Ms. Moses

Who wrote the Pentateuch, the all-important first five books of the Bible? According to ancient Jewish tradition, Moses did. Modern Bible critics hold, however, that various authors long after Moses' time wrote accounts that were later amalgamated into the biblical books. In the latest twist on this "documentary hypothesis," eminent Yale University literary critic Harold Bloom argues that the most memorable sections of Genesis and Exodus, plus bits of Numbers and Deuteronomy, were the work of an anonymous woman.

And not just any woman. According to Bloom, the God of these passages is "the West's major literary character," and the author's achievement is "comparable in imagination and rhetoric" only to that of Shakespeare and a few other writers. Bloom's case is laid out in The Book of J (Grove Weidenfeld; $21.95), on sale this week. "J" (for Jahwist or Yahwist) is the label scholars give to one of the hypothetical documents from which the Pentateuch was compiled and to its author or authors. Bloom's commentary appears with a new translation of J passages by David Rosenberg, former chief editor of the Jewish Publication Society.

Bloom sees J as a single individual who wrote after Solomon's reign 29 centuries ago but displays a modernistic skepticism and worldliness. Though he maintains that J's "power as a writer made Judaism, Christianity and Islam possible," Bloom believes she harbored neither love nor awe of God. He conceives of her as more blasphemous than Salman Rushdie in portraying the Deity as impish and arbitrary.

Bloom admits that a feminine J is supposition. Among his arguments: Genesis contains the only known account from the ancient Middle East of the creation of woman -- six times as long as the story of Adam's advent from a "mud pie." Furthermore, the women of the Pentateuch (Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Tamar, Zipporah) are strong; none of the men (Abraham, Jacob, Moses) are particularly good looking. Circumstantial evidence, but in an era of enhanced interest in feminist creativity, it is not very hypothetical to assume that Bloom's work will draw a wide and interested audience.