Deuteronomist
Encyclopedia
The Deuteronomist, or simply D, is one of the sources underlying the Hebrew bible
(the Old Testament
). It is found in the book of Deuteronomy
, in the books of Joshua
, Judges
, Samuel
, and Kings
(the Deuteronomistic history, or DtrH) and also in the book of Jeremiah
. (The adjectives Deuteronomic and Deuteronomistic are essentially interchangeable: if they are distinguished at all, then the first refers to Deuteronomy and the second to the history).
The Deuteronomists are seen more as a school or movement than a single author. It is generally agreed that the DtrH originated independently of both the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus
and Numbers
(the first four books of the Torah
) and the history of the books of Chronicles
; most scholars trace all or most of it to the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), and associate it with editorial reworking of both the Tetrateuch and Jeremiah
.
, or as sages and scribes at the royal court. Recent scholarship has interpreted the book as involving all these groups, and a broad consensus has emerged that describes the origin and growth of Deuteronomism in the following terms.
followed by blessings and curses; and a conclusion.
The law code (chapters 12-26) forms the core of the book. 2 Kings 22-23 tells how a "book of the law", commonly identified with the code, was found in the Temple during the reign of Josiah
. According to the story in Kings, the reading of the book caused Josiah to embark on a series of religious reforms, and it has been suggested that it was written in order to validate this program. Notwithstanding, it is generally accepted that at least some of the laws are much earlier than Josiah.
The introduction to the code (chapters 4:44-11-32) was added during Josiah's time, thus creating the earliest version of Deuteronomy as a book, and the historical prologue (chapters 1-4:43) was added still later to turn Deuteronomy into an introduction to the entire Deuteronomistic history (Deuteronomy to Kings).
to explain the origin and purpose of Joshua
, Judges
, Samuel
and Kings
: these, he argued, were the work of a single 6th century historian seeking to explain recent events (the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile) using the theology and language of the book of Deuteronomy
. The historian used his sources with a heavy hand, depicting Joshua as a grand, divinely guided conquest, Judges as a cycle of rebellion and salvation, and the story of the kings as recurring disaster due to disobedience to God.
The late 1960s saw the beginning of a series of studies that modified Noth's original concept. In 1968 Frank Moore Cross
made an important revision, suggesting that the History was in fact first written in the late 7th century as a contribution to king Josiah
's program of reform (the Dtr1 version), and only later revised and updated by Noth's 6th-century author (Dtr2). Dtr1 saw Israel's history as a contrast between God's judgement on the sinful northern kingdom of Jeroboam I (who set up the golden calves to be worshiped) and virtuous Judah, where faithful king David had reigned and where now the righteous Josiah was reforming the kingdom. The exilic Dtr2 overwrote this with warnings of a broken covenant and inevitable punishment and exile for sinful (in Dtr2's view) Judah
.
Cross's "dual redaction" model is probably the most widely accepted, but a considerable number of European scholars prefer an alternative model put forward by Rudolf Smend and his pupils. This approach holds that Noth was right to locate the composition of the History in the 6th century, but that further redactions took place after the initial composition, including a "nomistic" (from the Greek word for "law"), or DtrN, layer, and a further layer concerned with the prophets and so called DtrP.
are written in a style and outlook closely akin to, yet different from, the Deuteronomistic history. It is debated how much of the book is from Jeremiah himself and how much from later disciples, but the French scholar Thomas Romer has recently identified two Deuteronomistic "redactions" (editings) of the book of Jeremiah
some time before the end of the Exile (pre-539 BCE) - a process which also involved the prophetic books of Amos
and Hosea
. It is interesting to note, in reference to the "authors" of the Deuteronomistic works, how Jeremiah the prophet uses scribes such as Baruch to accomplish his ends. It is also noteworthy that the History never mentions Jeremiah, and some scholars believe that the "Jeremiah" Deuteronomists represent a distinct party from the "History" Deuteronomists, with opposing agendas.
with Yahweh
as the divine suzerain. Deuteronomy is conceived as a covenant (a treaty) between Israel and Yahweh, who has chosen ("elected") Israel as his people, and requires Israel to live according to his law. The law is to be supreme over all other sources of authority, including kings and royal officials, and the prophets are the guardians of the law: prophecy is instruction in the law as given through Moses, the law given through Moses is the complete and sufficient revelation of the Will of God, and nothing further is needed.
Under the covenant Yahweh has promised Israel the land of Canaan
, but the promise is conditional: if Israel is unfaithful, they will lose the land. The Deuteronomistic history explains Israel's successes and failures as the result of faithfulness, which brings success, or disobedience, which brings failure; the destruction of Israel
by the Assyria
ns (721 BCE) and Judah
by the Babylonians (586) are Yahweh's punishment for continued sinfulness.
Deuteronomy insists on the centralisation of worship "in the place that the Lord your God will choose"; Deuteronomy never says where this place will be, but Kings makes it clear that it is Jerusalem. It also shows a special concern for the poor, for widows and the fatherless: all Israelites are brothers (and sisters), and each will answer to God for his treatment of his neighbour. This concern for equality and humanity, however, extends only to fellow-Israelites, not to outsiders, for whom Deuteronomy preaches a war of extermination.
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
(the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
). It is found in the book of Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
, in the books of Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
, Judges
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...
, Samuel
Books of Samuel
The Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...
, and Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
(the Deuteronomistic history, or DtrH) and also in the book of Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
. (The adjectives Deuteronomic and Deuteronomistic are essentially interchangeable: if they are distinguished at all, then the first refers to Deuteronomy and the second to the history).
The Deuteronomists are seen more as a school or movement than a single author. It is generally agreed that the DtrH originated independently of both the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus
Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
and Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
(the first four books of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
) and the history of the books of Chronicles
Books of Chronicles
The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible. In the Masoretic Text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim . Chronicles largely parallels the Davidic narratives in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings...
; most scholars trace all or most of it to the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), and associate it with editorial reworking of both the Tetrateuch and Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
.
Background
Since the mid-20th century scholars have identified the Deuteronomists as country levites (a junior order of priests), or as prophets in the tradition of the northern kingdom of IsraelKingdom of Israel
The Kingdom of Israel was, according to the Bible, one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It was thought to exist roughly from the 930s BCE until about the 720s BCE, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
, or as sages and scribes at the royal court. Recent scholarship has interpreted the book as involving all these groups, and a broad consensus has emerged that describes the origin and growth of Deuteronomism in the following terms.
- Following the destruction of Israel (the northern kingdom) by Assyria in 721 BCE refugees came south to Judah, bringing with them traditions, notably the concept of YahwehYahwehYahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
as the only god who should be served, which had not previously been known. Among those influenced by these new ideas were the landowning aristocrats (called "people of the land" in the bible) who provided the administrative elite in Jerusalem. - In 640 there was a crisis in Judah when king Amon was murdered. The aristocrats put the ringleaders to death and placed an eight year old child, JosiahJosiahJosiah or Yoshiyahu or Joshua was a king of Judah who instituted major reforms. Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after...
, on the throne. - Judah at this time was a vassal of Assyria, but Assyria now began a rapid and unexpected decline in power, leading to a resurgence of nationalism in Jerusalem. In 622 Josiah launched his reform program, based on an early form of Deuteronomy 5-26, framed as a covenant (treaty) between Judah and Yahweh in which Yahweh replaced the Assyrian king.
- By the end of the 7th century Assyria had been replaced by a new imperial power, BabylonNeo-Babylonian EmpireThe Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 626 BC and ended in 539 BC. During the preceding three centuries, Babylonia had been ruled by their fellow Akkadian speakers and northern neighbours, Assyria. Throughout that time Babylonia...
. The trauma of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586, and the exile which followed, led to much theological reflection on the meaning of the tragedy, and the Deuteronomistic history was written as an explanation: Israel had been unfaithful to Yahweh, and the exile was God's punishment. - By about 540 Babylon was also in rapid decline as the next rising power, Persia, steadily ate away at it. With the end of the Babylonian oppression becoming ever more probable, Deuteronomy was given a new introduction and attached to the history books as an overall theological introduction.
- The final stage was the addition of a few extra laws following the fall of Babylon to the Persians in 539 and the return of some (in practice only a small fraction) of the exiles to Jerusalem.
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy was formed by a complex process that reached probably from the 7th century BCE to the early 5th. It consists of a historical prologue; an introduction; the law codeDeuteronomic Code
The Deuteronomic Code is the name given by academics to the law code within the Book of Deuteronomy. It contains "a variety of topics including religious ceremonies and ritual purity, civil and criminal law, and the conduct of war"...
followed by blessings and curses; and a conclusion.
The law code (chapters 12-26) forms the core of the book. 2 Kings 22-23 tells how a "book of the law", commonly identified with the code, was found in the Temple during the reign of Josiah
Josiah
Josiah or Yoshiyahu or Joshua was a king of Judah who instituted major reforms. Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after...
. According to the story in Kings, the reading of the book caused Josiah to embark on a series of religious reforms, and it has been suggested that it was written in order to validate this program. Notwithstanding, it is generally accepted that at least some of the laws are much earlier than Josiah.
The introduction to the code (chapters 4:44-11-32) was added during Josiah's time, thus creating the earliest version of Deuteronomy as a book, and the historical prologue (chapters 1-4:43) was added still later to turn Deuteronomy into an introduction to the entire Deuteronomistic history (Deuteronomy to Kings).
Deuteronomistic history
Today the existence of the Deuteronomistic history enjoys "canonical" status in biblical studies. The term was coined in 1943 by the German biblical scholar Martin NothMartin Noth
Martin Noth was a German scholar of the Hebrew Bible who specialized in the pre-Exilic history of the Hebrews. With Gerhard von Rad he pioneered the traditional-historical approach to biblical studies, emphasising the role of oral traditions in the formation of the biblical texts.-Life:Noth was...
to explain the origin and purpose of Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
, Judges
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...
, Samuel
Books of Samuel
The Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...
and Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
: these, he argued, were the work of a single 6th century historian seeking to explain recent events (the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile) using the theology and language of the book of Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
. The historian used his sources with a heavy hand, depicting Joshua as a grand, divinely guided conquest, Judges as a cycle of rebellion and salvation, and the story of the kings as recurring disaster due to disobedience to God.
The late 1960s saw the beginning of a series of studies that modified Noth's original concept. In 1968 Frank Moore Cross
Frank Moore Cross
Frank Moore Cross, Jr. is Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages Emeritus at Harvard University, notable for his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, his 1973 magnum opus Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, and his work in Northwest Semitic epigraphy...
made an important revision, suggesting that the History was in fact first written in the late 7th century as a contribution to king Josiah
Josiah
Josiah or Yoshiyahu or Joshua was a king of Judah who instituted major reforms. Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after...
's program of reform (the Dtr1 version), and only later revised and updated by Noth's 6th-century author (Dtr2). Dtr1 saw Israel's history as a contrast between God's judgement on the sinful northern kingdom of Jeroboam I (who set up the golden calves to be worshiped) and virtuous Judah, where faithful king David had reigned and where now the righteous Josiah was reforming the kingdom. The exilic Dtr2 overwrote this with warnings of a broken covenant and inevitable punishment and exile for sinful (in Dtr2's view) Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
.
Cross's "dual redaction" model is probably the most widely accepted, but a considerable number of European scholars prefer an alternative model put forward by Rudolf Smend and his pupils. This approach holds that Noth was right to locate the composition of the History in the 6th century, but that further redactions took place after the initial composition, including a "nomistic" (from the Greek word for "law"), or DtrN, layer, and a further layer concerned with the prophets and so called DtrP.
Jeremiah and the prophetic literature
The prose sermons in JeremiahBook of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
are written in a style and outlook closely akin to, yet different from, the Deuteronomistic history. It is debated how much of the book is from Jeremiah himself and how much from later disciples, but the French scholar Thomas Romer has recently identified two Deuteronomistic "redactions" (editings) of the book of Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
some time before the end of the Exile (pre-539 BCE) - a process which also involved the prophetic books of Amos
Book of Amos
The Book of Amos is a prophetic book of the Hebrew Bible, one of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Amos, an older contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, was active c. 750 BCE during the reign of Jeroboam II, making the Book of Amos the first biblical prophetic book written. Amos lived in the kingdom of Judah...
and Hosea
Book of Hosea
The Book of Hosea is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It stands first in order among what are known as the twelve Minor Prophets.-Background and Content:...
. It is interesting to note, in reference to the "authors" of the Deuteronomistic works, how Jeremiah the prophet uses scribes such as Baruch to accomplish his ends. It is also noteworthy that the History never mentions Jeremiah, and some scholars believe that the "Jeremiah" Deuteronomists represent a distinct party from the "History" Deuteronomists, with opposing agendas.
Deuteronomism (Deuteronomistic theology)
Israel is to be a theocracyTheocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
with Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
as the divine suzerain. Deuteronomy is conceived as a covenant (a treaty) between Israel and Yahweh, who has chosen ("elected") Israel as his people, and requires Israel to live according to his law. The law is to be supreme over all other sources of authority, including kings and royal officials, and the prophets are the guardians of the law: prophecy is instruction in the law as given through Moses, the law given through Moses is the complete and sufficient revelation of the Will of God, and nothing further is needed.
Under the covenant Yahweh has promised Israel the land of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
, but the promise is conditional: if Israel is unfaithful, they will lose the land. The Deuteronomistic history explains Israel's successes and failures as the result of faithfulness, which brings success, or disobedience, which brings failure; the destruction of Israel
Kingdom of Israel
The Kingdom of Israel was, according to the Bible, one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It was thought to exist roughly from the 930s BCE until about the 720s BCE, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
by the Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
ns (721 BCE) and Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
by the Babylonians (586) are Yahweh's punishment for continued sinfulness.
Deuteronomy insists on the centralisation of worship "in the place that the Lord your God will choose"; Deuteronomy never says where this place will be, but Kings makes it clear that it is Jerusalem. It also shows a special concern for the poor, for widows and the fatherless: all Israelites are brothers (and sisters), and each will answer to God for his treatment of his neighbour. This concern for equality and humanity, however, extends only to fellow-Israelites, not to outsiders, for whom Deuteronomy preaches a war of extermination.
See also
- Priestly sourcePriestly sourceThe Priestly Source is one of the sources of the Torah/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire , P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel...
- JahwistJahwistThe Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the sources of the Torah. It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh for God in the book of Genesis...
- ElohistElohistThe Elohist is one of four sources of the Torah described by the Documentary Hypothesis. Its name comes from the term it uses for God: Elohim; it is characterised by, among other things, an abstract view of God, using "Horeb" instead of "Sinai" for the mountain where Moses received the laws of...
- Documentary hypothesisDocumentary hypothesisThe documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
- Gerhard von RadGerhard von RadGerhard von Rad was a German Lutheran pastor, University professor and an Old Testament scholar.With the experience of two World Wars, the German-speaking world began to turn "anti-Old Testament"...
- Holiness codeHoliness codeThe Holiness Code is a term used in biblical criticism to refer to Leviticus 17-26, and is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word Holy. It has no special traditional religious significance and traditional Jews and Christians do not regard it as having any distinction from any other...
General
- Gottwald, Norman, review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism, Society of Biblical Literature, 2004
External links
- The Deuteronomist source (Dtr1) isolated, at wikiversity
- The Deuteronomist source (Dtr2) isolated, at wikiversity
- The narrative of Deuteronomy in isolation, at wikiversity