Genesis; the first half

From what I've gathered so far, the 'J' and 'P' authors are not as easily recognizable as I thought they were going to be. The first 8 chapters of Genesis are clear enough, but starting with Genesis 9, things got hairy. For instance, some of the writing in Gen. 9 is descriptive and story-like, such as verse 13, "I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." But, it also possesses the orderly and methodical characteristics of 'P'... I've just now decided to assign 'P' as the author of Genesis 9, because the voice is noticeably different than that of Genesis 2, who is clearly authored by 'J'. 

I found that after awhile, the differences between the two authors becomes less and less discernible. For example, Genesis 4 is in my opinion clearly cut into two halves. The first half is authored by 'J' and the second half by 'P'.  This is one of the last chapters through Genesis 22 that I can easily tell the differences between the two.  This isn't to say I have found myself completely lost, I'm merely stating that I recognize elements of both authors in the same chapters.  

To get off topic from 'P' and 'J' for a moment, Genesis is immensely more entertaining than I had previously expected. So much going on in so few pages! I have learned the origins of a number of common widely accepted ideas.  For instance; I know that Lent in the Christian tradition lasts for forty days and forty nights because that is how long Jesus fasted for, but, perhaps the writers of the new testament made Jesus fast for that long because of those numbers' original connection to God's punishment; which is forty days and forty nights of rain causing the great flood (Genesis 7). Also, I found a contradiction early on when in Genesis 6, God restricts the human life span to exactly 120 years, but following this restriction, Noah and his descendants continued to live for well over that allotted amount of time...  Another fun fact, in Genesis 13.13 it says "Now the people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord." This is clearly the origin of the word sodomy which means 1. anal or oral copulation with a member of the opposite sex. 2. copulation with a member of the same sex. or 3. bestiality. Who knew the namesake of such frowned upon practices originated from the biblical city of Sodom. 

Back to 'J' and 'P', I found Genesis 15 to be less routine and to possess more of a story-like quality than many of the others, so I assigned 'J' as the author... I am interested to find out what chapters other classmates assigned to which authors, but for now I will have to wait until next class. Hopefully everybody is staying strong.