documentary hypothesis

documentary hypothesis

English

Etymology

Calque of German Urkundenhypothese.

Proper noun

documentary hypothesis

  1. (theology) The hypothesis that the Pentateuch consists of two or more, usually four, originally distinct major documents. [ca. 1840]
    • 1842, The Princeton Review, volume 14, page 205:
      Out of this rare discovery have sprung the documentary hypothesis, the fragmentary hypothesis, and we know not how many more hypotheses, each of which has been maintained for a time, as self-evidently true, and then exploded.

Translations

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