Did One Person Write Both Passages?

Two hallmarks of a literary masterpiece are an enticing beginning and a splashy ending, and Richard Elliott Friedman’s extended version of J has two of the best. But could the same author have written both?

The title of “In the Day” is borrowed from this opening passage:

Genesis 2:4b. In the day that YHWH made earth and skies— 5. when all produce of the field had not yet been in the earth, and all vegetation of the field had not yet grown, for YHWH had not rained on the earth, and there had been no human to work the ground, 6. and a river had come up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground— 7. YHWH fashioned a human, dust from the ground, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being.

“In the Day” closes with the death of King David and the transition of power to Solomon in 1 Kings 2. The last chapter begins with David’s final words to his son: