Sidetrip Through Deuteronomy

In my commitment to Read Through the Bible (RTTB) in alphabetical order this year, I finished Acts the other day. But instead of moving directly to Amos, I'm going to take a little side trip through Deuteronomy.

Our Sunday School class is starting a several-week study of 1 and 2 Samuel. In preparing the introduction for the study, I reviewed the Deuteronomistic History theory. Although biblical scholars dating back to the 17th century recognized some interesting literary connections among Deuteronomy and the "historical" books that followed it (namely, Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings), the theory was best described in the early 20th century by a German scholar, Martin Noth. He theorized that there must have been one editor (or redactor) who wove together the sources that became this corpus of books. According to Noth, there were too many similarities and the transitions too smooth among these books to not be the work of one writer.

Other scholars have dealt with whether there were multiple editors, and when they might have done their redacting -- like, before, during or after the Exile.  And of course, there are a lot of scholars who don't buy it; who contend that each of the books were discrete compositions.

As always, there are godly, sincere, and industrious scholars that support both sides of this issue. And, as usual, the interesting debate does not degrade even one iota of the truth of God's Word.

I kind of like the Deuteronomistic History theory. Part of its claim is that the book of Deuteronomy is very much like covenants in the Ancient Near East, laying out the history and the  relationship between the two parties, the details of the agreement between them, a a series of blessings and curses to be invoked based on keeping or breaking the covenant. This particular covenant, of course, would be between God and the people of Israel. The books of Joshua through 2 Kings illustrate how the Israelites--as individuals and as a community--did and did not keep the covenant, and the results, both good and bad. It just seems possible that some Jewish theologian looked at the debacle of the Exile and sat down to write about the history of Israel in the Promised Land and how the people's choices, good and bad, landed them in Assyrian and Babylonian exile.

Anyway, it seems pretty important to me to have a fresh understanding of Deuteronomy as I get ready to study and teach 1 and 2 Samuel. So that's my RTTB plan for this week.

By the way, if you are living in the  Dallas area and are interested in joining our Sunday morning Bible study, it's at Park Cities Baptist Church, starting at 9:15 a.m. in the Club Room--at the westernmost point of the church.