SUPPLEMENTARY HYPOTHESIS, THE. This name has been given to one of the theories put forth by the Higher Critics (see CRITICISM, HIGHER) to explain the composition of the Hexateuch. It was pre ceded by the Documentary Hypothesis (q.v.) and the Fragmentary Hypothesis (q.v.). All that was best in these it adopted. Their mistakes it corrected. The Supplementary Hypothesis is largely associated with the name of the German scholar W. M. L. De Wette (,b. 17S0), because he prepared the way for it. After some hesita tion, De Wette rose above the two earlier hypotheses and pressed " for the unity of the Pentateuch in its present form as the plan of one mind. He first stated that Deuteronomy is an independent part of the Pentateuch, composed in the age of Josiah. He subsequently adopted into his system the improvements suggested by other Biblical scholars who followed in his footsteps " (C. A. Briggs). A later scholar, F. Bleek (1793-1859), put the Supplementary Hypothesis into shape. According to him, the original narrative of the Elohist (the writer who uses the divine name Elohim) was supplemented by the Jahvist (less correctly Jehovist; the writer who uses the divine name Jehovah). H. Ewald (1803-1S75) afterwards showed that throughout the Pentateuch it was possible to distinguish the Elohistic and Jahvistic (Jehovistic) documents. It was then discovered that this was true of Joshua as well, so that it became convenient to speak of the Hexateuch. In 1853 H. Hupfeld of Halle independently revived the discovery of C. D. Ilgen (see DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESIS), who had claimed that a number of documents were used in the composition of Genesis. He analysed the book of Genesis very carefully, and was able to discriminate an Elohist, a Second Elohist, a Jahvist (Jehovist), and a Redactor.
He found that the Redactor differs from the other three, " iu that he is distinguished for the conscientiousness with which he reproduces the ancient documents, word for word, and the skill with which be combines them in the unity and order which characterize his work " (C. A. Briggs). Heinrich Ewald (1803-1875), a many-sided and brilliant scholar, found in the Elohistic document a Book of Origins, which had drawn upon older writings : a biography of Moses, the Book of the Wars of Jehovah (q.v.), and the Book of the Covenants. This frame work (German " Grundschrift) was supplemented at later dates by the Second Elohist, the Jahvist, the Redactor, and the Deuteronomist. According to U. Schrader (writing in 1868), " there are two chief docu ments : the Annalistic (Elohist) and Theocratic (2d Elohist), composed, the former in the earlier part of the reign of David, the author a priest who used earlier written sources; the latter soon after the division of the kingdom in the northern realm, 975-950 B.C., also using ancient documents. The third prophetic narrator (Jehovist) combined the two, freely appropriating, and rejecting, and enlarging by numerous additions, making a complete and harmonious work, in the reign of Jero boam II., 825-800 B.C., in the northern kingdom. The Deuteronomist in the prophetic spirit composed the law of Moses contained in Deuteronomy, and became the final redactor of the Pentateuch in its present form, imme diately before the reform of Josiah, 622 B.C., being a man closely associated with the prophet Jeremiah." Iu England the Supplementary Hypothesis was advocated by Samuel Davidson (180G-1899). Cp HEXATEUCH. See C. A. Briggs, Hex.; A. Duff, Hist. of O.T. Crit., 1910.