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Discussion of the final stages of the Formation of Deuteronomy: Focusing on Deuteronomy 4:1-49

Eunwoo Lee 1

1장로회신학대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to trace the redactional history of Deuteronomy 4. In the discussion of the formation of Deuteronomy, chapters 1-3 are understood as the text of the Deuteronomist, and chapters 5 (or chapter 4, verse 44) to 26(or chapter 30) of Deuteronomy are understood to be related to the law code of Deuteronomy or the early form of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 4 is the text that plays a key role in understanding the composition of Deuteronomy, playing a role like a blueprint or bird's eye view among the texts up to this point. The author reveals that this text was formed through the following editing or redactional steps through analysis and critical research on various vocabularies and expressions appearing in Deuteronomy chapter 4. First, the basic layer of Deuteronomy 4 is the editorial layer of the Josiah era. This Josiah-era editorial layer (4:9-12a, 13-14, 19, 45-49) linked the expressions “statutes,”“ordinances,” and “laws,” which appear repeatedly in the Deuteronomic Code, with the expression Mount Horeb, along with the Ten Commandments in Chapter 5 and the Shema in Chapter 6, the Code of Deuteronomy (Chapters 12-26), also emphasizes that they originated from Mount Horeb, and emphasizes the careful observance of these laws. This group of editors in Josiah's time completed the first edition of Deuteronomy by adding expressions emphasizing the observance of the law to Proto-Deuteronomy (chapter 12-26). Second, to the first version of Deuteronomy, the redactional layer of Babylonian Exilic period which stresses the observance of “rules” and “laws”, that is, the observance of the laws of Deuteronomy, the prohibition of worship of idols, and the idea of ​​Monotheism, reflecting on the experience of captivity and emphasizing the restoration of the land of Israel (4:1-4, 20-22, 26-40) was added. Third, a redactional layer in the Second Temple period during Persian Empire after the captivity that forbids the polytheistic idolatry that existed in the early faith of Israel and emphasizes the doctrine of aniconism that criticizes the image of Yahweh that existed in Solomon's Temple (4: 12b, 15-18, 23-25) was added. An editorial layer of poetry and wisdom literature (Deuteronomy 4:5-8, 44) was also added, which emphasizes the observance of the law and homily in the second temple period in the latter part of the Persian Empire era and connects it with wisdom. Fourth, the Post Priestly Deuteronomic Redactional Layer, which finally connects Deuteronomy 19 in the proto-Deuteronomy related to the city of refuge, the priestly text in Numbers 35 and Joshua 20, and the story of Moses' conquest of the east of the Jordan in Deuteronomy 1-3, was added around the time the Pentateuch was formed.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.