The year 2011 marks the 300th year after the publication of Henning Bernard Witter's path-breaking discovery of criteria for uncovering a specific source behind the biblical book of Genesis. In 1711, this well-educated pastor in Germany published "Jura Israelitarum in Palaestinam Commentatione in Genesin perpetua" (Israelite laws in Palestine, comments on the eternal Genesis...), where he noted several important differences between the seven-day creation account in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and the story of the garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4-3:24.
The two stories use different designations for God ("God" and the name Yhwh, often translated Lord), are stylistically distinct in other ways, and duplicate each other in describing the creation of plants, animals and humans (in different orders). These observations led Witter to propose that Gen 1:1-2:3 was not written by Moses himself, but instead was an oral song adopted by Moses in the process of writing the Pentateuch.
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