Deuteronomy in Dialogue with Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections
Deuteronomy - Outside the Box - Diana V. Edelman
Megan B. Turton [+]
Whitley College
Description
The very heart of Deuteronomy, chs.12–26, is comprised of legal discourse. Early critical scholarship identified the “Deuteronic Code” in chs. 12–26 as a “core,” distinct in some sense from the surrounding narrative frames in chs. 1–11 and 27–34. Subsequent scholarship has detected a complex literary history in the book’s legal and narrative chapters, positing pre-exilic, exilic, and post-exilic layers. There is considerable debate regarding what might be identified as the first layer of Deuteronomy and the dating of this stratum. Some scholars theorize that select Deuteronomic laws, especially from chs. 21–25, may have circulated separately prior to their integration into the “Deuteronomic Code,” as one among a number of ancient law collections that, despite being produced by various peoples and cultures of ancient West Asia or the ancient Near East (ANE), share certain characteristics in form and content. Yet, when we put Deuteronomy’s legal writings in dialogue with the cuneiform laws, it reveals intriguing contrasts and continuities, prompting all sorts of questions regarding the dating, compositional history, character, purpose, and function of Deuteronomic law. Comparing Deuteronomy’s laws on different forms of adultery and sexual violation (Deut 22:22–29) with their ANE counterparts reveals that at least portions of Deut 21–25 are part of a broader ANE legal tradition. Nonetheless, Deuteronomy also presents a unique legal ideology and theology, promoting exclusive loyalty to Yhwh’s law, rather than to a foreign empire or native king.