There was two principal writers that wrote the Bible originaly, The Elohist writer and the Yahwist writer
In the South, by the Eighth century before Christ, following the death of Solomon, there was a rebellion and civil war in the Hebrew nation, with the result that Canaan was split into a Northern kingdom called Israel and a Southern kingdom called Judah. In the South the royal house of David and the Jerusalem temple continued to be dominant institutions. The North however rebelled against the king of Judah and the temple. In many respects the writers in the Northern and in the Southern kingdoms shared many religious perspectives not only when it came to the ancient history of Israel but also the religious perspectives of their neighbours in the Middle East but by the eighth century before Christ they each begin to develop a distinct vision of God of their own. In the north a new form of worship and state had to be designed as a result of their rebellion against the south. These realities found expression a new version of Jewish history that was to be a unique product of the Northern kingdom.
In the North the people wrote down parts of scriptures emphasising their own traditions, their rebellion against the southern institutions of king and the Temple in Jerusalem had to be justified. So it was that between the years 920-850 before Christ, another court historian not one in Jerusalem but one in Samaria began to put together another story of Israel's life, he is known as the Elohist because the writer of this document called God by the more formal title Elohim and for this reason it is also called the "Elohist" document. It forms the second major narrative in what is now known as the Old Testament He was a priest associated with the sacred shrine of Bethel. He is somewhat more provincial, less sweeping, and more nationalistic. He begin his tale not with creation but with Abraham, whom he identified with eastern Bedouins rather than with the Chaldians of Ur. He gives us another interpretation of Israel's history and another revision of the Old Testament. His is the
Northern kingdom's version of many of the stories in the Yahwist document reflecting the value system alive in the Northern kingdom, a value system it was anti-dynastic and anti-king. The power the people gave their leaders could be withdrawn by the givers if the leaders failed to be sensitive to the peoples needs. It suggested that God made the original covenant not with the leaders or Moses or the royal family but with the people. This was the budding of a democracy and helped the people of the North to justify the rebellion against Solomon's son Rehoboam and the resulting creation of a new state that had no emphasis on neither a temple nor a sustaining royal family.
Exodus form the nucleus of major religious traditions in the Old Testament and it is in Exodus that we also discover different viewpoints of God. Faith in God was often in Old Testament times related to the exodus of Jews from Egypt as repeated in 1 Kings 9:9 ; Jeremiah 7:25; Ezekiel 20:6. Even the return from the Babylon exile was seen as a second exodus Jeremiah 16:14-15; Isaiah 43:14-21; 51:10-11. Moreover it is almost General knowledge that the law and especially the cultic laws attached to the ten commandments continued to gain in importance as time went on. In the time after the Babylon exile, in particular, everyday life became strictly regulated and emphasis was placed on the Law. It is expected that the events surrounding its origin be repeatedly read, retold, adapted and reinterpreted. In the Old Testament this emphasis on the Law is the work of the Priestly writers who edited Exodus however there remained in the book of Exodus a written record of more than one tradition of the Israelite religion. The story of the Exodus itself comes from one group and the events at Sinai that tells of the origin of the law come from another group. The combined exodus-Sinai story have originated at a later date under the penmanship of the priestly writers.
For the Yahwist writer, the human and the entire created order were indivisible bound together. All things were touched and brought into ruin by human weakness. This writer gave answers to the ancient people questions as why have humans beings been given dominance over animals? Why do human beings use language, have religion , wear clothing? Why are there rainbows? Why is there so many languages? The Yahwist tells us how the other nations of the earth came into being. The Ammonites and the Moabites came through Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters Genesis 19:30-38 The Arabs were descended from Ishmael, Abraham's first born son to Hagar, the Egyptian slave woman Genesis 21:8-21, and the Edomites were the children of Esau, Isaac's first born son who sold his birthright to his twin brother, Jacob Genesis 25:29-34; Genesis 27; Genesis 36:1 Even when the Yahwist writer narrowed his story to Israel, he still portrayed God as interested in all humanity. All nations are to be blessed through Abraham Genesis 12:3. Among many tribes it is common to view the whole creation as turning around their own god or gods, even in the tenth century before Christ.
The Yahwist writer viewed his nation from the vantage point of the province of Judah. The monarchy and the temple at Jerusalem were the twin authorities for him. He saw the king and the priest anointed and suggested that they ruled by Divine right. Rebellion against God was, therefore, not allowable. The Yahwist was an royalist and therefore he extolled the monarchy and the temple. He also believed the lines of authority is from God to the hierarchical leaders and only then to the people. The people related to God by supporting God's chosen ones. Even Moses was portrayed as chosen by God. In the Yahwist's version of the Ten commandments Exodus 34 there is no reference to God having rested on the seventh-day as the justification for the observance of the Sabbath. The reason for this omission is because the seven-day creation story of Genesis 1:1-2:4 had not yet been written. It was a much later work of art.
The Yahwist claim that men have worshipped Yahweh ever since the time of Adam's grandson, to the Yahwist, Yahweh always was the God of Israel and that is all that mattered as Yahweh was the God of Israel by the time he was writing, but the Priestly writer writing in the sixth century before Christ, claim that the Israelites had never heard of Yahweh until he appeared to Moses in the burning bush. The Priestly writer also makes God explain that he really was the same God as the god of Abraham, the fact that this needed to be made clear shows that there existed some controversy about this anyway but then this same God is made to say further to Moses that Abraham had called him "El Shaddai" as Abraham did not know him by the name Yahweh. That there existed an discrepancy between the Priestly writer and the Yahwist is something that the biblical writers and their editors merely glossed over, without stopping to think about it.
More coming soon!