DEUTERONOMY: INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STRUCTURE

 

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Despite the apparent chaos this book presents, which many scholars attribute to a prolonged history of composition, there are also strong signs of overall unity. First to be noted is a common vocabulary used throughout, with certain key words and phrases occurring a symbolically significant number of times:

    7x: “book” associated with “law,” “Hear, O Israel,” “God's mighty hand and deeds, etc.,”

    “statutes and commandments,” “the God of ... fathers,” “so you shall purge the evil from your midst,” “land which Yahweh gives you to possess”

    10x: “out of the midst of the fire,” “elders of the city,” “prophet,” “good land,” “place which Yahweh will choose to put His name,” commands to teach the younger generation

    12x: “remember” with “Egypt,” “the place which the LORD your God will chose”

    14x: “all Israel,” “fear the LORD your God”

    28x: “Swear an oath” (nsb') regarding the land

A random canvassing of the secondary literature on this book yielded at least twenty different proposals for its major divisions. Although no two divisions coincided in all points, it was still possible to arrive at the following “majority opinion” to use as a working hypothesis.

    I. Introduction (1:1-4:43)

    II. The Law: Part I (4:44-11:32 )

    III. The Law: Part II (chs.12-28)

    IV. Rehearsal of the Covenant (chs. 29-30)

    V. Appendix (chs. 31-34)

Despite the rough agreement concerning these five sections, there have been few attempts to show how the individual parts relate to one another. This is no doubt because most scholarly energy has been expended in the direction of Wellhausen and Noth in attempts to capture the supposed prehistory of the book. One key to the overall make-up of the book comes from a recognition that the book consists mainly of a series of speeches given by Moses to the assembled people. The introductions to these speeches at 1:1, 1:5, 5:1 and 29:2 possess similar language and closely coincide with the openings of sections I, II and IV, respectively.

The second literary guide for many scholars is the similarity this book possesses with ancient near Eastern treaties. The main problem with this approach is which of several possible historical models to use. The structural analysis outlined below was found to match up best with the 2^nd millennium BC Hittite covenants, which may help to roughly date the composition of Deuteronomy.

The first section contains seven events arranged symmetrically as shown in Figure I.

Figure 1: Seven Events in Section I

A. Judges Appointed (1:9-18)

B. Defeat in Battle (1:19-46)

C. Passing through Seir (2:1-8a)

D. Time of Transition (2:8b-25)

1. Into Moab (2:8b-13)

2. A New Generation (2:14-15)

1'. Out of Moab (2:16-25)

C'. Passing through Heshbon (2:26-37)

B'. Victory in Battle (3:1-22)

A'. Joshua Appointed (3:23-29)

Note that the middle unit of this section also forms a neat ABA pattern centering on the death of the old, unfaithful generation and setting the stage for the victories that God will give to the new generation. Fig. 1 does not include the first eight verses of the book, which the RSV groups together as a single paragraph. These verses give the time and place for Moses' exposition of “this law” to the people.

Figure 2: Structure of Section II

A. Ten Commandments Given (5:1-6:3)

B. Israel Must Serve Yahweh to Receive Blessings (6:4-25)

C. Living in the Land (chs. 7-8)

1. Do Not Fear the Nations (ch. 7)

1'. Do Fear Yahweh (ch. 8)

A'. Ten Commandments Given (9:1-10:11)

B'. Israel Must Obey the Law to Receive Blessings (10:12-11:25)

By combining separate insights from the literature, one can arrive at the structure shown in Fig. 3.

Figure 3: The Structure of Section III

A. Blessings and Curses (11:26-30)

1. in the present: covenant renewal (11:26-28)

2. in the future: covenant renewal (11:29-30)

B. Specific Legislation (11:31-26:19)

A'. Blessings and Curses (27:1-28:68)

2. in the future: covenant renewal (ch. 27)

1. in the present: covenant renewal (28:1-28:68)

This general scheme for Section III explains why scholars are evenly divided in seeing a major conclusion at the end of either ch. 26 or ch. 28.

It is in the large core section IIIB that, to paraphrase Brevard Childs, the law is placed within the new context of occupation of Canaan; regulations are set out to address future generations; and the stage is set for centralization of worship. This literary unit possesses its own chiastic structure centered around Deuteronomy 17-18 in which leaders for Israel are identified.

There are several lines of reasoning leading to the conclusion that these two chapters constitute the bounds of a single unit. Thompson notes that they can be viewed as a summary of all that has preceded in the book. The key phrase “all Israel” appears five times in the text of Deuteronomy, three times signaling the beginning of a major section: at 5:1, 29:1 and 31:1. This would seem to effectively mark the limits of Section IV quite clearly.

Figure 4: The Structure of Section IV

A. Exhortation: Do the words of the covenant and be blessed (29:1-9)

B. God establishes his covenant (29:10-15)

C. Warnings (29:16-28)

B'. God extends his covenant (29:29-30:14)

A'. Exhortation: Obey the commandments and be blessed (30:15-20)

Although the final portion of the book appears to be a miscellaneous collection of writings, there are various indications that it should be viewed as a unity. First to note is the phrase “all Israel,” which appears in the beginning and closing verses of this section. Secondly, the overall scheme of Fig. 5 recommends itself. It was derived from Mayes' divisions and unit titles.

Figure 5: The Structure of Section V

A. Joshua as Successor (31:1-29)

1. Instillation of Joshua by Moses (31:1-8)

2. Future Reading of the Law (31:9-13)

1'. Instillation of Joshua and Command to Moses to Write Song (31:14-23)

2'. Provision for Preservation of the Law (31:24-29)

        B. The Song of Moses (31:30-32:44)

A'. The Death of Moses (32:45-34:12)

2. Conclusion to the Law (32:45-47)

1. Announcement of Moses' Death (32:48-52)

2'. Moses' Farewell Blessing (33:1-29)

1'. Death of Moses (34:1-12)

As added confirmation of the basic five divisions of Deuteronomy derived above, these sections easily arrange themselves symmetrically in terms of both subject and form.

Figure 6: The Structure of Deuteronomy

I. Introduction: Israel's Past (1:1-4:49)

II. God Gives the Law to His People (5:1-11:25)

III. Specific Legislation (11:26-28:68)

IV. God's Covenant with His People (29:1-30:20)

V. Conclusion: Israel's Future (31:1-34:12)

There are extensive linguistic as well as thematic similarities between the parallel sections identified in all six figures shown above. They effectively narrow down the central focus of the book to Deuteronomy 18:1-14. This is a rather unexpected find since the first verses of this unit deal with the unique role of the Levites and concern for proper form of worship – subjects usually more associated with the theology of the Chronicler. But the heart of this subsection is at its conclusion and points to the reason behind the covenant stipulations of the book. Because Israel, in distinction to the nations they are about to dispossess from the land, has been chosen by God, they “shall be blameless” before Him.