Bible Contradictions

DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESISI find it astounding that you can believe in a heretical idea like the Documentary Hypothesis and simultaneously call yourself a Christian. I also find it astounding that a scholar like yourself can believe in such a stupid hypothesis which has been lucidly refuted dozens of times. A simple way to refute this (and this only works if you understand the Hebrew language, which I presume you do) is to simply look at the first page of each of the Five Books of Moses. You will see something very unique. GENESIS Take the first letter tav that appears in Genesis and count 49 letters from there, and you land on vav. From there, 49 letters; and you land on resh. From there, 49 letters, and you land on heh Thus we have "Torah" in a 49-letter skip starting from the first tav in Genesis.EXODUSUse the same format, and you will also get Torah just as you did in Genesis.LEVITICUSIn Leviticus, it's different. Use this format, but start from the letter yud. You will get the letters "yud, heh, vav, heh" - the Tetragrammaton.NUMBERSUse the 49-letter-skip format, but start from the first heh that appears on the page. You will get Torah backwards, heh, resh, vav, tav.DEUTERONOMYUse the same format as you did with Numbers and you will get the same result.Thus we have TORAH TORAH Y-H-W-H HAROT HAROT. Looks kind of like a menorah. Let's not get into the meaning of this now. I don't want to dwell on this topic for too long because it is grossly irrelevant, but the point here is that if the Torah was composed from different sources, it is impossible for this code to exist; since the second writer would not know about the code implanted by the first one, and would thus not know how to continue. This whole thing, the Documentary Hypothesis, is for another debate. I just felt that I needed to get this off my chest. RESOLVING THE APPARENT CONTRADICTIONHere is what I found. I was not able to do extensive research on this topic due to inconvenice, but here is what our Sages and latter rabbis come to tell us. Let's give you a little more context of what was going on.- Noah originally did not want to go on the Ark because he was told by the wicked people that if a flood did come, they would kill him if he tried going onto the ark (the psychology was probably: if we're going down, you're coming down with us). He himself did not fully believe in the flood. He gathered everyone to the ark, but did not board it yet. It was only after 7 days, when the water was up to his knees that he went on to the ark.[1][4]- "ON THAT VERY DAY" (In Hebrew; be'etzem hayom) Rabbi Yochanan says: "The Holy One, Blessed is He, said: 'If Noah entered the ark at night, his generation would have said: 'Due to the night, we did not know of Noah's entering the ark. Had we known, we would have stopped him." Thus it is written ON THAT VERY DAY, in broad daylight.[2]- Rabbi Joshua ben Levi says: The Holy One, Blessed is He, mourned for the world for 7 days before the flood, as it is written (Genesis 6:6) "And the Lord regretted that He had made man upon the earth, and He became saddened (In Hebrew: "vayitatzev") in His heart." Sadness is mourning, as it says And the victory that day [turned] into mourning for all the people; for the people heard on that day, saying: "The king is saddened (In Hebrew, ne'etzav, from the same root of "vayitatzev") over his son."[3]- The waters were originally light, but gradually became heavier in order to give the wicked people time to repent, which they did not do.[4] - "AFTER THE 7 DAYS" During "THE" 7 days, the people were mourning for the death of Methuselah. G-d did not want to bring the flood upon the earth until after the eulogies of the righteous Methuselah, which also, as I said above, gave the people time to repent. A proof of this concept: The gematria (numerical value) of "for the 7 days" (In Hebrew, leshivat hayamim) is 907, which is the same numerical value of "limei evel metushelach" (For the days of mourning of Methuselah)[5](interrelate this with the above)If you interrelate all of this, it makes a lot more sense. Now hopefully you'll have greater context. To answer your question in a nutshell though, I read that Noah came approached the ark but did not board it. The rain began, but only began intensifying on the 7th day, after the mourning of Methuselah ended, and this intense rain was accompanied by the "waters of the great deep bursting forth".SOURCES[1] Midrash: Tanchuma, reiterated by Rashi (see [4])[2] Midrash: Genesis Rabbah[3] Midrash: Genesis Rabbah[4] The legendary commentator, Rabbi SHlomo Yitzchaki, better known by his acronym "Rashi", which is also an acronym for "Rabban SHel Yisrael" - Rabbi of Israel.[5] The Biblical commentator, Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, better known as the Baal Haturim. He probably learned this from the Midrash somewhere, but I do not have time to search.