The Making of the Pentateuch Pentateuchal origins the composition and dates of the first five books of the Old Testament. In the closing decades of the 19th century Julius Wellhausen published "Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels", in which he had set out the definitive version of the historical development of the Hebrew bible. According to this hypothesis, the Pentateuch Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy was originally four separate documents, retelling the same episodes and stories, but with differing emphases designed to further the theological and political agendas of their authors. Their combination by a Redactor (editor) into a single narrative spread over five books had
Hans Heinrich Schmid Hochschule Bethel). In the summer semester 1976 he was Professor of Old Testament scholarship and general history of religion at the University of Zurich. From 1988 to 2000 he served as rector of the University of Zurich. During his tenure, in 1998, the University of Zurich became an independent legal entity of the Canton of Zurich. Hans Heinrich Schmid was married in 1962 and had two sons and two daughters. Schmid was a respected authority on the question of Pentateuchal origins (the question of how the first five books of the bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Book of Numbers and