Walter Bührer investigates the methodological presuppositions for a relative-dating of Old Testament texts. With Gen 1–3 a test case he works with one of the most important texts in classical pentateuchal scholarship. Recent European scholarship tends more and more to post-date the non-priestly Eden narrative through comparison with priestly, deuteronomic-deuteronomistic and late wisdom texts. Bührer, however, argues for a pre-priestly date of Gen 2–3 due to the lack of clear textual references to priestly texts. Furthermore, an influence of Gen 2–3 through deuteronomic-deuteronomistic and late wisdom texts cannot be proven. In fact, the often used lexical comparisons are not as conclusive as they are often claimed to be.
