Chapter 12 - 13 In the Court of King Hezekiah, The Great Irony Summary and Analysis

Friedman makes the case that the Deuteronomistic writer, Jeremiah, knew about JE and P. He attacks P as being from "the lying pen of scribes" (p. 209), which reflects Jeremiah's dislike of the priestly class that makes laws to keep him out of the priesthood and casts Moses in a bad light. That Jeremiah knows about P indicates that the P stories had been written before 609 B.C., which is when King Josiah died.

By going on the fact that P puts its emphasis on centralized religion, Friedman concludes that P was written during King Hezekiah's reign, during which time the centralization of religion was of great importance. The P priesthood also prefers Aaron over Moses.

Although the P texts seem to...