Editing Priestly source (section)

===Date===
[[Julius Wellhausen]], the 19th century German scholar who formulated the [[documentary hypothesis]], fixed the chronological order of its sources as the [[Yahwist]] and [[Elohist]], followed by the [[Deuteronomist]], and last the Priestly.{{sfn|Rendtorff|Kugler|Bartlet|2003|p=13}} At the end of the 20th century a growing number of scholars placed both the Yahwist (the narrative strand) and the Priestly material (a mix of narrative and legal material) in the late Neo-Babylonian or Persian periods.{{sfn|Bedford|2001|p=8}} Liane M. Fieldman (2023) considers the composition of the Pentateuch “in the fifth through fourth centuries BCE,” and Priestly source being the last addition, could have been added around fourth century BCE.{{sfn|Feldman|2023|pp=5, 6-7: "A number of scholars understand the priestly stratum to be the latest source, written after all the others [...] Since the formation of the Pentateuch [was] in the fifth through fourth centuries BCE, scholars have often assumed that the redacted form of the Pentateuch is the primary text for early Jewish communities going forward"}}

While most scholars consider P to be one of the latest strata of the Pentateuch, post-dating both J and D,{{sfn|Van Seters|2015|p=57}} since the 1970s a number of Jewish scholars have challenged this assumption, arguing for an early dating of the Priestly material.{{sfn|Carr|2014|pp=455-456}} Avi Hurvitz, for example, has forcefully argued on linguistic grounds that P represents an earlier form of the Hebrew language than what is found in both [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]] and [[Book of Deuteronomy|Deuteronomy]], and therefore pre-dates both of them.{{sfn|Hurvitz|1982}}{{sfn|Hurvitz|2000}} These scholars often claim that the late-dating of P is due in large part to a Protestant bias in biblical studies which assumes that "priestly" and "ritualistic" material must represent a late degeneration of an earlier, "purer" faith. These arguments have not convinced the majority of scholars, however.{{sfn|Van Seters|2015|p=57}}