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I10 doubt also to the exhortations in chaps. v.—xi. Hence we may conclude that the See also:original See also:book consisted of a central See also:mass of religious, See also:civil and social See also:laws, preceded by a hortatory introduction and followed by an effective peroration. The book read to See also:Josiah must therefore have comprised most of what is found in Deut. v.-See also:xxvi., See also:xxvii. 9, ro and.See also:xxviii. But something like two centuries elapsed before the book reached its See also:present See also:form, for in the closing See also:chapter, as well as elsewhere, e.g. i. 41-43 (where the joining is not so deftly done as usual) and xxxii. 48-52, there are undoubted traces of the Priestly See also:Code, P, which is generally acknowledged to be See also:post-exilic. The following is an See also:analysis of the See also:main divisions of the book a$ we now have it. There are two introductions, the first i.—iv. 44, , more See also:historical than hortatory; the. second v.: xi., more hortatory than historical. These may at first have been prefixed to See also:separate See also:editions of the legislative portion, but were eventually combined. Then, before D was See also:united to P, five appendices of very various See also:dates and embracing See also:poetry as well as See also:prose, were added so as to give a See also:fuller See also:account of the last days of See also:Moses and thus See also:lead up to the narrative of his See also:death with which the book closes. (r) See also:Chap. xxvii., where the elders of See also:Israel are introduced for the first See also:time as acting along with Moses (xxvii. 1) and then the priests, the See also:Levites (xxvii.. 9). Some of the curses refer to laws given not in D but in Lev. See also:xxx., so that the date of this chapter must be later than See also:Leviticus or at any See also:rate than the laws codified in the See also:Law of Holiness (Lev. xvii.—xxvi.). (2) The second appendix, chaps. See also:xxix.—xxxi. 29, xxxii. 45-47, gives us the farewell address of Moses and is certainly later than D. Moses is represented as speaking not with any See also:hope of preventing Israel's See also:apostasy but because he knows that the See also:people will eventually prove apostate ()nxi. 29), a point of view very different from D's. (3) The See also:Song of Moses, chap. xxxii. That this didactic poem must have been written See also:late in the nation's See also:history, and not at its very beginning, is evident from v. 7: " Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many genetations." Such words cannot be interpreted so as to See also:fit the lips of Moses. It must have been composed in a time of natural gloom and depression, after Yahweh's anger had been provoked by " a very froward See also:generation," certainly not before the See also:Assyrian See also:Empire had loomed up against the See also:political See also:horizon, aggressive and menacing. Some critics bring the date down even to the time of See also:Jeremiah and See also:Ezekiel. (4) The Blessing of Moses, chap, xxxiii. The first See also:line proves that this poem is not by D, who speaks invariably of See also:Horeb, never of See also:Sinai. The situation depicted is in striking contrast with that of the Song. Everything is See also:bright because of promises fulfilled, and the future bids See also:fair to be brighter still. Bruston maintains with See also:reason that the Blessing, strictly so called, consists only of vv. 6-25, and has been inserted in a See also:Psalm celebrating the goodness of See also:Jehovah to his people on their entrance into See also:Canaan (vv. 1-5, 26-29). The See also:special prominence given to See also:Joseph (See also:Ephraim and See also:Manasseh) in vv. 13-17 has led many critics to assign this poem to the time of the greatest See also:warrior-See also: This appendix, containing, as it does, See also:manifest traces of P, proves that even See also:Deuteronomy was not put into its present form until after the See also:exile. From the many coincidences between D and the Book of the See also:Covenant (Ex. xx.—See also:xxiii.) it is clear that D was acquainted with E, the prophetic narrative of the Northern See also:kingdom; but it is not quite clear whether D knew E as an See also:independent See also:work, OT after its See also:combination with J, the somewhat earlier prophetic narrative of the See also:Southern kingdom, the combined form of which is now indicated by the See also:symbol JE. Kittel certainly puts it too strongly when he asserts that D quotes always from E and never from J, for some of the passages alluded to in D may just as readily be ascribed to J as to E, cf. Deut. i. 7 and Gen. xv. 18; Deut. x. 14 and Ex. xxxiv. 1-4. Consequently D must have been written certainly after E and possibly after E was combined with J. In See also:Amos, See also:Hosea and See also:Isaiah there are no traces of D's ideas, whereas in Jeremiah and Ezekiel their See also:influence is everywhere manifest. Hence this school 4of thought arose between the See also:age of Isaiah and that of Jeremiah; but how See also:long D itself may have been in existence before it was read in 622 to Josiah cannot be determined with certainty. Many argue that D was written immediately before it was found and that, in fact, it was put into the See also:temple for the purpose of being " found." This theory gives some plausibility to the See also:charge that the book is a pious See also:fraud. But the narrative in 2 See also:Kings xxii. warrants no such inference. The more natural explanation is that it was written not in the See also:early years of Josiah's reign, and with the See also:cognizance of the temple priests then in See also:office, but some time during the long reign of Manasseh, probably when his policy was most reactionary and when he favoured the See also:worship of the " See also:host of See also:heaven " and set up altars to See also:strange gods in See also:Jerusalem itself. This explains why the author did not publish his work immediately, but placed it where he hoped it would be safely preserved till opportunity should arise for its publication. One need not suppose that he actually foresaw how favourable that opportunity would prove, and that, as soon as discovered, his work would be promulgated as law by the king and willingly accepted by the people. The author believed that everything he wrote was in full accordance with the mind of Moses, and would contribute to the See also:national weal of Yahweh's covenant people, and therefore he did not See also:scruple to represent Moses as the See also:speaker. It is not to be expected that See also:modern scholars should be able to See also:fix the exact See also:year or even See also:decade in which such a book was written. It is enough to determine with something like See also:probability the See also:century or See also:half-century which best fits its historical data; and these appear to point to the reign of Manasseh. Between D and P there are no verbal See also:parallels; but in the historical resumes JE is followed closely, whole clauses and even verses being copied practically verbatim. As Dr See also:Driver points out in his careful analysis, there are only three facts in D which are not also found in JE, viz. the number of the spies, the number of souls that went down into See also:Egypt with See also:Jacob, and the See also:ark being made of See also:acacia See also:wood. But even these may have been in J or E originally, and See also:left out when JE was combined with P. Steuernagel divides the legal as well as the hortatory parts of D between two authors, one of whom uses the 2nd See also:person plural when addressing Israel, and the other the 2nd person singular; but as a similar See also:alternation is constantly found in writings universally acknowledged to be by the same author, this See also:clue seems anything but trustworthy, depending as it does on the presence or See also:absence of a single See also:Hebrew See also:letter, and resulting, as it frequently does, in the See also:division of verses which otherwise seem to be from the same pe . xx. 2). The inference as to diversity
of authorship is much conclusive when difference of stand-point can be proved, c . . 3, xi. 2 if. with viii. 2. The first two passages represent Moses as addressing the generation that was alive at Horeb, whereas the last represents him as speaking to those who were about to pass over See also:Jordan a full generation later; and it may well be that the one author may, in the historical and hortatory parts, have preferred the 2nd plural and the other the 2nd singular; without the further inference being justified that every law in which the 2nd singular is used must be assigned to the latter, and every law in which the 2nd plural occurs must be due to the former.
The law of the Single See also:Sanctuary, one of D's outstanding characteristics, is, for him, an innovation, but an innovation towards which events had long been tending. 2 Kings xxiii. 9 shows that even the zeal of Josiah could not carry out the instructions laid down in D xviii. 6-8. Josiah's See also:acceptance of D made it the first canonical book of scripture. Thus the See also:religion of See also:Judah became henceforward a religion which enabled its adherents to learn from a book exactly what was required of them. D requires the destruction not only of the high places and the idols, but of the Asheras (wooden posts) and the Mazzebas (See also: 21). These reforms made too heavy demands upon the people, as was proved by the reaction which set in at Josiah's death. Indeed the See also:country people would look on the destruction of the high places with their Asheras and Mazzebas as See also:sacrilege and would consider Josiah's death in See also:battle as a divine See also:punishment for his sacrilegious deeds. On the other See also:hand, the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people would appear to those who had obeyed D's instructions as a well-merited punishment for national apostasy. Moreover, D regarded religion as of the utmost moment to each individual Israelite; and it is certainly not by See also:accident that the See also:declaration of the individual's See also:duty towards See also:God immediately follows the emphatic intimation to Israel of Yahweh's unity. " Hear, 0 Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one: and See also:thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thine See also:heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength " (vi. 4, 5). In estimating the religious value of Deuteronomy it should never be forgotten that upon this passage the greatest eulogy ever pronounced on any scripture was pronounced by See also:Christ himself, when he said " on these words hang all the law and the prophets," and it is also well to remember that when tempted in the See also:wilderness he repelled each See also:suggestion of the Tempter by a See also:quotation from. Deuteronomy. Nevertheless even such a writer as D could not See also:escape the influence of the age and See also:atmosphere in which he lived; and despite the spirit of love which breathes so strongly throughout the book, especially for the poor, the widow and the fatherless, the stranger and the homeless Levite (See also:xxiv. 10-22), and the humanity shown towards both beasts and birds (xxii. 1, 4, 6 f., See also:xxv. 4), there are elements in D which go far to explain the intense exclusiveness and the religious intolerance characteristic of Judaism. Should a See also:man's son or friend dear to him as his own soul seek to tempt him from the faith of his fathers, D's pitiless See also:order to that man is " Thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death." From this single instance we see not only how far mankind has travelled along the path of religious See also:toleration since Deuteronomy was written, but also how very far the See also:criticism implied in Christ's method of dealing with what " was said to them of old time " may be legitimately carried. (J. A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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