Ahyh's Preface

Hi there.  I'm very glad to be able to present this material to The Community.

In September 2003 I got an email:

In A Bible Study in God Consciousness you wrote: 

WHY NOT TODAY? I can write on all of these issues rather extensively. After I cover the basics (like guidelines to study the Bible - not telling people what to think but how too) and the info above... I can continue on with the ABC's of systematic theology...

Bibliology (study of the Bible)

Christology (study of Christ - Yeshua Messiah)

Ecclesiology (the study of the church)

Eschatology (study of end times)

Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit - Ruach HaKodesh)

Soteriology (the study of salvation)

And I don't necessarily mean confining it to these areas, nor do I necessarily mean that it has to be from a systematic theology perspective, rather that we could cover theses areas. 

It would require (to do it right) at least a month (four lessons) per each major theme. This would delve into Old Testament commentaries (Tanakh) and New Testament info (B'rit Hadasha) [both my commentaries, and other relevant ones], study guides, q and a (if you would allow me to have access to the email it generates). It could go into an examination using the 5-fold consciousness (Individual, Societal, Environmental, Universal, God) as it relates to each theme. Another main theme I could add would be the Jewishness of the New Testament. Maybe showing them how this all relates to the MODERN click-and-go society.

Well Ahyh, let me know what you think. As for context I think it would be a cross between a course towards Universal God Consciousness and how we should live...

Love ya, Pheonix

Well, that's an offer too great to pass up.

I've known Will (aka Pheonix) for a couple years now.  One of the great joys of "doing" TCoY is being able to meet people like Will.

To make a long story short....Will is taking upon himself this task.  I am proud to offer it as a part of TCoY's Opus.

I'll let him introduce the topic and himself.  I just want to make a few remarks.

1. Will is the author of this document.

2. I shall be inserting my own comments as I feel so inclined.  My "voice" shall be blue italicized, so you can recognize me.

3. You shill see some things that are shocking to many.  Some things that may shock or offend you.  We present ideas, methods.  Feel free to agree, disagree, and feedback: wrd979s@smsu.edu

4. Among them, you shall see that Will & I do not always agree on things.  This open disagreement is a part of the dialogue.  

5. If nothing else, we must learn on this planet that doctrinal agreement is NOT the basis for fellowship.

6. TCoY's virtual-pulpit is indeed open.  My "agreement" with a topic is not a requirement, as long as I can offer my view.

I am grateful to Will for doing this.  I am very excited about the journey.

Peace and love, Ahyh

Will's Introduction

To Walk In The Dawn Of Dreams

By Pheonix

When forever comes will you be there

governing lands I’ve never seen

walking in the dawn of dreams

moving in the hearts of beings of a different path ~ a land

where life will flow like falling rain

and the breath of serenity ends universal pain

will I know what comes with peace when life on Earth is done

will I hold the stars and kiss the sun

will I move through time like Moses through the sea of reeds

will I follow angels to a new eternity to the heart of God

it’s hard to mold the words to bless the man

who conceived of me before the womb

who destined me for something greater than the tomb

I live in a world of prayer longing for the day

when in your splendor I would eternally reside

in the residence where I would more than hide

humanity is the blessing of God given

to a spiritual people who forgot who they are

but I remember who I am and I know who you are

and that before the stars were named

a glory that would be yours alone was claimed

the essence of creation was your design

meant to be a method of turning man from chance to choice, a sign

that the soul of God desires to be reached by the heart of clay

until the day that God reached within Himself to breathe

His essence into the only thing that He knelt to craft, all of eternity

indeed the universe in all its glory ~ was nothing but a story

in the presence of God known by the angels who were made to praise

A Jewish Blessing:

Baruch atah Adonay (Whenever I recite these blessing(s) I always use The Divine Name.  So, I actually say "Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh"), Eloheynu melech ha'olam, tsur kol-ha'olamim, tsadik bechol-hadorot, ha'El hane'eman, ha'omer ve'oseh, hamedaber umekayem, shekol-devarav emet vatsedek.  Ne'eman, atah hu Adonay ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh") Eloheynu, vene'emanim devareycha, vedavar echad midvareycha achor lo-yashuv reykam, ki El melech ne'eman verachaman atah.  Baruch atah Adonay ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh"), ha'El hane'eman bechol-devarav.  Rachem al-Tsiyon, ki hi beyt chayeynu, vel'aluvat nefesh toshia bimherah veyameynu.  Baruch atah Adonay ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh"), mesame'ach Tsiyon bevaneyha.  Samechenu, Adonay ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh")Eloheynu, be'Eliyahu hanavi avdecha, uvmalchut beyt David meshichecha. Bimherah yavo veyagel libenu, al kis'o lo yeshev zar, velo yinchalu od acherim et kevodo, ki veshem kodshecha nishbata lo, shelo yicbeh nero le'olam va'ed.  Baruch atah Adonay ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh"), magen David.

Blessed are You - the Lord ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh" - If I am in private, or around people who know anything at all about the Bible, I still say "Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh" even in "English."  Each letter matters, the Name matters.  That is, after all, entirely what TCoY is about.) our God, King of the universe, Rock of all ages, righteous in all generations, the faithful God, who says and does, who speaks and fulfils, for all His words are truth and righteousness.  Faithful are You, O Lord ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh") our God, and faithful are Your words, and not one of Your words returns unfulfilled, for You are a faithful and merciful God and King.  Blessed are You - the Lord ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh"), who art faithful in all His words.  Have compassion on Zion for she is the source of our life, and save her that is grieved in spirit speedily in our days.  Blessed are You - the Lord ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh"), who makes Zion rejoice through her children.  Bring us joy, O Lord ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh") our God, through Elijah the prophet, Your servant, and through the kingdom of the house of David Your anointed. May he soon come and gladden our hearts.  Let no stranger to sit upon his throne, nor let others inherit his glory; for by Your holy name You swore to him, that his light would never be extinguished.  Blessed are You - the Lord ("Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh"), the shield of David. 

Dear Reader,

            I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Will Dunn I also use “Pheonix” when posting to this site.  I am a 22 year old college student, living in Missouri.  I was called to be a minister when I was a kid (16) but it took some time before I could be rooted enough to do my faith justice. 

            I would like to devote the rest of my life toward the service of others, I am going to school for a degree in international business administration, hopefully out of college I can do work with the Peace Corps in Africa.

            I have been on a lifelong quest to find out more and more about God.  To love him more, learn more of him, to search out who He is and what He wants of me.  This church has helped me greatly.  Both in the discussion board of the past, and with our rabbi-preacher Ahyh.  Ahyh has become a close friend, and this church will always have a place in my heart for its fearless preaching of the truth, that we all are somehow connected in this endeavor of life, and that the Name of God must be glorified in thought, word, and deed.  To that end I hope you enjoy this joint effort between me and Ahyh.  I will comment, and he will comment, and hopefully the church can grow as a result.

            If any of you have any questions about my work, contact me please at: wrd979s@smsu.edu.  I look forward to our discussions.

Faith from Fire,

Pheonix שהד

The Bible is the source of life and light in a world that is dying and dark.  As a work of literature it is unparalleled.  As a source of faith it is a pearl of great price.  It chronicles the creation of man, his journey to understand his place in the world, and his struggle against his ego.  The Bible is not perfect, only God alone is, but the Bible does have a place for modern man despite its discrepancies.  Theology plays a role in trying to explain some of these discrepancies, and that is why it will play a role. 

The view as to how to approach the Bible is one of the most important issues a spiritual seeker can have.  Did God dictate it?  Were the author's "channeling God?"  Is it just nice human stories?  There are about as many different approaches as there are people.

I will give you mine.  The Bible faithfully recounts man's struggle to understand what "God" means, and who man is in relation.  The book, taken as a whole, shows mankind starting with a view of God as small, vindictive, war-like.  The dramatic pulse, so to speak, is mankind coming to understand that God is everywhere, in All, and that In Him we live, move, exist.  This is a God of pure love.  The entire process is one of God directing & unfolding, meeting mankind where it is, always trying to take human consciousness to the next level.

As a preliminary text I must insist you read On the Inerrancy of Scripture.

The major character in this story is Yahweh who, as the truly eternal God, sacrifices eternity to live in a moment (thru Yeshua) to bring eternity to man.  This is the nature of nurture, the nature of love; that a being of infinite compassion could intervene in a world that was desperate for healing.  This healing comes as we embrace Yeshua as Messiah (Jesus as Christ) and as we model our lives after His, including dying to ego (which we will discuss as the source of evil in the world, in detail in the commentary).

For those of you who can hear what I am going to say I bless you, and for those who can’t I pray for you that eventually you will.  The true miracle of the messiah is that we can pattern our lives after him in a very practical way.  The Bible, as much as I love it, is useless unless we do more than just listen to the preacher as he defines what it says.  We must search that out for ourselves.  The messiah is more than an object of worship (but He is that), he is also a real human being who lived in history.  His life is a model for us, His love is a light for us.  And if we want too, we CAN live like him. 

God Sacrificed Eternity To Live In A Moment To Bring Eternity To Man.

I am utterly convinced that, in the fullness of time, we will come to see the same mind in ourselves as was in Christ....That we have ALL sacrificed Eternity to live in Time.  God dies, so we can live, so we can die, so God can live.

It is a book that is thoroughly Jewish in origin.  It is for this reason that you will notice I quote a lot of Jewish sources; I do it to honor the past, while preserving the meanings for modern man.

So, as a brief overview of the Bible as a whole, here is what I have learned after years of study.  I will keep it as condensed as possible. 

This was a book that has its roots in oral tradition.  After a long time of these stories being told about the great men of our faith were codified.  This means that people gathered the stories that were written down and they chose what was allowed to be kept in the Bible as we know it today.  The books were originally written in Hebrew (a later form of Aramaic) and in a very old language called Aramaic that is not spoken anymore (except by a few in the world) [known as the Targum’s]. 

It went thru a process (like the new covenant I will discuss in a moment) in which certain books were kept, and others were not.  This process is known as canonization.  The books that were kept were granted a special authority as the truly inspired words of God, while those that were not were confined to the title “apocrypha” or “Pseudepigrapha.” To spare you the complications of a lot of history beyond our current scope, it is important to know that the Old Testament as we have it today was closed as a Cannon at the Council of Jamnia around (roughly) 70 A.D.

Simply put, we do not have the “original” document of ANY book in the Bible (old or new testament).  The oldest parchments of Old Testament are from about 900 C.E.  The “original” documents would be at least 1000 years younger than that date.

Also, as you will see momentarily the books themselves are often the product of revision and editing.  In some cases this is thru the documentary hypothesis, in others it is thru the scribes who copy the documents. 

The Bible you see today is the product of a process.  For instance, did you know that the oldest copies we have of the O.T. books were written without vowels or punctuation marks.  Due to equidistant lettering even the space in the words was added later.   The chapter and verse numbers you read were likewise added later by scribes as were distinct paragraphs in the Bible.  Look at the next sentence for what equidistant lettering would look like today (without the vowels that would have been added later too).

tdymgnttlkbttldtstmntndthnwtstmnt

Would you have been able to comprehend that that sentence meant: "Today I am going to talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament."  No.  So what we have is a group of Jews who get together and they say, “we need to be able to tell when there is a vowel some how, and some punctuation marks would be nice too.”  So the Masoretes who are responsible for the Massoretic text do just that, they put points on the bottom of the letters, they event a system for punctuation (which is called cantilation marks). 

The Massoretic text then is the text that most scholars go to when studying the Old Testament, their other choice is the Samaritan text. 

After they had the Tanakh (discussed shortly), they went about writing their own commentaries on it.  So we have the Talmud (Palestinian and Babylonian), and the Mishna, Midrash, Tosefta, and Kabala.  These various “commentaries” on the Bible are from thousands of years of rabbis studying the Bible and trying to teach it (usually one on one with disciples) to the people.  These are sources of unspeakable wealth for any student really interested in knowing what the group of people who actually wrote the Bible had to say about it (the Jews on the Jewish Bible).

They also had legends about a lot of different topics, and these legends are known as Aggadah (or Hagada), and the teachings on the law were known as Halakah.  It is like we have legends about George Washington, and Columbus.  The Aggadah are a great source of beauty when studying the Bible and you will see some in this commentary.  The Halakah is an excellent source if you want to know how the law was interpreted by the rabbis.

The Old Testament (also known in Hebrew as the Tanakh – for the first letters of the groups of books underlined in the following) contains a few sections.  These are: Torah (the first five books), Nevi’im (Prophets, both early and later, and the twelve (the last 12 prophets in our version, from Daniel – Malachi), and K’tuvim (writings, like psalms, proverbs and others). 

Another way to classify them, that is more “English” is to say that it starts with the Pentateuch (first five ‘books of Moses’), then followed by historical books (basically Joshua – Esther), poetical books (basically Job – Songs of Solomon), and prophetic books (from Isaiah – Malachi).

The major themes of the Old Testament is God working thru several covenants to chisel out a people with a distinct history and purpose (The Jews, whose purpose was to be the people of the covenant, later our Messiah would come from them).  As Yahweh works with these people, they fail at times miserably. 

After the period of the judges they chose for God to stop being their king, and they then become people with a distinct state history.   After Solomon dies, the kingdom splits into two distinct areas; Israel in the north, Judah in the south. 

This is when the prophets come along.  These men were the vessels of the voice, carrying divine messages from God to man, concerning their need for repentance; and the coming calamities if they didn’t.  Also, it was with these people that Yahweh finally reveals His plan to bring about the messiah, our kinsman redeemer and lord.

These men were the vessels of the voice, carrying divine messages from God to man, concerning their need for repentance; and the coming calamities if they didn’t. 

An Overview of the Old Covenant:

The New Covenant:

The purpose of the New Covenant is to reveal to mankind the promised messiah, who is to take away the sins of the world and restore the kingdom of Yahweh.  To this end, it records the deeds of Yeshua Messiah (His name means “salvation” and His title means “anointed one”) that prove Him to be the messiah promised in the prophecies of old.  His works prove Him to be unique, His love proves Him to be worthy of the title Son of God.  He is the manifestation of Yahweh on Earth.  The New Covenant begins with the lineage of the messiah, and it ends with His promised return to set up an everlasting kingdom of peace. 

Its purpose is also to show us our true destiny, calling mankind to a "quantum-shift"" in consciousness.

His works prove Him to be unique, His love proves Him to be worthy of the title Son of God. 

The New Covenant is a collection of books that were originally written in Hebrew and were translated into Greek (and later Latin); though the oldest copies are Greek (we have lost the Hebrew originals to time). 

Possibly...The Hebrew origin of the NT is a disputed theory, one which I personally accept, but that is not universally acknowledged.  In addition, none of Paul's letters are thought to have Hebrew antecedents, at least that I know of.

What we know as the New Testament also went thru a process of canonization.  There were three main “councils” where they decided what would be kept as a part of the new cannon, and what would be left out. 

This process was largely politically driven.  Several “heresies” were running rampant in the church and so the Catholic Church convened councils to address these issues.  “To form a New Testament canon was to give special importance to the written tradition, imparting a fixity which protected it against adulteration (McManners, 31).” These three councils were held in Nicaea, Ephesus, and Trent.  The Bible that we read today, as far as the New Testament goes was found in a list by Athanasius in the early 300’s A.D. 

Let’s look at a theological concept that fits well here shall we.  Inspiration.  As in the inspiration of the scriptures.  There were in the old day’s two basic views.  One was that “inspiration was an enhancement of natural, rational discernment, not a suspension or abolition.”  The second view was that “inspiration was mantic possession: the divine… took over the voice of prophet or prophetess, and employed the human agent as a musician plays a lyre which has no mind of its own (McManners, 33).”  In other words, when the Bible is said to be the inspired word of Yahweh, you can look at it in two ways.  Choice one says that Yahweh enhances their abilities to hear and to speak and to write.  Choice two says God more or less possesses the person and literally speaks thru them or literally writes thru them.  I hold to choice one.

I honestly hold to choice three...They contemplated God and His Will to the best of their ability.  Sometimes they got it right, sometimes not so right.  We must, each and every one of us, do the same in our daily lives: Contemplate God, proclaim & live the Highest we know.

So, after we have the Bible then what?  The early church community was historically considered a Jewish sect.  Only after years of divergence did we come to a different “religion” “apart” from Judaism.  It is my belief that we must get back to the historical roots of our faith if we are to understand its place in modern times.

After several years we developed the Catholic faith.  They were our ancestors, and we owe a lot of our theological stances to them.  There was a major spilt in the church after a man named Martin Luther posted the 95 theses at Wittenberg in 1517 citing problems he had with the catholic church of his day.  Why is this important?  It is this event that created the split of the Christian faith into three distinct parts.  One is Catholicism, the other (following Luther) is Protestantism, and a third is Eastern Orthodox.

After many, many years; the protestant church has splintered into thousands of subgroups called denominations.  The Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church however, haven’t fractured much in several centuries. 

The New Covenant (which in Hebrew is called the B’rit Hadasha) is divided into a few sections too.  The first books are the four gospels (or the Good News of our Messiah).  The first three are called synoptic, because they go together.  This is followed by the Acts of the Apostles (who was the central figures in the establishment of the early church, including Paul [Sha’ul]) which chronicles the history of the early church as they learned to live for the messiah and to love each other.  After this you have several letters (epistles) that Paul wrote to the churches he started up.  Then you have some pastoral letters.  This is followed by general letters, and finally you have Revelations. 

An Overview of the New Covenant:

Jewish Blessings for the Torah and the Sabbath:

It has been said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  When you eat your meal, at least in the days of sanity that have left us, we would pray a blessing over the meal.  Sometimes these were formal, and other times not. 

The Torah is like the bread of life (metaphorically speaking, not literally speaking).  It is the word that sustains us, and compels us to be more humane in our daily lives.  As a sign of respect for the Bible, the Jewish people in today’s world pray a blessing before they read it, and after they read it. 

These are just one set of blessings you can read before and after reading the Bible.  Just like at the dinner table the blessings may vary there are many blessings for the Torah and Haftara.  What matters is that we take time to be thankful for the word we have in front of us, after all men have died to preserve it, prophets have preached to come back to it, and the Messiah came to fill it, and to fulfill it.

Before Reading the Torah:

Baruch atah Adonay (YHWH) Eloheynu melech ha'olam, asher bachar banu mikol-ha'amim, venatan lanu et-torato.

Blessed are You - the Lord (YHWH) our God, King of the Universe, who has chosen us from all peoples and has given us His Torah.

Baruch atah Adonay (YHWH), noten hatorah

Blessed are You - the Lord (YHWH) , Giver of the Torah.

After reading the Torah:

Baruch atah Adonay (YHWH), Eloheynu melech ha'olam, asher natan lanu torat emet, vechayey olam nata betochenu.

Blessed are You - the Lord (YHWH) our God, King of the universe, who has given us the Torah of truth, and has planted everlasting life in our midst.

For the Sabbath:

Al-hatorah, ve'al-ha'avodah, ve'al-hanevi'im, ve'al-yom haShabat hazeh, shenatata lanu, Adonay (YHWH) Eloheynu, likdushah velimnuchah, lechavod uletif'aret.  Al-hakol Adonay (YHWH) Eloheynu, anachnu modim lach umevarechim otach, yitbarach shimcha befi kol-chay tamid le'olam va'ed.  Baruch atah Adonay (YHWH), mekadesh haShabat.

For the Torah, for the divine worship, for the prophets, and for this Sabbath day which You, O Lord (YHWH) our God, have given us for holiness and for rest, for honour and for glory.  For all these we thank You and bless You, O Lord (YHWH) our God: Blessed be Your name by the mouth of every living being continually and for ever.  Blessed are You - the Lord (YHWH), who sanctifies the Sabbath.

The Documentary Hypothesis:

There are two theories as to who wrote the Pentateuch.  One says it was Moses, another, the documentary hypothesis, believes that it is a collection of authors from different sources. 

Those who say it was Moses who wrote it site Philo (the life of Moses 3:39), and Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 4:8, 45; Contra Apion I.8), the apocrypha (Ecclesiasticus 45:4, 2 Maccabes 7:30).  Nelson Reference Bible page 3.

However, there is another view, which I personally hold.  It is known as the documentary hypothesis.  This theory basically says that there are four sources that go into making the Pentateuch (Torah, first five books of the Bible).  These sources are J, E, P, and D.  J is the Yahweh source, E is the Elohim source, P is the priestly source, and D is Deuteronomy.  The following quoted material is from: Interpreting the Old Testament ©1964 by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, INC. Written by: Walter Harrelson, pages 29-30 and 38-39 are quoted. 

“In 1711 Witter published a study of the Pentateuch in which he showed that Genesis 1:1-24 (“…created”) and Genesis 2:4 (“In the day…”) were parallel accounts of the creation, which used very different names for God.  In 1753 Jean Astruc developed the understanding (in reference to Genesis) that two parallel sources ran throughout the entire Pentateuch. He assumed Moses wrote Genesis, but that he employed a number of sources to do it.  Eichhorn (1780-1783) carried the analysis of Witter and Astruc much further.  Ilgen in 1798 identified two other sources which used the divine name Elohim [as in Gen. 1:1-24 (“…created”)] and one (possibly two) which used the divine name Yahweh. (Holt, Reinhart, Wilson: 29-30)”

“Geddes (1792 and 1800) and Vater (1802-1805) found it difficult to trace actual sources throughout the Pentateuch and thus formulated the view that the Pentateuch had been composed of a number of fragments, the composition of which being the work of an editor.  Geddes recognized that the fragments must have come from two distinct circles, the one using Elohim as the name of the deity, the other Yahweh.  Vater argued that the basic element among the fragments was the law book Deuteronomy (Holt, Reinhart, Wilson: 29-30).”

 “The next stage in the process of analysis was the argument that one basic document (that using the name Elohim) provided the core of the Pentateuch.  Other documents and fragments, some early some late, supplemented the contents of this basic document.  Ewald (1831) was the foremost representative of this position (Holt, Reinhart, Wilson: 29-30).”

“The so-called new document theory began to take shape with the work of Hupfield (1853).  Hupfield identified the three major documents of the Pentateuch which (together with Deuteronomy) were to be considered the basic strands of the Torah literature for many generations.  In Genesis, Hupfield distinguished an ancient source which used the name Elohim for God, a later source which also used the same divine name, and a still later source which used the name Yahweh.  His oldest Elohist source was the one later designated P; hence the dates of the sources were in exactly the reverse order from that subsequently adopted by literary critics: Hupfield – P, E, J; later critics J, E, P.  Hupfield also argued that a redactor or editor had combined the three sources into the present book of Genesis.  (Holt, Reinhart, Wilson: 29-30)”

“The classical position of documentary analysis of the Pentateuch was the creation of Reuss (1833), Graf (1866), Kuenen (1869-1870) and Wellhausen (187601877).  The last named scholar developed the theory into its most attractive and compelling form and it has subsequently been linked inseparably with his name.  The question of the dates of the four sources: J, E, D, and P were debated hotly, but the majority of judgment was the order was JEDP.  Wellhausen’s argument is brilliantly stated and defended.  He places the Judean source J, characterized by the divine name Yahweh, in the ninth century BC.  He assigns the North Israelite or Ephramitic source E, marked by the use of the divine name Elohim, to the eighth century BC.  The book of Deuteronomy (identified by de Wette in 1805 with the law book found in the temple in Josiah’s day, 2 Kings 22-23), together with the other materials in the Pentateuch (the source D), comes from the seventh century BC.  Finally, the priestly source P is assigned to the exilic or post exilic period.  Redactors or editors were held responsible for the combination of the various sources into the present Pentateuch, the entire process having been completed by about 400 BC.  We may indicate the process as follows:  J(850) + E (750) = JE (700) + D (650) = JED (600) + P(500) = JEDP (400).   (Holt, Reinhart, Wilson: 29-30)”

Here's my official position on the JEDP hypothesis: I couldn't care less.

Don't get me wrong; I'm glad Will is covering it here, and I think all informed persons should be aware of the "Higher Critical Method."  In many ways it is a great form of honor & respect to the Scriptures...Every word, every verb-form, is analyzed & compared to its context.  So often those who "most worship" the Scriptures just ignore it.

That being said, my personal approach is one of a Radical Existentialist Religion.  What exists?  The text.  What it says, etc.  Its history and origin, frankly, matters almost not at all.  

Look...We are presented with this Book, the Bible, almost from birth.  As informed, aware beings, we owe it to ourselves to encounter this Book, and glean from it the most we can.  For me, the historicity is important, but not nearly so much as what is says & matters to me, here & now.  Sometimes historical context can help inform the text, and let us know more about how we should relate to it today.  For example, the historical context of Jesus' remarks about "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's" greatly affects a correct interpretation of those words' application today.  But whether a document was written by one person or many does not change the text on the page.

In the extreme, if someone was to produce a video tape proving that the whole Hebrew Bible was written in 1912 by a guy in the Bronx named "Frank," I would not care at all.  It would mean nothing.  For I have lived the life of deliverance, I have talked to the Burning Bush, and know its Voice.

The following table indicates the basic literary blocks of the Pentateuch material: