Time and Place in Deuteronomy (JSOT Supplement) PDF
Preview Time and Place in Deuteronomy (JSOT Supplement)
JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SUPPLEMENT SERIES 179 Editors David J.A. Clines Philip R. Davies Executive Editor John Jarick Editorial Board Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, Tamara C. Eskenazi, J. Cheryl Exum, John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon, Norman K. Gottwald, Andrew D.H. Mayes, Carol Meyers, Patrick D. Miller Sheffield Academic Press This page intentionally left blank Time and Place in Deuteronomy J.G. McConville and J.G. Millar Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 179 For Fiona and Helen Copyright © 1994 Sheffield Academic Press Published by Sheffield Academic Press Ltd Mansion House 19 Kingfield Road Sheffield, S11 9AS England Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press and Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by Bookcraft Midsomer Norton, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 1-85075-494-2 CONTENTS Preface 7 Abbreviations 8 Introduction 9 J.G. MILLAR Living at the Place of Decision: Time and Place in the Framework of Deuteronomy 15 Introduction 15 1. Time and Place in Chapters 1-3: The Introduction of the Journey of Israel 16 2. Time and Place in Chapter 4: The Identification of Moab with Horeb 32 3. Time and Place in Chapters 5-11: The Journey of Israel in the Parenesis 49 4. Time and Place in Chapters 27-34: The End of Many Journeys 69 Conclusions: Time and Place in the Framework of Deuteronomy 88 J.G. McCONVILLE Time, Place and the Deuteronomic Altar-Law 89 Introduction 89 1. Interpretation of the Altar-Law in Historical Perspective 90 2. Interpretation of the Altar-Law: Exegetical Issues 110 3. The 'Chosen Place' in Deuteronomic Context 123 4. Deuteronomy 12: Transcendence, Immanence and Contingency 132 Conclusions 138 Conclusion 140 Bibliography 142 Index of References 148 Index of Authors 154 This page intentionally left blank PREFACE The authors of the present volume met in Oxford while Millar was researching for his DPhil and McConville teaching at Wycliffe Hall. Professor John Barton, as the former's supervisor, asked McConville to act informally as an additional reader. Early in our studies together it became obvious that we were developing very similar ideas about the subject of time and place in Deuteronomy. McConville was working on a monograph whose interest focused on the altar-law, taking further a thesis offered in a previous volume in the present series (Law and Theology in Deuteronomy, JSOTSup, 33), but which would set that study in the broader context of relevant themes in the whole book. Millar was studying the topic in the context of his thesis: The Ethics of Deuteronomy: An Exegetical and Theological Study of the Book of Deuteronomy'. It seemed entirely natural to combine our efforts and make the common statement that constitutes the present volume. The work is unusual, we think, in that, though co-authored, it is a synthetic argument, and thus properly a 'monograph'. While Millar has written on the 'framework' and McConville on the 'code', the whole argument is as from both. We are grateful to the editors of Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series for accepting the volume into the series. From McConville's point of view, it complements the argument he offered in the work mentioned above, and he is therefore glad that this one finds a place in the same series. We are grateful too to Professor Barton for encouraging the enterprise, for his care and attentiveness as a supervisor, and for reading the whole work presented here and making important suggestions. We are also grateful to each other. Apart from sharing a place of origin (in Ulster), and initials (confusingly), we have been able to share our enthusiasm for the book of Deuteronomy, and we hope a lasting friendship, though time and place have already changed—which is a large part of our point. ABBREVIATIONS AB Anchor Bible AnBib Analecta biblica BBB Bonner biblische Beitrage BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium BEvT Beitrage zur evangelischen Theologie Bib Biblica BibLeb Bibel und Leben BibOr Biblica et orientalia BJS Brown Judaic Studies BWANT Beitrage zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament BZ Biblische Zeitschrift BZAW Beihefte zur ZAW CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly ConBOT Coniectanea biblica, Old Testament EstBib Esludios biblicos ICC International Critical Commentary Int Interpretation JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series JSPSup Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Supplement Series NCB New Century Bible NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament NKZ Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift OBT Overtures to Biblical Theology OTL Old Testament Library RB Revue biblique SBLDS SBL Dissertation Series SBS Stuttgarter Bibelstudien SJ Studiajudaica TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries TynBul Tyndale Bulletin VT Vetus Testamentum VTSup Vetus Testamentum, Supplements WBC Word Biblical Commentary WMANT Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament ZAW Zeitschriftfiir die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ZDPV Zeitschrift des deutschen Paldstina-Vereins INTRODUCTION The essays in the present volume are concerned with Deuteronomy's stance towards the programme of the Josianic reform. As such, they are a contribution first and foremost to the theological interpretation of Deuteronomy, and an exercise in Old Testament theology. At the same time they raise questions of methodology in the criticism of the book. The intimate relationship between these two kinds of issues needs no demonstration, nor indeed does the importance of Deuteronomy in rela- tion to each. Both in the theology of the Old Testament and in the annals of modern Old Testament criticism, Deuteronomy occupies an unrivalled place. The study of Deuteronomy, however, is beset by what D.L. Christensen has called 'the current methodological quandary' in its study.1 The older style of literary criticism of Steuernagel and others has been overlaid by form criticism (von Rad), then the tradition criticism of Noth's theory of the Deuteronomist, and finally an approach that owes more to rhetorical criticism, in which the stylistic studies of Lohfink have been prominent.2 The dominant force in the field is probably redaction criticism. Wellhausen's belief that Deuteronomy originally consisted of a law-code which was subsequently provided with introductions as well as con- cluding materials has given way to a model of more organic growth which took its stimulus from Noth's belief that Deuteronomy 1-3 constituted the introduction to the Deuteronomic History (DtH).3 Noth's 1. D.L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1-11 (WBC 6a; Dallas: Word, 1991), p. xlix. 2. The survival of literary criticism in tradition-critical interpretations is evi- denced in the treatments of Deut. 12 by M. Rose, Der Ausschliesslichkeitsanspruch Jahwes (BWANT, 106; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1975), pp. 97-98; G. Seitz, Redaktionsgeschichtliche Studien zum Deuteronomium (BWANT, 93; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1971), pp. 212-14. 3. M. Noth, The Deuteronomistic History (JSOTSup, 15; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1981).
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