Elohist

[e-loh-hist, el-oh-]

noun

1. a writer of one of the major sources of the Hexateuch, in which God is characteristically referred to as Elohim rather than Yahweh.

Elohist

/ ɛˈləʊhɪst /

noun

1. Old Testament the supposed author or authors of one of the four main strands of text of the Pentateuch, identified chiefly by the use of the word Elohim for God instead of YHVH (Jehovah)

Other Word Forms

• Elohistic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Elohist¹

1860–65; < Hebrew ĕlōah God + -ist

Example Sentences

It is well known, and has long been critically demonstrated, that chapters vi., vii., viii. and ix. of Genesis contain two different narratives of the Deluge, the one taken from the Elohist document, the other from the Jehovist, both being skilfully combined by the final editor.

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We may observe, however, that in Genesis it is only the Elohist—always much addicted to figures—who gives the dimensions of the ark.

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But what is, on the contrary, of very decided importance, is the absolute disagreement as to the duration of the Deluge between the Elohist and Jehovist, as well as between the two and the Chaldeo-Babylonian narrator.

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Now the dates of the Deluge, given by the Elohist, and re-stated as we have been doing according to Michaelis and Knobel, accord perfectly with these phases of the rising and falling of the two Mesopotamian rivers.

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None of the repetitions of the final text of Genesis are observable in the Chaldean poem; which, on the contrary, decisively confirms the distinction made between the two narratives, the Elohist and Jehovist, interwoven by the last compiler of the Pentateuch.

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