The outstanding work of the prophets Elijah and Elisha in the ninth century B. C. provided a vital development in the progress of the Hebrew people. With Amos and Hosea, Isaiah of Jerusalem, and Micah in the eighth century, written prophecy began, continuing in almost unbroken succession for some six centuries.
Before we approach this further unfoldment, let us consider a parallel contribution already under way when the ninth century prophets were performing their own important task.
The first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch (literally, "the five-fold volume"), were long credited exclusively to Moses, their central figure. During the past hundred years or more, however, an increasing number of Biblical scholars noted discrepancies between the two accounts of creation. Others observed variations between the two accounts of the Flood (e.g. Gen. 6:19 and 7:2), conflicting accounts of the acts and attitudes of the patriarchs, and so forth. Such views uphold the now generally accepted hypothesis that the Pentateuch is not the work of one individual but contains several different sources.
