Obviously ancient Hebrew documents are not going to call J, E, D and P by
these names, because they are the names we have given to hypothetical
precursor documents for the Pentateuch. However, the ancient Hebrew
documents we have do describe documents we don't have that could be these
hypothetical precursor documents, and the Bible describes libraries during
the reign of Solomon and the Two Kingdoms thereafter. A case in point is 2
Kings 22:8-10. Who knows what documents and books might have been in those
libraries that could have served as the basis for the Pentateuch.
Granted we have no physical evidence of these precursor documents, but we
also have no physical evidence for 90% or more of the missing Classical
World documents mentioned by the few we do have. Yet the internal evidence
within the documents we do have lead us to believe that the missing
documents really existed, rather than were simply false attributions.
Similarly the Bible contains evidence within its own vocabulary, grammar,
sentence structure, motifs, etc., that the precursor documents we call J,
E, D and P did exist. And thus it is from the study of the only surviving
copy of these documents - the Bible itself - that we can answer the very
questions you pose. Granted there is some subjectivity to whatever
conclusions are drawn from this study, but no more so than there would be
in the study of Melville or Dickens or Michener.
Oh, I almost forgot. Technically there is more evidence for the existence
of JEDP than there is for leprechauns, but a good Irishman never discounts
the Little People.
Kevin L. O'Brien
"Good God, consider yourselves fortunate that you have John Adams to abuse,
for no sane man would tolerate it!" William Daniels, _1776_