In this appropriately named article (see the title of this post), Konrad Schmid gives a brief historical sketch on how Biblical studies has viewed the literary connections of Genesis through Kings through recent years.
Two major theories regarding the composition of those books has dominated the field until recently. Some scholars have proposed that the Genesis-Joshua actually makes up a 6-book literary work known as the Hexateuch. They hold to this theory for two reasons: 1) they claim to be able to find evidence of the four Pentateuchal sources (JEDP) in Joshua and 2) Joshua thematically completes the Torah by giving Israel the land that God promised them (Josh 21:43).
The second theory is most often associated with Martin Noth (although he was influenced by Albrecht Alt). He proposed that the first four books (Genesis-Numbers) is one work, and the books Deuteronomy through Kings make up the “Deuteronomistic History (DH).” He argues that Genesis-Numbers exhibits “no Deuteronomistic editorial activity” although he concedes that the books do evidence some Deuteronomistic “reworking.” He also argues that the DH shows no signs of the other Pentateuchal sources (JEP).
This brief historical sketch sets the stage for Konrad’s examination of what he calls “the von Rad-Noth compromise.” Von Rad maintained that Genesis-Joshua displays a “broad narrative arc” – holding to the theory of an original Hexateuch. He, however, makes one major concession to Martin Noth: the “earlier text form was no longer extant in Joshua, because it had been replaced when the hexateuchal narrative was combined with the [DH].” In other words, von Rad proposed that we have lost the “original” Hexateuch. Schmid points out that the major problem with this thesis is:
This model must come to terms with an immense loss of text. It presupposes that the Yahwist’s and Elohist’s accounts of the conquest of the land were lost when their texts were combined with the Deuteronomistic History. This is not only quite inelegant, but also highly improbable.
Von Rad’s concession punts to Noth’s model. If we do not have the Hexateuchal sources for Joshua and Deuteronomy, from a compositional stand point, we are forced to divide the DH from the Tetrateuch (Genesis-Numbers).
Martin Noth also made a concession. He agreed with von Rad that an “older” Hexateuch existed: “He proposed a composition that developed from several independent traditions – what he calls ‘major themes’: ‘Guidance out of Egypt,’ ‘Guidance into Arable Land,’ Promise to the Patriarch,’ and so on.” He further argued that Hexateuch developed from “oral prehistory in premonarchic times.” As Schmid notes, this proposal leads Noth to make comments to the effect of: We can study the book of Numbers in its “Pentateuchal context” (because research has shown that it was a part of a Pentateuch) even though Numbers itself shows little evidence coherence among narratives written within it.
Scholarship has recently moved away from this separation model that Noth originally proposed. Blum, for instance, has postulated the existence of a a “pre-Priestly D-composition” in Exodus through Deuteronomy. Blum’s arguments along with Thomas Romer’s thesis that “Genesis and Exodus were not found together in a single literary work before the composition of the Priestly code” and the identification of a Priestly layer in the DH, Konrad offers a two-point summation of current scholarship: 1) the Priestly document probably did not cover all of the Pentateuch and 2) Joshua-Kings contains evidence of a “priestly” influenced redaction. Thus, scholarship is moving toward a thesis of at least seeing Exodus-Kings as a literary work.
nathanielcooley 
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