Kehath

According to the Torah, Kehath (Hebrew: קְהָת, Qəhāṯ) or Kohath was the second of the sons of Levi[1] and the patriarchal founder of the Kehathites, one of the four main divisions of the Levites in biblical times.

Julius Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis asserts that the Torah was compiled in the fifth century BC from several independent, contradictory, hypothetical (nonextant) documents, including the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomic, and priestly sources and the Book of Generations.

Advocates of this hypothesis, such as Richard Elliott Friedman, attribute Levi's biblical genealogy to the "Book of Generations".

According to this theory, the Levite genealogy is a myth to explain away the fact that four different groups claimed descent from Levi—the Gershonites, Kehathites, Merarites, and Aaronides.

Some scholars suspect that the "Elohist source" attributes to Moses both matrilineal and patrilineal descent from Levites in order to enhance his religious credentials.