Deuteronomy Introduction

Since the 1950s, comparisons have been noted between Deuteronomy and certain treaty texts from ancient Hittite archives. Though they share virtually nothing in terms of content, the structures of these respective documents are remarkably similar. Since the Hittite examples originated in the Late Bronze Age (ca 1400–1200 BC), Deuteronomy seems also to have come from this period.

However, other treaty texts have also surfaced, especially from seventh-century BC Assyria. These, too, resemble Deuteronomy in form and style except in two major respects. (1) They for the most part lack historical prologues. (2) They contain no blessing section. Both of these sections occur in Deuteronomy as well as in the Hittite models, thus providing further evidence for Deuteronomy’s antiquity. The burden of proof for a seventh century BC Deuteronomy clearly rests on the adherents to that view and not on those who accept the traditional dating.

The only other important issue of apologetics relative to the book is the alleged anachronisms. For example, in Deuteronomy 1:1 Moses and Israel are said to be “across the Jordan” (be’er hayyarden). At first glance this might seem to suggest that the narrator was in Canaan proper, to the west, and was looking toward the Transjordan. This would appear to rule out Moses as the author. However, to this day Transjordan is a term used to describe the land east of the Jordan, even by people who live there.

Another example occurs in Deuteronomy 2:12. There the author says that the descendants of Esau had destroyed the native Horites and settled in their land just as the Israelites had dealt with the peoples they dispossessed. The vantage point seems to be postconquest and thus long after Moses’s time. A careful reading of the narratives of the Transjordanian conquests puts an end to this argument, however, for Moses and his armies did indeed defeat and dispossess the Amorite kings Sihon and Og before this statement was recorded (Dt 2:26–3:11).

The most famous case is the account of Moses’s death at the end of the book (Dt 34:5-12). How could Moses write a text that describes the details of his own death and burial? It is possible, of course, that he was prophetically inspired to do so, but ancient Jewish tradition (Baba Bathra 14b-15a) and common sense suggest a better alternative—that the book was completed by someone else, most likely Joshua. This slight concession in no way undermines the position that Deuteronomy as a whole is Mosaic and from the late fifteenth century BC.