Deuteronomy And The Deuteronomic School

By means of a threefold approach--typological analysis of literary forms, investigation of religious ideology, and study of didactic aims and methods--Weinfeld shows that the deuteronomic composition was the creation of scribal circles who began their work some time prior to the reign of Josiah and were still at work after the fall of Judah. Includes a 46-page detailed appendix on deuteronomic phraseology. This volume is a reprint of the 1972 Oxford edition.

The book is a literary and theological study of the themes of time and place, which aims to set the so-called 'centralization-law' of Deut 12-26 in the broad context of the book. The authors show that time and place are pervasive themes of Deuteronomy, a crucial part of its articulation of its understanding of history, religion and ethics. The heart of the thesis is that the foundational encounter between God and Israel at Horeb is paradigmatic for all subsequent encounters. For this reason, no one time or place can have final or absolute significance. The thesis thus calls into question the received view that the altar-law of Deut 12-26 is a 'centralization-law' associated with Josiah's reform. The refusal to identify the 'place' is no mere device against anachronism, but a consistent element in Deuteronomy's theology of history. The Connection between Deuteronomy and Josiah's reform has long been an important tenet of Old Testament criticism. The debate about the interpretation of Deuteronomy, however, has never been finally settled. The present study looks in a new way at the so-called 'centralization-law' of Deuteronomy which has been the most important factor in the traditional critical view of the book. It sets the law in the context of a broadly based study of the theology of the book, and comes to conclusions which call the connection with Josiah's reform into question. A broadly based study of the themes of time and place in Deuteronomy, calling into question accepted ideas about the purpose and setting of the book.

In this commentary Ian Cairns presents Deuteronomy as a slowly evolving, complex composite — as legal code, as treaty text or covenant, as Moses' farewell speech, and as the final volume of the Pentateuch. Despite Deuteronomy's structural complexity, however, Cairns shows how the theme "Word and Presence" permeates the entire book: God is the living Presence who can be encountered and known through his word addressed to each generation in turn. This commentary is unique in its emphasis on the theology of Deuteronomy (e.g., law as "humane instruction") as well as in its modern applications and illustrations from non-Western cultures.

In this commentary Ian Cairns presents Deuteronomy as a slowly evolving, complex composite -- as legal code, as treaty text or covenant, as Moses' farewell speech, and as the final volume of the Pentateuch. Despite Deuteronomy's structural complexity, however, Cairns shows how the theme "Word and Presence" permeates the entire book: God is the living Presence who can be encountered and known through his word addressed to each generation in turn. This commentary is unique in its emphasis on the theology of Deuteronomy (e.g., law as "humane instruction") as well as in its modern applications and illustrations from non-Western cultures. Book jacket.

Was there a shift in the perspective on Deuteronomy's authority in Jeremiah? Nathan Mastnjak analyzes the various ways that the book of Jeremiah interpreted Deuteronomy. By examining the nature of literary allusion and textual authority, he traces a development in the perspective on Deuteronomy from the earliest traditions in Jeremiah to the latest. - back of book.

This volume reexamines and reconstructs the relationship between the Deuteronomistic History and the book of Chronicles, building on recent developments such as the Persian -period dating of the Deuteronomistic History, the contribution of oral traditional studies to understanding the production of biblical texts, and the reassessment of Standard Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew. These new perspectives challenge widely held understandings of the relationship between the two scribal works and strongly suggest that they were competing historiographies during the Persian period that nevertheless descended from a common source. This new reconstruction leads to new readings of the literature.

Mark A. Awabdy provides a nuanced and extensive understanding of the noun gr (ger, engl. immigrant) in the book of Deuteronomy (D). He argues that a precise reconstruction of the historical referents of D's ger is impossible and has led scholars to misread or overlook literary, theological, and sociological determinants. By analyzing D's ger texts and contexts, evidence emerges for: the non-Israelite and non-Judahite origins of D's ger; the distinction between the ger in D's prologue-epilogue and legal core; and the different meanings and origins of D's " ger-in-Egypt" and " 'ebed-in-Egypt" formulae. Awabdy further contends that D's revision of Exodus' Decalogue and Covenant Code and independence from H reveal D's tendencies to accommodate the ger and interface the ger with YHWH's redemption of Israel. He concludes by defining how D integrates the ger into the community of YHWH's people.

Person concludes that the Deuteronomic school's redactional activity continued into the postexilic period. In Part I, he first critiques the commonly-held conclusion that the Deuteronomic school ceased in the Exile. He then presents evidence that suggests that the Deuteronomic redactions of the Deuteronomic History and Jeremiah continued into the postexilic period. this evidence is of two types: (1) Deuteronomic phraseology in the postexilic additions found in the MT and (2) the themes of return and restoratin as vaticinia ex eventu. In Part II, the conclusion that the Detueronomic school continued in the postexilic period is bolstered with additional evidence in the form of Deuteronomic phraseology in the redactional material of Second Zechariah. adapting the methodology applied by J Philip Hyatt and others to Jeremiah, Person argues that Zechariah was redacted by the Deuteronomic school with the addition of the Deuteronomic prose in Zechariah 9-14. In Part III, Person comments on the possible social setting of the Deuteronomic school in postexilic Yehud as well as its theology in this setting.