Page 250 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

230 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

Law to the general public (after the time of Moses) did not occur until
Ezra's promulgation c. 449 E.C.E. Note that there is a massive gap of over
170 years from the time of the Law's rediscovery (621 B.C.E.) to Ezra's
recital. 11

ii. History of the Torah According to Modern Scholars

It willbe useful to start with a chronological outline of the OT books based
upon generally accepted conclusions of Biblical criticism. The following
table is from C.H. Dodd, The Bible 1Oday.12
Note: the dates given are rather sketchy, and seem inclined to shift up
and down on an occasional basis. Rowley has discussed the different trends
in the dating of OT books," but such discrepancies will not have much
bearing on the outcome of this discussion.

Century B.C.
XIII (or Exodus from Egypt
earlier?) Oral traditions
XII (?) Settlement in Palestine (laws, legends,
poems) preserved
XI Wars with Canaanites, etc. in later writings.
Foundation of Monarchy
(David, 1000 B.C.) I
X Court chronicles begin (incorporated in later books).
IX Early laws and traditions written down: Judaean
collection (1') and Ephraimite collection ('E'), later
I
incorporated in Genesis-to-joshua.
I
VIII Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah. (Fall of Samaria, 721 B.C.)
VII Josiah's Reformation, 621 B.C.: Deuteronomy,Jeremiah,
Zephaniah, Nahum.
VI Habakkuk,Judges, Samuel, Kings. (Fall ofJerusalem,
586 B.C.). Ezekiel, 'II Isaiah', Haggai, Zechariah.
V 'Priestly' laws and narratives of Genesis-to-joshua ('P')
written on basis of earlier traditions. Malachi, Job.
IV Compilation of Genesis-to-joshua (out of T, 'E', 'P'
and Deuteronomy).

11 Dictionary ofthe Bible, p.954.
12 C.H. Dodd, TheBible To-dqy, Cambridge University Press, 1952, p. 33.
13 H.H. Rowley, The OT andModern Study, Oxford University Press, 1961, p. xxvii.