Umberto Cassuto as a Critic of the Documentary Hypothesis of the Origin of the Pentateuch

Abstract

The present article is devoted to the scientific heritage left by a major Jewish academician of Italian descent, historian and biblical scholar Umberto Cassuto (1883-1951). His main contribution to this field consists in large-scale criticism of the Documentary Hypothesis of the origin of the Pentateuch. In the main part of our article the author presents an outline of Cassuto’s views on the first of the five «pillars» onwhich the Documentary Hypothesis rests. The author endeavors to demonstrate that, using strictly scientific argumentation, Cassuto gives quite plausible alternative explanations to such phenomena as the Documentary Hypothesis claims its unique right to explain correctly. Instead of attacking and refuting any particular aspects of the hypothesis, Cassutoconsistently argues against the very principle according to which the Torah is divided among a number of «source texts» perceived to have once been independent of one another. As a matter of fact, U. Cassuto has presented a new scholarly paradigm with a potential that would suffice to make it a full-fledged substitution of the Documentary Hypothesis. In a second article on this topic the author intends to demonstrate Cassuto’s approach to the other four «pillars» of the Documentary Hypothesis as well as to devote special attention to the response that Cassuto’s ideas met in the world of Bible studies.