The Role of Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch
Deuteronomy - Outside the Box - Diana V. Edelman
Richard D. Nelson [+]
Southern Methodist University
Description
Readers of the Tetrateuch encounter Deuteronomy as a disruptive experience that “bends” what is being read into a distinctive direction. The preceding journey-oriented narrative is replaced by quoted speech of Moses. Striking differences in language, tone, viewpoint, and presentation pile up. Expected plot progression is delayed. Linguistic changes, emergence of the testament genre, theological divergences, and the abrupt appearance of a book, disorient readers and grab their attention. When post-monarchical readers arrived at its last chapter, as viewed through the lens of the Song of Moses, the Pentateuch as a whole afforded them an effective metanarrative. It provided an explanatory, organizing archetype to a society existing precariously under the shadow of imperial domination and alien gods. It offered Israel a pattern for belief and the construction of meaning that made possible their survival as a people.