A great part of the reason
for the acceptance of WellhausenÕs theory was his
skillful presentation of a particular idea
of the development of Israelite religion. This idea, however, has now been almost
universally discarded. Few scholars today hold to a theory of Hebrew religious development even close to that upon which Wellhausen based his idea for the sources of the Pentateuch. Yet his method of dividing sources
and his view of their dates are still be presented as
established fact.