Editing Hexateuch (section)

==Overview==
The term ''Hexateuch'' came into scholarly use from the 1870s onwards mainly as the result of work carried out by [[Abraham Kuenen]] and [[Julius Wellhausen]].<ref name="NS"/> Following the work of [[Johann Gottfried Eichhorn|Eichhorn]], [[Wilhelm de Wette|de Wette]], [[Karl Heinrich Graf|Graf]], [[Abraham Kuenen|Kuenen]], [[Theodor Nöldeke|Nöldeke]], [[John William Colenso|Colenso]] and others, in his ''[[Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels]]'' Wellhausen proposed that Joshua represented part of the northern [[Yahwist]] source (''c'' 950 BC), detached from  JE document by the [[Deuteronomist]] (''c'' 650&ndash;621) and incorporated into the [[Deuteronomic history]], with the books of Judges, Kings, and Samuel.

Reasons for this unity, in addition to the presumed presence of the other documentary traditions, are taken from comparisons of the thematic concerns that underlie the narrative surface of the texts. For instance, the ''Book of Joshua'' stresses the continuity of leadership from [[Moses]] to Joshua. Furthermore the theme of ''Joshua'', the fulfillment of God's promise to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, complements the thematic material of the Pentateuch, which had ended with the Israelites on the border of the Promised Land ready to enter.

The thesis that ''Joshua'' completes the Torah in a "Hexateuch" may be contrasted with the view of scholars following the older rabbinic tradition, expressed by the compilers of the [[Jewish Encyclopedia]] (compiled between 1901 and 1906), that the Pentateuch is a complete work in itself.<ref name="Jacob1904"/> The thesis may also be contrasted with the view put forward by [[Eduard Meyer]] (1855–1930) that there never was any ''Hexateuch'' per se, but that the Law (that is, the Torah), ''Joshua'', ''Judges'', ''Samuel'', and ''Kings'' all together once formed one great historic work.<ref name="NS"/>