Wikipedia's first sentence called it “one of the sources of the torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis this article describes the opinion of”. Today it says “shown as j”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Relationship between humans and soil; The separation between the divine and human; Progressive human corruption”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015
Jahwist , or Yahwist , often abbreviated J , is one of the sources of the Pentateuch ( Torah ), together with the Deuteronomist , the Elohist and the Priestly source .1It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh (German Javeh, Hebrew YHWH ) for God in the book of Genesis. During most of the 20th century the dominant belief among scholars was that the Torah had been composed by intertwining four originally separate and complete documents, of which the Yahwist was one—this was called the documentary hypothesis . In the last quarter of the 20th century the consensus over the documentary hypothesis unravelled, and although it still has supporters there are now many alternatives. These alternatives can be broadly divided between "fragmentary" and "supplementary" models (hypotheses). Fragmentary hypotheses, seen notably in the work of Rolf Rendtorff and Erhard Blum, see the Pentateuch as growing through the gradual accretion of material into larger and larger blocks before being joined together, first by a Deuteronomic writer ("Deuteronomic" means related to the Book of Deuteronomy, which was composed in the late 7th century BCE), and then by a Priestly writer (6th/5th century BCE), who also added his own material. The "supplementary" approach is exemplified in the work of John Van Seters , who sees J (which he, unlike the "fragmentists", sees as a complete document) being composed in the 6th century BCE as an introduction to the Deuteronomistic history , the history of Israel that takes up the series of books from Joshua to Kings . The Priestly writers later added supplements to this (hence the term "supplementary") in a process that continued down to the end of the 4th century BCE.2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 664986305.
The opening as it stood in 2005
The Jahwist (J) is one of the sources of the torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis This article describes the opinion of the documentary hypothesis without taking into account alternative opinions; see the documentary hypothesis article for details on the disputes to this theory
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 17092658.
The opening as it stood in 2010 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Jahwist , also referred to as the Jehovist , Yahwist , or simply as J , is one of the four major sources of the Torah postulated by the Documentary Hypothesis (DH).It is the oldest source, whose narratives make up half of Genesis and the first half of Exodus , plus fragments of Numbers .J describes a human-like God , called Yahweh (or rather YHWH ) throughout, and has a special interest in the territory of the Kingdom of Judah and individuals connected with its history.J is believed to have been composed in c 950 BC ( thus being most ancient part ) and later incorporated into the Torah ( c 400 BC).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 368780142.
The opening as it stood in 2020 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
One of the four sources of the Torah Not to be confused with Yahwism .Diagram of the supplementary hypothesis , a popular model of the composition of the Torah .The Jahwist is shown as J .Diagram of the 20th century documentary hypothesis.J: Yahwist (10th-9th century BCE) E: Elohist (9th century BCE) Dtr1: early (7th century BCE) Deuteronomist historian Dtr2: later (6th century BCE) Deuteronomist historian P*: Priestly (6th-5th century BCE) D†: Deuteronomist R: redactor DH: Deuteronomistic history (books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel , Kings ) The Jahwist , or Yahwist , often abbreviated J , is one of the most widely recognized sources of the Pentateuch ( Torah ), together with the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source .The existence of the Jahwist is somewhat controversial, with a number of scholars, especially in Europe, denying that it ever existed as a coherent independent document.Nevertheless, many scholars do assume its existence, and date its composition to the period of the Babylonian captivity (597-539 BCE) or perhaps somewhat later.The Jahwist is so named because of its characteristic use of the term Yahweh (German Jahwe , Hebrew יהוה ) for God.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 964857517.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
One of the four sources of the Torah Not to be confused with Yahwism . Diagram of the supplementary hypothesis , a popular model of the composition of the Torah . The Jahwist is shown as J . Diagram of the 20th century documentary hypothesis. J: Yahwist (10th–9th century BCE) E: Elohist (9th century BCE) Dtr1: early (7th century BCE) Deuteronomist historian Dtr2: later (6th century BCE) Deuteronomist historian P*: Priestly (6th–5th century BCE) D†: Deuteronomist R: Redactor DH: Deuteronomistic history (books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel , Kings ) The Jahwist , or Yahwist , often abbreviated J , is one of the most widely recognized sources of the Pentateuch ( Torah ), together with the Deuteronomist , the Priestly source and the Elohist . The existence of the Jahwist is somewhat controversial, with a number of scholars, especially in Europe, denying that it ever existed as a coherent independent document. The Jahwist is so named because of its characteristic use of the term Yahweh ( German : Jahwe ; Hebrew : יהוה ) for God.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1152711587.
The opening as it stood in 2025
One of the four sources of the Torah Not to be confused with Yahwism . Diagram of the supplementary hypothesis , a popular model of the composition of the Torah . The Jahwist is shown as J . Diagram of the 20th century documentary hypothesis. J: Yahwist (10th–9th century BCE) E: Elohist (9th century BCE) Dtr1: early (7th century BCE) Deuteronomist historian Dtr2: later (6th century BCE) Deuteronomist historian P*: Priestly (6th–5th century BCE) D†: Deuteronomist R: Redactor DH: Deuteronomistic history (books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel , Kings ) The Jahwist , or Yahwist , often abbreviated J , is one of the most widely recognized sources of the Pentateuch ( Torah ), together with the Deuteronomist , the Priestly source and the Elohist . The existence of the Jahwist text is somewhat controversial, with a number of scholars, especially in Europe, denying that it ever existed as a coherent independent document. The Jahwist is so named because of its characteristic use of the term Yahweh ( German : Jahwe ; Hebrew : יהוה ; English: Jehovah ) for God.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296891338. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “one of the sources of the torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis this article describes the opinion of”. Today it says “shown as j”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Relationship between humans and soil; The separation between the divine and human; Progressive human corruption”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
one of the sources of the torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis this article describes the opinion of
Now
shown as j
Sections that no longer exist
Present on October 6, 2023, absent today, with no near-matching heading in the current article and the article shorter overall, so this is not a renamed heading or a topic absorbed into a fuller treatment. 3 sections of 400 characters or more gone since October 6 2023, with the article 527 characters shorter.
Relationship between humans and soil
The separation between the divine and human
Progressive human corruption
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
