Catholic Pentateuchal studies (1906-56)

Abstract

It was at a very indecisive stage of Catholic Pentateuchal studies that the Pontifical Commission for Biblical Studies issued a Decree on the authenticity of the Pentateuch in 1906. This decree was fundamentally a disciplinary.measure, and in no way did it solve the question; its gist was that the documentary theory as a whole, as proposed and defended by the independent critics, was not yet apolitically proved as to command unreserved assent. Neither did the decree condemn those Catholics who adopted critical methods as such in their Biblical studies; on the contrary the Commission, in admitting the possibility of later additions and even of scribes in collaboration with Moses, encouraged such lines of investigation.