Deuteronomy: Outside the Box

Deuteronomy: Outside the Box provides readers with informed presentations of a range of current debates concerning Deuteronomy as well as key themes and their implications. First published online between 2022 and 2024, these essays have now been collected in print for the first time. This volume re-examines a number of long-standing hypotheses and proposes fresh alternatives. The target audience is upper level undergraduates with no ancient languages, but graduate students and biblical scholars will find the volume a useful go-to resource as well. It ranges over many issues including:

-the proposed influence of Esarhaddon’s Succession adê on Deuteronomy 13 and 28;

-berît as treaty, covenant, or instructions;

-Deuteronomy in dialogue with ancient Near Eastern law collections;

-reconceived Yahwism;

-Torah as a tool of propaganda and hegemony adapted from Persian dāta;

-characteristics of the Samaritan version of Deuteronomy;

-the role of Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch;

-where and when Deuteronomy might have been written;

-the influence of Deuteronomy on the final shape of the psalter.

The volume also engages with themes including:

-geographical and economic dimensions of Deuteronomy;

-parenting;

-ethnicity and power;

-pedagogy;

-Moses as master scribe;

-pragmatism, utopia and dystopia;

-ethics;

-the memory of Cisjordan as a landscape of fortified cities.