Documentary hypothesis says that there were several authors who wrote first five books of the Bible. In my essay I will try to discuss J, P, and E - authors of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers. I must admit that all these authors had lived after the division of the kingdom.
AUTHOR J
This author was identified as J for using word Yahweh or Jehovah for the name of God. Also there is an interesting theory that author J was a woman. Of course, there are statements that prove it. First of all I want pay your attention on the fact that we are speaking about patriarchal society where a man was a head of the family and the role of a woman was to give a birth to children. But in the Bible we can find verses and even whole chapters that tell us about women and sometimes show that these women are smarter than patriarchs. There are several examples.
The first one is creation of the Earth (Gen.2:4b-25). The author tries to show that culmination of the creation was a woman ? Eve. J writes that Adam could not find a helper among the animals and birds so God decided to create a woman from his ribs. In Gen.2:7 J plays with the word Adam which is related to the Hebrew word Adamah (ground). She points out that a man, animals and birds were created from a mud while a woman ? from a man. In Gen.3 the author indicates that Eve is more intellectually curious than Adam because the serpent speaks with Eve and she makes a decision to taste a fruit.
Second example is Rebekah. The whole chapter (Gen.24:1-67) dedicates to finding Rebekah. Then in Gen.27:5-17 J shows Rebekah as intelligent and sly person. She teaches his beloved son Jacob how to overreach Isaac. One more thing about J's sense of humor: she plays with names of Isaac's sons in Gen.25:25,26,30 - the first one is Esau (may ...