and
Authority of Scripture (Salem, WI: Sheffield Publishing Company, 1992),
251-252.