Thus in the Elohist and in Deuteronomy the date of the festival is only vaguely stated to be in the month of Abib, while in the Holiness Code and in the Priestly History the exact date is given.
So too even in the Elohist the time is appointed.
That the pre-Deuteronomic sources are to be identified with the Judaean (J, or Yahwist) and Ephraimite (E, or Elohist) strands of the Hexateuch is, however, not certain.
No competent scholars now question the existence, hardly any one the relative dates, of J, E, and P. In Numbers one can tell almost at a glance which parts belong to P, the Priestly Code, and which to JE, the narrative resulting from the combination of the Judaic work of the Yahwist with the Ephraimitic work of the Elohist.
That the older sources (which often prove to be composite) are actually identical with the Yahwist or Judaean (J) and the Elohist or Ephraimite (E) narratives (on which see Genesis) is not improbable, though, especially as regards the former, still very uncertain.