The earliest of these four main narratives is known as the 'Early Judean History'. The letter J represents this unknown author because it is believed that he was a prophet of the southern, or Judean, kingdom. This particular narrative begins with the story of creation as it is recorded in the second chapter of the book of Genesis and concludes with an account of the establishment of the monarchy in the land of Canaan . It appears to have been written around 850 B.C . Written documents available at the time of the narrative's making as well as a number of traditions that had been passed down orally from older generations appear to be the source materials used for the narrative's establishment.
Place names used throughout the narrative are distinctly of the southern kingdom.
The ethical standards that are implied are on a somewhat lower plane than those of later narratives. Various parts of the history are organized in such a manner that sets forth the author's conception of the divine purpose to be realized on earth ad the reasons why its fulfillment has been delayed. E 'Ephraimite History' is the second narrative seen in the Pentateuch, and is designated with the letter E for two reasons. The second reason is that it is the first letter in the word Elohim, which is the name for the deity in that part of the history that precedes the story of Moses and the burning bush. It is believed that this history was written around 750 B.C. Parallelisms appear between J and E, although the E stories don't begin until Abraham, never mentioning what might have happened prior to that time in history.