The Documentary Hypothesis (JEDP) as applied to a Nigerian e-mail request for money transfer

I've recently been thinking about Biblical criticism and found that I could apply what I've learned to an email I recently received requesting my help for a transaction of a large sum of money. I was really quite shocked to find that not one, but probably as many as four people or groups of people helped to compose this email to me.

My breakdown of the text is based largely on who is the master (or the most important person) of the email at the time. I have broken this down into four parts the "Sir," the "Help," the "I," and the "They." At four different times this email was edited by people who leaned towards thinking a different audience was the master of the email

You will see by notes below just how clear these different authors were. And I hope my point will become clear to you as you read through these notes.


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From: DR. RAYMOND OHIRO [D_ohiro@annmaiLcom]

Subject: Immediate Response

BOARD OF TRUSTEE, DEPARTMENT OF PETROLEUM RESOURCES
DPR Building, Victoria-Island, Lagos.

FROM THE OFFICE OF: DR. RAYMOND OHIRO (MNIM) TELEPHONE NUMBER: +234-1-774-4594

DIRECT AMERICAN INTERNET FAX NUMBER: 1 775 535 4598

Dear Sir,

(S) - Here you can see the first master of the email. The composers of this first part considered the master (the main subject) of the email to be the person they were writing to. This letter is addressed to "Sir" because it made the recipient very comfortable in believing this was going to be about him.

I would date this probably sometime in early 1995 back when people had just discovered email and used it primarily to learn more about others than to share about themselves.

BUSINESS PROPOSAL: TRANSFER OF US$15.6M

(FIFTEEN MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS). BUSINESS INVESTMENTS PARTNERSHIP.


Good day to you.
You were introduced to us in confidence through the Chamber of Commerce, Foreign Trade Section. The reason for this letter is that your help is being sought in order to facilitate and successfully complete a profitable venture that is of immense benefit to you, and us the originators within a stipulated time frame.

(H) Help is how we will refer to the second writer of this email. Likely sometime around the dot-com crash of 2000 this letter was found and then revised with the master (or focus) of the email no longer being the recipient of the email but rather the urgent need for help. This was characteristic of the time and people's lack of money.

I am Dr.Raymond Ohiro, a director with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Secretary of the Contract Award and Monitoring Committee (CAMC) of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). This profitable venture involves the sum of US$15,600,OOO.00 (Fifteen million Six hundred thousand United States Dollars) which is presently in an account of the DPR with the Apex Bank in Nigeria, the Central Bank. We need your help as a foreigner to help transfer this sum of US$15.6M (Fifteen million Six hundred thousand United sates dollars).

(I)I is the third person or group to edit this email. This must have been at least 10 years after the original was written as the focus is now completely removed from the "Sir" at the begging of the email and at this point the "I" believes they can be more persuasive if more is offered about them, then asked of the recipient.

Notice the continuing pleas for help throughout this part of the email... clearly added at a later date when 15 million would have been a more reasonable sum (than back in 95 when probably the number would have been closer to 10 million to be a believable sum).

(T) "They" is the fourth and final person/group to edit this email before it was mailed off to my inbox. This group is set apart from the previous I because the email loses it's personal tone of a dealing between two people and shifts to a transaction between one individual me-- the recipient -- and they a group now seen clearly in the word "we."

We cannot make this transfer on our own or in our names for the fact that we are civil servants (still in active service). But you as a foreigner can assist us in the sense that the money to be transferred will be paid to you as a contract entitlement for a purported contract executed for my government. The money in question is ready for transfer into an overseas account which we expect you to provide.

We have agreed that the money will be shared according to the ratio stated below;

a) 20% of the money will go to you for acting as the beneficiary of the fund.

b) 70% to us originators (which if possible we may enter into a partnership with you)
c) 10% for any expenses that both parties may incur in the course of this transaction



We will require from you:

a) Name and address of Company or Beneficiary.

b) Details of the account which you are the only signatory that the money will be transferred into.

The above requirements is to legalize the claim for payment and transfer of the money to your account. Be informed that the reason we are sending you this letter is because we know that the only way to succeed is to seek the help of a foreigner. Your professional status is not a matter of hindrance in this transaction. Please, your assistance is highly solicited. We have no doubts at aIl that this money will be released and transferred if we get the necessary foreign partner to assist us in this deal.

Therefore, when the business is successfully concluded we shall through the same connections withdraw all documents used from all the concerned government ministries for 100% security. All expenses regarding the opening of an account if not already in existence shall be borne by you, all expenses are however reimbursable on the conclusion of this business transaction. It is of high hope that you will consider this humble request and respond positively.

If you are still in doubt after the receipt of this letter, please do not hesitate to contact and ask any question(s) that may hinder your decision on this matter. If in the alternative you are indisposed, please an acknowledgment of the receipt of this letter will be appreciated stating such. For more details on this transaction, you can call me on my telephone number +234-1-774-4594. The telephone line be busy, please keep on trying till you get through.

While awaiting your early response, thank you in anticipation of your most valued assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Raymond Ohiro (MNIM)

P.S. PLEASE TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL
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The constant ebb and flow of good/poor English can easily be explained by the lack of unity with the original writers.

Just to conclude... The original "S" text was written sometime around 1995 (using the best estimates of my understanding of the language and the culture at the time), the first major modification -- "H" -- being being made sometime around the turn of the millennium.

"I" would have rewritten and added their text sometime around 2005.

It is my best guess that "T" brought the whole text together into a sort of combination I like to call S. H. I. T. probably around the end of 2007.

At this point I intend to respond to this email as quickly as possible and I hope to receive my 20% of the 15 million by the end of the month. I hope that my brief adaptation of the JEDP hypothesis to this Nigerian letter shed at least a little light on how you approach the documents of importance in your life.

Sledding, flying, and freaking out

The very first time I was ever on a sled I went down too big of a hill and hit too big of jump. Somewhere four feet off the ground my little 4 year old head understood that this was bad. I remember hitting the ground and having the wind knocked out of me (though I was otherwise unscathed). From that moment on I was afraid of nothing on a sled... the worst had happened.
I braved the steepest hills, the scariest paths, and the highest jumps often ending up plowing into a pile of rocks in a creek at the end of the run.

When I have to travel I freeze up in total panic. Even now just thinking about it to write about it my heart is beginning to beat harder and I'm becoming shorter of breath. I'm not afraid of heights, I'm not afraid of falling out of the sky. I absolutely fear not making my transfer, and my baggage being overweight. I freeze up thinking something will happen that will keep me from flying... And I cant figure out why.

When I fly everything that could go wrong generally does go wrong. I want that experience I had as a child on sled. I want to have been hit hard enough that I'm no longer afraid of anything... but my head doesn't go that direction. Instead I fear the things that have happened will happen again. It's a total irrational fear and I cant help it. It makes me, and much more my wife, crazy.

Dependance on God through what seems to be something of an anxiety attack is a very difficult thing for me, and my travel anxiety has only recently reached levels that make it painful. I don't know how to trust in the Lord, I always get to where I'm going... but seldom without bumps on the way... Do you freeze up in some situation like this? How do you deal with it?

The sun, the beach, the warmth, and my regrets

I've been gone more than a month from home now... It's really quite hard to believe that I was ever gone except its freezing here and I have been in 80+ degree whether for a month. Two weeks of which I spent on a beach on a small island off a little Asian nation.

The food was delicious. The sun was undeniably spectacular. And the beach is something I can't imagine ever being sick of. I come home to heavy jackets, wool socks and stocking cap and I wonder where I went wrong... Why wasn't I called to one of these spectacularly warm places?

I also wonder what on earth possessed me to leave my beautiful Colorado... I had no I dea what I was missing until I lived somewhere that boasts only 14 days of sun annually.

Then I buy some food at a local business and wonder if those people will ever hear the name of Jesus. And if they do... who is going to tell them?

I'm afraid at least this time... it wasn't me.