Pentateuch People

• Jean Astruc: Convert to Catholicism. Published “Conjectures about the notes that Moses appears to have used in composing the book of Genesis”. Observed different names for God. He supposed that different source documents had been woven together in the composition of Genesis. His observation was gradually developed by later scholars into a full-fledged documentary hypothesis which addressed the composition of the entire Pentateuch (Collins).

• Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) German Biblical Scholar developed a method called form criticism in early 20th century. Especially worked it out in commentaries on Genesis and Psalms.

• Carlo Maria Martini, SJ Cardinal (born 15 February 1927) is an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. Wrote on the "word of God" NJBC: ch.65, “Inspiration,” (Raymond F. Collins); ch.72, “Church Pronouncements,” (Raymond E. Brown and Thomas A. Collins, OP). 1023-33; 1166-74.

• Claude Schaefer: Archaeologist who excavated a field near the Mediterranean coast. Uncovered the Ugaritic Text.

• Herodotus: Greek historian

• George Smith: A young curator at the British Museum was able to read a Babylonian tablet on which he had found a flood story like that of Noah, but hundreds perhaps thousands of years older (Boadt)