Chapter 9 A Brilliant Mistake Summary and Analysis

The brilliant mistake involves the identification of the P, or priestly, author of the Bible. Friedman asserts that in any scholarly investigation, mistakes are bound to be made. He suspends his judgment regarding earlier biblical scholars because what they had done correctly outweighs their mistake, and the mistake itself had led to a better understanding of who wrote the Bible.

Time frame holds the central place in the brilliant mistake. For many years, scholars had considered that J and E had come from an early period during the time of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Also, D was considered originating in the middle period, which was during King Josiah's time. The question then became when was P written? This represents the vast majority of the Pentateuch, about the same amount of writing as the...