The death of Solomon quickly resulted in the split of the Kingdom into two new Kingdoms, Israel in the North and Judah in the South. Rehoboam, Solomon's son, ruled over only Judah, while in the north a name known as Jeroboam was chosen as King.  For the next two hundred plus years, each Kingdom would develop side by side.  It is during this time period that the core text of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, would be written.  We do not know the name of this author, or authors, but refer to the text as the J text.

    The J text is named such because of its use of the divine name Yahweh/Jehovah.  Of the possible authors of the first five books of the Bible, the J text appears to be the oldest.  This is because of how unaware it appears to be of any other works.  The J author has been narrowed down to the time period between 848 and 722 BCE.  J was from the region of Judah and many of the ideas in the text reflect this background.  Associated with the nature/fertility period of the old testament religion, the J author portrays a very anthropomorphic God who is both caring and impulsive.  Furthermore, of all the texts, the J author portrays women in the most favorable light.  Many have claimed this is because J was a women.  Although a possibility, there is not enough evidence for or against this claim.

    All know of the most famous J story, Creation according to Chapter 2 in our Old Testament, Chapter 1 in this Alternate World.  The J story outlines the creation in the following steps: first man is created, then plants, animals, and finally woman.  The J author continually refers to the creator as Yahweh.  A certain intimacy exists between Yahweh and the creation: we are told the names and locations of the various rivers in Eden, and a man is named and filled with God's breath, the breath of life.  Adam is named by God, told to till and tend to the land, and names both the animals and the woman, who was created as a fitting partner for Adam.  The relationships within the text are all intimate and interdependent.  Adam is created with God's breath, woman is created through a man's body, and their role of caring for the earth indicates the symbiotic relationship enjoyed by everyone.  The story even opens with its focus, "earth and the heavens," moving immediately to a description of the barren landscape rather than celestial order.  This distinct focus on the earthy and the personal is one of the primary identifying characteristics of the J author(s).

    Second to the story of Creation is the story of the Flood.  Our Old Testament tells the Flood across Chapters 6, 7 and 8.  Yet in this Alternate World, the Old Testament is generally shorter and the Flood takes up only one chapter.  Noah, at the order of Yahweh, has seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals gather onto the Ark.  After forty days and forty nights, the flood ends and Noah sends out a dove.  The terror of the flood plays a minor role in this version: it rains, without question, but the magnitude of destruction that has been included in our version does not enter the picture at all.  J's deity is capable of regret, making one wonder whether Yahweh can be omnipotent and omniscient and simultaneously regret past actions. Yahweh personally closes Noah's ark, makes an everlasting covenant with the people, and delights in the smell of animal sacrifice.  The Divine being here is very tangible, very accessible and anthropomorphic, a depiction entirely consistent with other J stories.

    J's writings focus on the Kingdom of Judah, often at the expense of Israel.  For example, in Genesis the patriarch Abraham lives in Hebron. During the time of J, Hebron was the principal city of Judah, the capital of Judah under King David, and the city from which David's Judean chief priest Zadok came.  The Abrahamic covenant promises Abraham's descendants the land "from the river of Egypt to the . . . river Euphrates."  These were the nation's boundaries under King David, the founder of Judah's royal family.  Perhaps the best example of J writing to insult the Kingdom of Israel is the story of the city of Shechem.

    According to J, a man named Shechem, the original prince of the city, loves Jacob's daughter Dinah and sleeps with her.  He then asks for her hand in marriage.  The sons of Jacob replay that they could not allow this or any intermarriage with the people of Shechem because the Shechemites are not circumcised.  The prince of Shechem and his father therefore persuade all the men of Shechem to undergo circumcision.  When the men are immobile from the pain of the surgery, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, enter the city and kill all of the men.  And so Israel acquires its capital city, in a not so pleasant way.

    Many key texts are missing from J.  The story of the Golden Calf, and its insult to Aaron, is not written.  The story of Snow-White Miriam is never written either, there is no text at all in J that insults Aaron in the least.  Never does Aaron address Moses as 'my lord.'  Moses in general is just another prophet to J, to some readers he is less than Aaron.  Key to the J text is the Abrahamic Covenant, the promise that was realized under King David.  Although the Sinai Covenant is included, it is less than the original Abrahamic Covenant.

    Perhaps most interesting to note are the Ten Commandments.  They are not the same Ten Commandments that most people know of.  This is, in my humble opinion, a key change.  Of the Ten, six deal with Sacrifices or Worship, three deal with Holidays, and the first deals with what can be called 'International Relations.'  They are as follows:

    The 1st Commandment- Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim; for thou shalt worship no other god: for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot after their gods, and sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee and thou eat of his sacrifice; and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods, and make thy sons play the harlot after their gods.

    The 2nd Commandment- Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

    The 3rd Commandment- The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.

    The 4th Commandment- All that openeth the womb is mine; and all thy cattle that is male, the firstlings of cow and sheep.  And the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break its neck. All the first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem.

    The 5th Commandment- And none shall appear before me empty.

    The 6th Commandment- Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in plowing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

    The 7th Commandment- And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, [even] of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.  Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel.  For I will cast out nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou goest up to appear before Jehovah thy God three times in the year.

    The 8th Commandment- Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

    The 9th Commandment- The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of Jehovah thy God.

    The 10th Commandment- Thou shalt not boil a kid [goat] in its mother's milk.

    Note: The above Commandments come from Exodus 34:15-26.  This link has some interesting information on both groups of the Ten Commandments.

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