Late Priestly History
The fourth and last of the Pentateuch narratives is called the Late Priestly History and is designated by the letter P. Called a priestly history because it represents the point of view generally held by the priests, who were inclined to greatly emphasize ritualistic requirements, the date of its composition is usually placed somewhere near 450 B.C. Although written in the form of a history, it contains a number of law codes, one of which is known as the Holiness Code, as recorded in Leviticus 17–26. The P narrative includes many other regulations pertaining chiefly to the place, manner, and forms of worship. One of the priests' chief duties during the post-exilic period was to enforce these regulations.
The history begins with the Creation story as it is reported in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. Although this narrative is now interwoven with the J and E histories, its unique characteristics make it somewhat easier to distinguish the materials that belong to it. Its style of writing is formal and legalistic, with a concern for exact and precise statements. For example, in the creation story, stating that the heavens and the earth were created by a divine act was insufficient; stating exactly what was accomplished on each of the six days of the creation week was necessary. Also, the age of each of the early patriarchs is recorded in an exact number of years, and the dates when Noah entered the ark and again when he left it are also recorded. The author's interpretation of history has much to do with such recording of particular events. For example, because a person's life span was supposedly proportionate to the amount of sin that that person had committed, the lives of the earliest inhabitants were said to have been much longer — eight or nine hundred years — than at the time when the history was written. As sin increased in the world, life spans became shorter and shorter.
