Book Description

One of the defining features of Deuteronomy is its responsiveness to textual sources. Many of Deuteronomy's laws rewrite the laws of the Covenant Collection, also known as the Covenant Code (Exod 20:22-23:19). The purpose of the rewriting is disputed: was Deuteronomy designed to stand alongside the Covenant Collection as a supplement to it, or to stand alone as a replacement for it? This study proposes a mediating model of amendment: Deuteronomy was designed to change how the Covenant Collection would be understood by its readers. The competing models of replacement and supplementation emphasize different aspects of the relationship between Deuteronomy and the Covenant Collection: models of "replacement" focus on discontinuity (contradictions and tensions), whereas models of "supplementation" focus on continuity (presupposition, reference, and complementation). An amendment model accounts both for the seriousness of the disagreements between Deuteronomy and the Covenant Collection and for the extent to which Deuteronomy requires reference to the Covenant Collection. In addition to examining how Deuteronomic texts responded to the Covenant Collection, I analyze the internal growth of laws within Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy's authors responded to their own growing text in a range of ways that parallels their responses to the Covenant Collection: they contradicted it and changed its meaning at certain points, but also presupposed it and referenced it. This similarity in interpretive results suggests a similarity in purpose, suggesting that Deuteronomy's authors sought to amend the Covenant Collection even as they continued to amend their own growing text. I analyze the responses to source texts evident in three sets of Deuteronomic laws: its laws of cultic place, sacrifice, and slaughter (Deut 12:1-28; cf. Exod 20:24-26); its tithe and firstling regulations (Deut 14:22-29; 15:19-23; 26:12-15; cf. Exod 22:28-29); and its asylum legislation (Deut 19:1-13; cf. Exod 21:12-14).