A southern person writes the “J” story. It shows Joseph who was from the North, as being not very intelligent, a dreamer. It was written when Southern kingdoms were taken over by Syria. The “J” source also describes Reubernites (enemies of Southern Kingdom) as being bad and evil. Each source has some major differences. Another one that identifies the “J” source as being written by a different author is that unlike other stories, it pays lots of attention to sacrifices and doesn’t emphasize covenants as much.

The “E” and “P” sources were written by people from the same Levi’s tribe. But “E” author lived before “P” author (historians claim that “E” story was written in 747-722 BC; the “P” source-680 BC). “E” source calls God “Elohim”. Both “E” and “P” authors apparently were priests, but from different kingdoms. “E” belonged to Southern kingdom (has some similarities with “J” source for that reason), “P”-to Northern kingdom. The “E” author comes from Jerusalem. He favors Moses since it was Moses’ tribe. The “P” author comes from Northern kingdom Judah. It becomes apparent that “P” author doesn’t like Moses at all, that’s where the idea that the “P” source was written later. “P” author could not ignore the fact that Moses was a powerful leader and actually existed; therefore he tries to at least minimize Moses’ importance.

In the “E” story God gives staff to Moses, in “P”-to Aaron. The “E” author blames Aaron for all the problems; the ”P” source shows Aaron as the main “hero”. The “E” story points out that Moses is more important (Numb 12:10,11 “…Aaron…and he said to Moses “Please, my Lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed”). Also the “E” author shows Moses as being more humble (Numb 12:3 “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face o the earth”). There are some other contradictions between these two sources. In “P” source Aaron and Moses are brothers (Numb 26:59: “…the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, a descendent of Levi, who was born to the Levities in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron, Moses and their sister Miriam”). In the “E” source Aaron is not related to Moses (Ex 15:20 “Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing”).

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