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The Torah redactor (R) is the person who, according to the documentary hypothesis, joined together the various source texts (The Deuteronomist text (D), the Priestly text P, and JE (an earlier joining of the Jahwist text (J) and the Elohist text (E))) of the torah into a single work.

The torah redactor

Scholars think that the redaction together of JE, P, and D, was a result of the keenness for the Persian emporer for hebrew national unity once the hebrews were sent back from the Babylonian exile. JE and P contained rival histories and rival religious views, P and D contained rival law codes. Both had to be kept to avoid alienating each group, but the differences needed to be ironed out so that people were certain what the law code and history was.

Ezra was instructed by the Persian emporer to read out the text of the Torah to those returning from exile. However, when Ezra did so, the assembled crowd, according to the biblical Book of Nehemiah, reported that certain things were new, and had not been heard of before. In particular, a law, usually ascribed to R, concerning the Festival of Booths, is reported as never having been carried out before.

Many scholars think that the redactor, R, was Ezra, as he was the priest empowered by the Persian emporer (an extremely powerful man at the time) to assert whatever he thought the religion ought to be as the state religion. Ezra was instructed to uphold the religious text that he carried with him back from the Babylonian exile, and upon reading it out to the assembled people returning from exile, many thought that some elements were new and had not been read before.

Ezra was an Aaronid priest (a priest claiming descent from Aaron), and as such would have favoured P-like texts, which is also a characteristic of the texts added by R. The similarity between P and R lead many early scholars to conclude that R was part of P, although this neglected the fact that in such a situation, P would have needlessly duplicated JE in the Torah, when it could have just rewritten and replaced it, and consequently today such an idea is generally discredited.

Ezra was also a scribe and had a great interest in the Torah (set his heart on seeking out the Lord's Torah - Ezra 7:10). In addition, a long standing ancient tradition, recorded in the 2nd century AD in the apocryphal Fourth Book of Ezra (the 1st book is the Book of Ezra, the 2nd is the Book of Nehemiah), claims that Ezra wrote the Torah himself as the result of a revelation from God, the original having been destroyed when the earlier temple was burnt down by the Babylonians. Jerome also reports this tradition in the 4th century AD, stating that there was no objection to people stating Ezra was the renewer of the Torah.

The redaction

The majority of the redaction is composed by splicing together the JE version and P version of each story (and inserting the text where there is no opposing version) either dispersing small parts of each story into the text of the version in the other text, or placing the other version of the story afterward.

It appears that sometimes the redactor felt it necessary to add minor details to make the resulting combination of each story appear sufficiently whole (such as adding the names from the JE version text to the P version text in the story of rebellion against the priesthood at Numbers 16, or adding a description of the Pharoah's opinion to the Plague story at Exodus 8,9,10,11).

The JE, P, and D texts also appear to have had very little cut from them, and seperating the texts present in the Torah produces quite well flowing results which do not appear to have much gap. However, a few stories appear to have had parts cut so as to join up properly, a good example being that of the Heresy of Peor (Numbers 25), where the text in the torah does not appear to contain the end of the JE version or the start of the P version.

The combination of P and JE appears to have been enhanced by R to form a more continuous work than simply being a collection of stories and law, by occasionally inserting parts of other minor source texts. These texts are

• The Book of Generations, an early text apparantly simply describing genealogies, and having a textual style similar to P. This text appears to have been used to add a stronger narrative continuity to stories in Genesis. This is used only in Genesis, at 5:1 - 28, 5: 30-32, 7:6, 9:28 - 29, 11:10(ii) - 26, 11:32, 25:12, 25:19, 36:2 - 30
• The Station's list, a text describing the places that the hebrews wandered during the exodus. It is present in Numbers, at 33:5 - 37, 33:41 - 49. Many, or all, of the more narrative elements composing the remainder of Numbers 33 may also be part of this text. Parts of the text are also used throughout Numbers and Exodus by R to provide narrative continuity between stories. The text itself may be an independant record of the exodus story.
• Additional sacrifice laws have been added in Numbers at 15:1 - 31, 28, 29, and an additional ritual is specified for the feast of Booths in Leviticus at 23:39 - 43 (insisting that people actually live in a tent during the feast). These appear to take a similar form to laws in P, and may be later developments amongst the Aaronid Priests

In combining the relevant part (i.e. that finishing the story of Moses, and containing the law code) of D into the torah, it appears that R chose merely to move the stories in JE and in P of Moses' death, and the appointment of Joshua, to the other side of D, so as to avoid Moses appearing to die twice.

Passages ascribed to the torah redactor

The parts of the Torah usually identified as R are

• Genesis

• 2:4(i) (Creation)
• 5:1 - 28, 5:30 - 32 (Generations of Man)
• 7:6, 9:28 - 29 (The flood)
• 10:1(i) (Generations of Noah)
• 11:10 - 27(i) (Generations of Shem and Terah)
• 22:11 - 16(i) (Isaac's Binding)
• 25:5 - 6 (Keturah's sons)
• 25:12, 25:19 (Generations of Ishmael and Isaac)
• 33:18(only Paddan Aram) (Israel obtains Shechem)
• 36:1 - 30 (Generations of Esau)
• 37:2(i) (Joseph and his brothers)
• 48:7, 49:28 (Jacob in Egypt)

• Exodus

• 1:1 - 5 (They who travelled to Egypt)
• 4:21(ii), 6:13, 6:26 - 30 (Moses' summoning)
• 8:11(ii), 9:35, 10:20, 10:27, 11:9 - 10 (Moses faces the pharoah)
• 12:37(i), 12:50 - 51 (The escape of the slaves)
• 13:20, 15:19 (Crossing the Red Sea)
• 15:22(i), 15:27 (A water supply)
• 16:1 (A food supply)
• 17:1 (A water supply)
• 19:2(i) (The holy mountain)
• 34:1(ii) (Moses' theophany)

• Leviticus

• 23:39 - 43 (Commanment for the Feast of Booths)
• 26:39 - 45 (Return from exile)

• Numbers

• 3:1, 9:15 - 23, 10:13, 10:28 (Leaving the holy mountain)
• 15:1 - 31 (Law of sacrifice)
• 16:24 (only Dathan and Abiram), 16:27(i) (only Dathan and Abiram) (The rebellion against the official priesthood)
• 20:1(i) (A water source)
• 20:22 (Aaron's Death)
• 21:4(i) (Nehustan the bronze serpent)
• 21:10 - 20 (Wandering)
• 22:1 (Balaam)
• 26:9 - 11 (The Census)
• 28, 29 (Law of sacrifice)
• 33:1 - 49 (Locations visited)

• Deuteronomy

• 32:48 - 52 (Moses' Death)

(Where i and ii denote the first and second sentences in a verse respectively)