Page:A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges.djvu/47

Rh redactor. Kittel differs from almost all recent critics in denying the existence of a pre-Deuteronomic Book of Judges. The author of the Deuteronomic Judges ("Ri") collected the stories in 26–1631, combined parallel narratives (as in ch. 6–8), and embraced them all in his rigorous pragmatism and his schematic chronology. The traces of a different conception and style, which have been taken as evidence that this author worked upon the basis of an older book, are rather to be ascribed to the redactor of the present Book of Judges (R), who introduced a considerable number of glosses and some longer additions to the text of "Ri." This last redactor, who also joined 11–25 17–21 to 26–1631, himself belonged to the Deuteronomic school; but his style, formed on older models, is a degree nearer to that of E in the Hexateuch than that of "Ri." Kittel's theory thus gives us, instead of JE and D, a double Deuteronomic redaction which we might represent by D and Rd. The sources of the tales are not J and E, but unknown ancient collections.

The chronology of the Book of Judges presents a very difficult problem, on which a great deal of learning and ingenuity has been expended, without, as yet, leading to any generally accepted solution. The data contained in the book itself are these: