The original Torah and writers and who were they?

Did Moses take the whole Torah on Mt Sinai or was it written in the Davidic era by several authors.I think most people have heard of the J,E,P,D test theory with the oldest thread being likely a female from the court of Somomon/Shlomo which would dates to the 10th century(900’s) BCE.This is the J text which stands for the text using JHVH or YHVH as the name for God.

The E or Elohist text which dates to an unknown author in the 9th century(800’s) BCE.For the single use of Elohim for God.

The P or priestly text which is believed to have been written by Levitical priests in Judah before and maybe just after the Babylonian exile ,so we are looking at late 7th early 6th century BCE.

D text is for Deuteronomy(Devarim) ,Deuteronomy means second law or said again and the Hebrew Devarim means words or matters/issues.The D text is believed to be the books of Deuteronomy,Joshua,Judges and maybe Kings.Some believe the lost scroll found by King Josiah was Deuteronomy.

This is the belief by most modern secular scholars have that the Torah had 5 basic threads that were woven together by scribes that created a Torah in the fourth century in the era of Ezra.Those of faith do not dispute that Ezra was the first to call the 5 most important scrolls “Torah” meaning teachings and make them 5 parts of one book.Those who truly believe the Bible does go back to Moses believe the 5 scrolls existed as 5 different books going back to about 1450-1350 BCE.But all accept that it was Ezra who took the ancient 5 scrolls and called them one book called Torah or Chumash (Greek,Pentateuch) Chumash mean of 5 or 5 of (5 books)

The difference is that secular scholars believe it took from the 10th century BCE to the era of Ezra for the Torah to evolve,whereas I believe the Pentateuch existed since Moses but Ezra simply organized it.

What is the J text,it’s a thread that people feel was part of scribes weaving the books of the early Torah and is called J for the use of the Holiest name for God(YHVH)to refer to God in certain parts of the early Bible

People I know who are super shrewed in human language grammar can tell or feel a scribal change in the Hebrew text(I’m not that clever with semantics LOL)has happened.Many people feel J was a woman not just by a more feminine tone in grammar but in the female hero stories like Rivkah,Leah or Sarah for instance.A theory is that the J was written in the court of Solomon ,maybe a concubine or something.I don’t doubt female scribes may have copied the Bible and before the printing press at times slight tweeks may have been made in texts and also don’t feel that scribal error rules out divine inspiration,scribal error may have been part of divine inspiration.God may have used scribal tweeks and scribal error over time as a means to improve the Bible.So yes changes in text maybe improved the hard copy source Moses first took in stone in 1350 BCE.Remember the J text is not a physical scroll but a theory of a written thread that wove scrolls over time.The J text is hypothetical not actual.

E text same idea as the J except for the use of Elohim for God and the E was written 100 years later but still a hypothetical thread not a physical document.People say the use of the word Horeb instead of Sinai is a E text trait.Many more scholars doubt this texts historical existence.Like I said before changes in scribe is a real issue in pre printing press days and God in his omniscience used scribal tweeks and changes and ever error to improve the Torah because God knew without a printing press that copying a document over and over again things would change a little.

P text or Priestly text generally refering to the Zekodite (righteous or just) priests.They were a line of priests from Judah in Jerusalem and these priests are believed to have been the inspiration for the Sadducees (from Hebrew Z’dukim)not to say the Sadducees were imagined but that the Saducees took there indentity from the earlier Zedokites(righteous ones).

People feel parts of scripture exaulting Aharon or Aaron and the prietly class and down playing Aaron’s involvement in the sin of the golden calf were the P text.That the Zedukites portrayed the priests in the Bible in a more favorable light than the J or E text scribes.

D text or that is Deuteronomy/Devarim (likely also Joshua and Judges too)

I’d agree it’s most likely that Joshua/Yehoshua wrote Deuteronomy and parts of Joshua with scribes filling in later parts after Joshua died.

Because Deut. is so synoptic and goes over other material and Moses can’t write about his own death.I think Joshua tried to give an overview of the Torah in a concise scroll .Sort of like in the New Testament where three authors tried to re-write gospels they did not like and better each other and you got three similar gospels.Or the Misha Torah by Maimonides thinking of one book to do it all.I do in that sense believe in a D text but secular historians don’t have a clear date on D as they do on the others but they date it later than I do.

Although I do believe that in very early times there was some room for variation in scribal copying especially being that language itself in older times was not as absolute.In todays world language is taught in schools and there is a clear right way of doing it.In ancient times I think that language did vary more by local dialect than a uniform way of writing or speaking.The dead sea scrolls have small differences in writing style from the Masoretic text and even letter changes.The DDS seem to rely more on consonants to imply vowels sort of like modern Hebrew does(I think they call that the K’tiv chaseir style,I could be wrong)

Whereas the Masoretic text has complex nikudot to make vowels clear.

Biblical scholars much more educated than I know that before the codification of the Masoretic text(masoretic means tradition or handed down)

“The differences attested to in the Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that multiple versions of the Hebrew scriptures already existed by the end of the Second Temple period.^[1] Which is closest to a theoretical Urtext is disputed, as is whether such a singular text ever existed.^[2] The Dead Sea Scrolls, dating to as early as the 3rd century BCE, contain versions of the text which have some differences with today’s Hebrew Bible.^[3][1] The Septuagint (a Koine Greek translation made in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE) and the Peshitta (a Syriac translation made in the 2nd century CE) occasionally present notable differences from the Masoretic Text, as does the Samaritan Pentateuch, the text of the Torah preserved by the Samaritans in Samaritan Hebrew.^[4] Fragments of an ancient manuscript of the Book of Leviticus found near an ancient synagogue’s Torah ark in Ein Gedi have identical wording to the Masoretic Text”(from wikipedia)

Before the Tanakh or Old Testament was locked down in the Masoretic text there was some language variation from scroll to scroll.So far as the J,E,P,D theory ,I think it’s nonsense but I do think that scribal variance was real and scribal error as well, and all of it was part of the greater plan.Biblical scholar Michael Heiser said there was a uniform Masoretic text in the year 100 CE and he was very knowledgeable(sadly he died in 2023)

I personally have read that the oldest known copies of the Masoretic text go back to the middle ages with the Aleppo Codex going to late 10th century CE and the Leningrad Codex to the later 11th century CE.So this will end part I and we will move on.