SOURCE: "Interpreting Literary Sources: The Yahwist and the Promise" in Literary Criticism of the Old Testament, Fortress Press, 1971, pp. 43-64.

In the following essay, Habel dissects the literary structure and style of the Yahwist in order to recognize the writer's characteristic way of interpreting Israel's past.

As a literary artist the Yahwist¹ has been compared to Homer and as a theologian to St. Paul. These accolades may be true but they may also prove a smoke screen for the beginning student of the Pentateuch. He wants to see the evidence for a Yahwist source beyond the texts of Genesis 2-9. We could, of course, follow the lead of most introductions to the source hypothesis of the Pentateuch and list all proposed Yahwist style and theology. Such a method is comfortable. It adopts the findings of some great scholar and assumes that the evidence for identifying the Yahwist writer...