The lecture provides a more in-depth presentation of those critical methods of scholarship, which endeavoured to explore what lies behind the well-known literary documents and/or sources of the Torah/Pentateuch, notably form criticism and traditio-historical criticism. Nevertheless, the already proven limitations of traditio-historical criticism are also illustrated. The modifications suggested for and performed on the documentary hypothesis also play a prominent role in the presentation, with separate attention allotted to each source in question, namely LJEDP.

Alternatives are extensively treated in the second part of the lecture, with specific focus on the adjustments made to the documentary hypothesis, the collapse of the scholarly consensus since 1975 and the trend towards unitary readings. The works of the following scholars are mentioned in detail or in passing, notably Winnett, Wagner, Redford, Van Seters, Rendtorff, Blum, Whybray, Kaufmann, Ska and Alexander.