The Jimmy Akin Podcast | Episode 096 (August 10, 2026)

For over 2,000 years, Jews and Christians believed Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Then scholars claimed to uncover four hidden sources stitched together centuries later. In this episode, Jimmy Akin unpacks the famous JEDP documentary hypothesis, shows where it falls apart, explains the Catholic Church’s actual freedom on the question, and reveals why the evidence points to a much earlier origin than the critics claim. Who really wrote the Books of Moses—and how can we know?

Timecodes
00:00 – Coming Up
00:23 – Intro
00:51 – 1 The Books of Moses
01:24 – 2 The Role of Moses
02:16 – 3 Did Moses Write Them?
04:28 – 4 The Rise of JEDP
05:32 – 5 The J Source
06:46 – 6 The E Source
07:08 – 7 The D Source
08:01 – 8 The P Source
09:18 – 9 Weaving the Sources Together
10:03 –10 The Church and JEDP
11:03 – 11 John Paul II on the Sources
12:18 – 12 Does the Theory Hold Up?
13:34 – 13 What’s in a Divine Name?
17:33 – 14 The Department of Redundancy Department?
20:08 – 15 Hidden Pyramids of the Bible
23:39 – 16 What a Difference a Covenant Makes
25:28 – 17 Is JEDP Wrong?
26:54 – 18 When Was It Written?
28:55 – 19 Traditions from Moses?
31:18 –20 Conclusion
32:29 – Closing/Outro
33:41 – End