Where and When Might Deuteronomy Have Been Written?

Deuteronomy - Outside the Box - Diana V. Edelman

Diana V. Edelman [+-]
University of Oslo
Diana V. Edelman is Professor Emerita of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo. Her own research focuses on the history, archaeology, and literature of the southern Levant, the development of early forms of Judaisms, and ancient Near Eastern literature viewed from the perspective of social memory. She has thirteen seasons of excavation experience in Israel. While her research tends to focus on the Iron Age and Persian period, she is interested in earlier and later periods and a wide range of topics. Current interests include local responses to imperialism, royal ideology, the development of technology and agriculture, everyday life, issues involving religion and ritual, burial and afterlife beliefs, diaspora studies, migration studies, frontier studies, social memory, ancient economies, and ancient political organization. Her numerous publications include 17 authored or edited books, 44 chapters in edited volumes, 14 articles in refereed journals, 58 dictionary and encyclopedia articles, and 128 book reviews (as of 2/2015).

Description

The proposal that Deuteronomy exhibits northern/Israelite ideology is evaluated and found to be inconclusive. Three suggested dating indicators thought to point to the initial composition of the scroll either soon after 722 BCE or during the reign of King Josiah are then assessed: the expansion of Jerusalem in the late eighth century BCE, the hypothetical dependence of small portions of Deuteronomy on Esarhaddon’s Succession Oath Documents, and the equation of the scroll of Torah purportedly found in the temple during repairs under Josiah with Deuteronomy (2 Kgs 22:8–10). The first and third are found to be inconclusive and the second erroneous. The religious worldview associated with Yhwh Elohim found in the book is argued to be a more reliable indicator of the book’s initial creation in either the Neo-Babylonian or early Persian period. Finally, options for the place of composition in Yehud or Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian period and in Yehud, Babylonia, or on Mt Gerizim in the early Achaemenid period are evaluated.

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Citation

Edelman, Diana. Where and When Might Deuteronomy Have Been Written?. Deuteronomy - Outside the Box. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. Jan 2025. ISBN 9781800506121. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=46301. Date accessed: 02 May 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.46301. Jan 2025

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