Saturday, January 23, 2010

An Introduction to the Old Testament - Deuteronomy

Dillard, Raymond B. & Longman, Tremper III. "Deuteronomy."  An Introduction to the Old Testament.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994.  91-106.

Deuteronomy provides us with a record of covenant renewal in Moab (p. 92).  Prior to the time of the 19th century critics, Mosaic authorship was widely affirmed, though isolated areas were always viewed as later updates, cf. 2.10-11, 20-23; 3.9, 11, 13b-14; 10.6-9.

Highlights of 19th century highter criticism: Source criticism severed Deuteronomy's connection with Moses, placing the D source generally in the late 7th century B.C.  This period is significant in the context of Josiah, who seemed to have specifications found in Deuteronomy.  Higher criticism assigned composition of Deuteronomy to Josiah's time as a "pious fraud" (p. 94).

In the early 20th century scholars searched for additional layers of grammar within Deuteronomy so as to assign more redactive effort to the composition.

In the later 20th century scholars have tended to view the material as much older, similar to ancient near eastern treaty forms from the time of Moses.  Literary analysis has again started looking for a unified structure.

The text uses some un-cited quotes on p. 102 to define the theological message as "one God, one people, one land, one sanctuary, and one law."  The text has a brief segment describing all these "one" concepts further.

Lookin to the New Testament we see that God promises to raise up a prophet like Moses.  We see that prophet as Jesus, God the Son.

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