Roger Norman Whybray (1923–1998) was a

biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

and specialist in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

studies. Whybray read French and

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and was ordained as priest in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. After a number of minor teaching posts, he held the position of Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Central Theological College, Tokyo, 1952–1965. He returned to Oxford in 1960–61 to prepare for a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

under G. R. Driver, his thesis subsequently being published as ''Wisdom in Proverbs: The Concept of Wisdom in Proverbs 19''. In 1965 he became lecturer in Theology in the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

, becoming Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies in 1978. He retired in 1982 in order to devote himself to his scholarly writing.

Publications

In ''The Intellectual Tradition in the Old Testament'' (1974) Whybray questioned the common scholarly assumption that there was in ancient Israel a class of 'wise men' or intellectuals who controlled affairs of state and to whose interests and outlook we owe the biblical '

wisdom literature Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, i ...

'. Whybray put forward the proposition that the evidence for any such group of wise men in ancient Israel was lacking, that 'wisdom' was not the preserve of a class or an institution, and the wise were simply educated citizens "who were accustomed to read for education and pleasure". Wisdom literature, according to Whybray, was therefore the product of literary-minded individuals among the intellectuals. In '' The Making of the Pentateuch'' (1987) Whybray examined the evidence for the

documentary hypothesis The documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of the models used by biblical scholars to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Book of Genesis, Genesis, Book of Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus, Bo ...

, the dominant hypothesis on the origins of the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

for more than a century, and concluded that it was insubstantial. His alternative proposal was that the Pentateuch was essentially the work of a single author who drew upon multiple sources and disregarded, or was ignorant of, modern notions of literary consistency and smoothness of style and language. The book remained the most complete critique of the documentary hypothesis by a mainstream biblical scholar for at least a decade from its publication.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whybray, R. N. 1923 births 1997 deaths Academics of the University of Hull Alumni of the University of Oxford British biblical scholars Old Testament scholars