It originated, not among the higher ranks of Christian philosophers, but among the more fervid Fathers of the Church, whose own writings prove them to have been unlearned and uncritical persons.
Every age, from the second century to our times, has offered men of great ability, both Christian and Jewish, who have altogether repudiated these claims.

Their decision has been founded upon the intrinsic evidence of the books themselves.

These furnish plain indications of at least two distinct authors, who have been respectively termed Elohistic and Jehovistic.

Hupfeld maintains that the Jehovistic narrative bears marks of having been a second original record, wholly independent of the Elohistic.

The two sources from which the narratives have been derived are, in many respects, contradictory of each other.