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'Deuteronomy' (IPA pronunciation: ) is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. It is part of Judaism's Torah - the first segment of the Tanakh and part of Christianity's Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is 'Devarim' ("words"), which comes from the opening phrase "Eleh ha-devarim" ("These are the ''words''..."). The term can also stretch to mean "discourses" or "talks".
The English name, "Deuteronomy", comes from the name which the book bears in the Septuagint (ִוץפוסןםליןם) and in the Vulgate (Deuteronomium). This is based upon the erroneous Septuagint rendering of "mishneh ha-torah ha-zot" (xvii. 18), which grammatically can mean only "a repetition [that is, a copy] of this law," but which is rendered by the Septuagint פὸ ִוץפוסןםליןם פןῦפן, as though the expression meant "this second-giving of the law." However, while the name is thus a mistranslation, it is not inappropriate; the book does include, alongside much new material, a repetition or reformulation of a large part of the laws found in the non-priestly sections of Exodus.

Contents

Summary

Critical Scholarship

Mosaic Authorship

See also

References

External links

Summary

Deuteronomy consists chiefly of three discourses said to have been delivered by Moses a short time before his death, given to the Israelites, in the plains of Moab, in the penultimate month of the final year of their wanderings through the wilderness.
The first discourse (1-4) is a historical recollection of Israel's disobedient refusal to enter the Promised Land, and the resulting forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
The disobedience of Israel is contrasted with the justice of God. God is a judge to Israel, punishing them in the wilderness, and destroying utterly the generation who disobeyed God's commandment. God's wrath is also shown to the surrounding nations, such as King Sihon of Heshbon, whose people were utterly destroyed. In light of God's justice, Moses urges obedience to divine ordinances, and warns against the danger of forsaking the God of their ancestors.
God's forgiveness and grace towards the young generation of Israelites who are entering the land is a seemingly paradoxical contrast to God's justice. The same God who lovingly gave Israel the promised land, stayed with them in the wilderness as a cloud by day and fire by night. The following laws are also seen as a gift of divine grace.
The second discourse (5-26) is, in effect, the main body of the book, and is composed of two distinct addresses. The first of these (5-11), forms a second introduction, expanding on the Ethical Decalogue given at Mount Sinai. The second address (12-26) is the Deuteronomic Code, a series of mitzvot (''commands''), forming extensive laws, admonitions, and injunctions to the Israelites regarding how they ought to conduct themselves in Canaan, the land promised by God as their permanent home. This code includes such laws as:

★ The worship of God must remain pure, and be uninfluenced by neighbouring cultures and their 'idolatrous' religious practices. The death penalty is prescribed for following other gods, and for teaching the Israelites to do the same.

★ The death penalty is also prescribed for males who disobey their parents

★ Certain Dietary principles are enjoined.

★ A Tithe for the Levites and charity for the poor

★ A regular Jubilee Year during which all debts are cancelled

★ That slavery of an individual lasts no more than 6 years, but only if the individual purchased is "thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman." Slavery between Hebrews was a voluntary practice unlike actual slaves captured from other nations

★ Yahwistic religious festivals, including Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are to be part of Israel's worship

★ The offices of Judge, King, Kohen (temple priest), and Prophet

★ A ban against the planting of trees, dedicated to Asherah, next to altars dedicated to God, and the erection of sacred stones

★ A ban against children either from being immolated or from passing through fire (the text is ambiguous as to which is meant), divination, sorcery, witchcraft, spellcasting, and necromancy

★ A ban preventing blemished animals from becoming sacrifices at the Temple

★ Protection for those accused of manslaughter by the existence of three cities of refuge where they may flee from the avenger of blood.

★ Exemptions from military service for the newly betrothed, newly married, owners of new houses, planters of new vineyards, and even anyone who is afraid of fighting.

★ Peace terms before battle - the terms being that they enter slavery

★ The Amalekites to be utterly destroyed under the ban

★ A ban on environmental forms of warfare, such as the destruction of fruit trees, the mother of newly-born birds, and beasts of burden which have fallen over, or are lost

★ Rules which regulate marriage, and Levirate Marriage, and allow divorce.

★ Purity laws which prohibit the mixing of fabrics, of crops, of beasts of burden under the same yoke, and transvestitism.

★ The use of Tzitzit

★ Prohibition against people from Ammon, Moab, or who are of illegitimate birth, and their descendants for ten generations, from entering ''the assembly of God'', as well as imposing this restriction upon those who are castrated (but not their descendants)

★ Regulations for ritual cleanliness, general hygiene, and the treatment of Tzaarath

★ A ban on religious prostitution

★ Regulations for slavery, servitude, vows, debt, usury, and permissible objects for securing loans

★ Prohibition against wives making a groin attack on their husband's adversary.
The concluding third discourse (27-30) is hortatory, relating almost wholly to the solemn sanctions of the law, the blessings to the obedient, and the curse that would fall on the rebellious. In this discourse, the Israelites are solemnly adjured to adhere faithfully to the covenant between them and God, and so secure for themselves, and for their posterity, the promised blessings.
After the final discourse, the text describes Moses preparing himself to die. As the main part of preparation, Moses is described as conditionally renewing the covenant between God and the Israelites, the condition being the loyalty of the people, and at the same time, Joshua is also appointed by Moses as heir, a leader to lead the people into Canaan.
These addresses to the people are followed by what are generally regarded as three short appendices, namely:

★ The Song of Moses, which the text states was created by Moses upon the request of God ().

★ The Blessing of Moses, which is pronounced upon the individual tribes of Israel (33)

★ The story of the death of Moses (), and subsequent burial (34).

Critical Scholarship

For a variety of reasons biblical scholarship has long abandoned the traditional view that the Torah, and therefore Deuteronomy, was composed by Moses in the 2nd millennium BC. In its place the documentary hypothesis formed the near-universal consensus on the origins and nature of the Torah for most of the 20th century. According to the hypothesis, Deuteronomy, or a part of it, was the document whose discovery is described in 2 Kings 22:8-20.^[1] The story tells how the High Priest Hilkiah finds an ancient lost scroll in the Temple and takes it to king Josiah; what Josiah reads there causes him to embark on a program of religious reform, suppressing the worship of all other gods but Yahweh, and centralising the worship of Yahweh in the Temple.^[2].
It is believed that the original element of Deuteronomy, the portion found in the temple, is the Deuteronomic Code at Deuteronomy 12-26.^[1] Two alternative editions were created, possibly by the same author, and published simultaneously; one version contained the Code, the historical introduction (Deuteronomy 1-4),^[1] a simple hortatory conclusion, and a list of curses (Deuteronomy 27),^[1] the other contained the core, the theological introduction (Deuteronomy 5-11);^[1] and a more extensive hortatory conclusion (Deuteronomy 28-30).^[1] The first version presented the law as Moses's account of the events at Sinai, the second took the form of a suzerain-vassal treaty, of a form similar to the much older Covenant Code. At some point shortly afterwards the two were combined in a single document known as "Dtr1".
The Deuteronomist author or authors also produced a history of Israel from Joshua to Josiah, consisting of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. In this history Josiah figured as the greatest of all the kings, the only one who never wavered from the law given by Moses, and the one who would restore the ancient kingdom of David and Solomon. But in 609 BC Josiah was killed at Megiddo by the Egyptians, and in 586 BC the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and took its people into captivity. Consequently, at some point after 586, a second edition known as "Dtr2" was produced, containing additional warnings about faithlessness and exile, as well as promises of restoration in the event of repentance. This second edition inserted two originally independent documents, and framings for them, which now comprise the two poems at Deuteronomy 31-33,^[1] and the account of Moses' death was moved to where it lies now, Deuteronomy 34. In the final redaction of the Torah, c.450 BC, Deuteronomy 34 gained some additional verses describing the death of Moses from two other of the four documents, the Jahwist and the Priestly source.^[9]
The documentary hypothesis has been increasingly challenged in recent decades, although it still provides the basic terminology and many of the major concepts of scholarly thinking about the origin and dating of the Pentateuch. One important such challenge was the proposal of Meredith G. Kline that Deuteronomy should be viewed as a suzerein/vassal treaty between God and the people of Israel. As originally proposed by Kline, a conservative scholar who wished to overturn the documentary hypothesis, Deuteronomy was based on Hittite treaties of the 2nd millennium BC. Against Kline's analysis, Mosse Weinfeld argued that Deuteronomy’s extensive list of curses (28:23-35) fits better the style of the seventh century BC Assyrian treaties than it does the Hittite suzerainty treaties of the 2nd millennium. Conservative scholars continue to argue for Kline's original interpretation, but the common contemporary understanding is that Deuteronomy is in form and language an adaptation of the Assyrian client treaty. "Deuteronomy adapts the literary form and the vocabulary of a treaty but places the deity Yahweh, the God of Judah, in the place of the Assyrian king. ... The writer(s) are therefore deliberately taking an instrument of Assyrian subjugation, the client treaty, and using it as a mechanism to bolster Judean commitment to their national deity and to reinforce national identity".^[10]

Mosaic Authorship

''Most Orthodox Judaism scholars and Jews and many evangelical Christians believe, despite the ideas raised by the Talmudic rabbis, that the original author of the book was Moses, and that the book really was lost and recovered (e.g. [1]). Their apologetics argues that:

★ The book itself claims to have been written by Moses (; ; ; , etc.), and, as everyone agrees, was obviously intended to be accepted as his work.
''
★ The frequent references to it in the later books of the canon (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) prove its antiquity.
''
★ Orthodox Jews point to testimony, within the Mishnah and Talmud, that Moses authored nearly all of Deuteronomy.
''
★ Christians identify further testimony of Mosaic authorship from the New Testament. , , , and , and , all establish the same conclusion.''

See also

★ Documentary hypothesis

★ Torah

★ Tanakh

★ Weekly Torah portions in Deuteronomy: Devarim, Va'etchanan, Eikev, Re'eh, Shoftim, Ki Teitzei, Ki Tavo, Nitzavim, Vayelech, Haazinu, V'Zot HaBerachah.

References

1. .
2. Richard Elliott Friedman, ''Who Wrote the Bible?''
3. .
4. .
5. .
6. .
7. .
8. .
9. Deuteronomistic History overview.
10. Peter Bedford, "Empires and Exploitation: The Neo-Assyrian Empire, p.23

External links

Online versions and translations of Deuteronomy:

★ Jewish translations:

★
★ Deuteronomy at Mechon-Mamre (Jewish Publication Society translation)

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★ Deuteronomy (The Living Torah) Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's translation and commentary at Ort.org

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★ Devarim - Deuteronomy (Judaica Press) translation with Rashi's commentary at Chabad.org

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★ דְּבָרִים ''Devarim'' - Deuteronomy (Hebrew - English at Mechon-Mamre.org)

★ Christian translations:

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★ ''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org

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★ ''Deuteronomy'' at The Great Books (New Revised Standard Version)

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★ Deuteronomy - Chapter Indexed (King James Version)

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★ (Authorised King James Version)
Related articles:

★ ''Book of Deuteronomy'' article (Jewish Encyclopedia)

★ Teacher's Guide to Teaching Deuteronomy

★ Dealing with Deuteronomy. Or, a Treaty Poorly Treated

★ ''Deuteronomy'' by Rob Bradshaw