Time and Place in Deuteronomy (JSOT Supplement)

156 Pages·1995·7.27 MB·English

by  J. Gordon McConville

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
179
Editors
David J.A. Clines
Philip R. Davies
Executive Editor
John Jarick
Editorial Board
Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, Tamara C. Eskenazi,
J. Cheryl Exum, John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon,
Norman K. Gottwald, Andrew D.H. Mayes, Carol Meyers,
Patrick D. Miller
Sheffield Academic Press
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Time and Place
in Deuteronomy
J.G. McConville
and
J.G. Millar
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Supplement Series 179
For Fiona and Helen
Copyright © 1994 Sheffield Academic Press
Published by
Sheffield Academic Press Ltd
Mansion House
19 Kingfield Road
Sheffield, S11 9AS
England
Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press
and
Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain
by Bookcraft
Midsomer Norton, Somerset
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 1-85075-494-2
CONTENTS
Preface 7
Abbreviations 8
Introduction 9
J.G. MILLAR
Living at the Place of Decision:
Time and Place in the Framework of Deuteronomy 15
Introduction 15
1. Time and Place in Chapters 1-3:
The Introduction of the Journey of Israel 16
2. Time and Place in Chapter 4:
The Identification of Moab with Horeb 32
3. Time and Place in Chapters 5-11:
The Journey of Israel in the Parenesis 49
4. Time and Place in Chapters 27-34:
The End of Many Journeys 69
Conclusions: Time and Place in the
Framework of Deuteronomy 88
J.G. McCONVILLE
Time, Place and the Deuteronomic Altar-Law 89
Introduction 89
1. Interpretation of the Altar-Law in Historical Perspective 90
2. Interpretation of the Altar-Law: Exegetical Issues 110
3. The 'Chosen Place' in Deuteronomic Context 123
4. Deuteronomy 12: Transcendence, Immanence
and Contingency 132
Conclusions 138
Conclusion 140
Bibliography 142
Index of References 148
Index of Authors 154
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PREFACE
The authors of the present volume met in Oxford while Millar was
researching for his DPhil and McConville teaching at Wycliffe Hall.
Professor John Barton, as the former's supervisor, asked McConville to
act informally as an additional reader. Early in our studies together it
became obvious that we were developing very similar ideas about the
subject of time and place in Deuteronomy. McConville was working on
a monograph whose interest focused on the altar-law, taking further a
thesis offered in a previous volume in the present series (Law and
Theology in Deuteronomy, JSOTSup, 33), but which would set that
study in the broader context of relevant themes in the whole book.
Millar was studying the topic in the context of his thesis: The Ethics of
Deuteronomy: An Exegetical and Theological Study of the Book of
Deuteronomy'. It seemed entirely natural to combine our efforts and
make the common statement that constitutes the present volume.
The work is unusual, we think, in that, though co-authored, it is a
synthetic argument, and thus properly a 'monograph'. While Millar has
written on the 'framework' and McConville on the 'code', the whole
argument is as from both.
We are grateful to the editors of Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament Supplement Series for accepting the volume into the series.
From McConville's point of view, it complements the argument he
offered in the work mentioned above, and he is therefore glad that this
one finds a place in the same series. We are grateful too to Professor
Barton for encouraging the enterprise, for his care and attentiveness as a
supervisor, and for reading the whole work presented here and making
important suggestions.
We are also grateful to each other. Apart from sharing a place of
origin (in Ulster), and initials (confusingly), we have been able to share
our enthusiasm for the book of Deuteronomy, and we hope a lasting
friendship, though time and place have already changed—which is a
large part of our point.
ABBREVIATIONS
AB Anchor Bible
AnBib Analecta biblica
BBB Bonner biblische Beitrage
BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium
BEvT Beitrage zur evangelischen Theologie
Bib Biblica
BibLeb Bibel und Leben
BibOr Biblica et orientalia
BJS Brown Judaic Studies
BWANT Beitrage zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament
BZ Biblische Zeitschrift
BZAW Beihefte zur ZAW
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
ConBOT Coniectanea biblica, Old Testament
EstBib Esludios biblicos
ICC International Critical Commentary
Int Interpretation
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series
JSPSup Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Supplement Series
NCB New Century Bible
NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament
NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament
NKZ Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift
OBT Overtures to Biblical Theology
OTL Old Testament Library
RB Revue biblique
SBLDS SBL Dissertation Series
SBS Stuttgarter Bibelstudien
SJ Studiajudaica
TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries
TynBul Tyndale Bulletin
VT Vetus Testamentum
VTSup Vetus Testamentum, Supplements
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
WMANT Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen
Testament
ZAW Zeitschriftfiir die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
ZDPV Zeitschrift des deutschen Paldstina-Vereins
INTRODUCTION
The essays in the present volume are concerned with Deuteronomy's
stance towards the programme of the Josianic reform. As such, they are
a contribution first and foremost to the theological interpretation of
Deuteronomy, and an exercise in Old Testament theology. At the same
time they raise questions of methodology in the criticism of the book.
The intimate relationship between these two kinds of issues needs no
demonstration, nor indeed does the importance of Deuteronomy in rela-
tion to each. Both in the theology of the Old Testament and in the
annals of modern Old Testament criticism, Deuteronomy occupies an
unrivalled place.
The study of Deuteronomy, however, is beset by what
D.L. Christensen has called 'the current methodological quandary' in its
study.1 The older style of literary criticism of Steuernagel and others has
been overlaid by form criticism (von Rad), then the tradition criticism of
Noth's theory of the Deuteronomist, and finally an approach that owes
more to rhetorical criticism, in which the stylistic studies of Lohfink
have been prominent.2
The dominant force in the field is probably redaction criticism.
Wellhausen's belief that Deuteronomy originally consisted of a law-code
which was subsequently provided with introductions as well as con-
cluding materials has given way to a model of more organic growth
which took its stimulus from Noth's belief that Deuteronomy 1-3
constituted the introduction to the Deuteronomic History (DtH).3 Noth's
1. D.L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1-11 (WBC 6a; Dallas: Word, 1991), p. xlix.
2. The survival of literary criticism in tradition-critical interpretations is evi-
denced in the treatments of Deut. 12 by M. Rose, Der Ausschliesslichkeitsanspruch
Jahwes (BWANT, 106; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1975), pp. 97-98; G. Seitz,
Redaktionsgeschichtliche Studien zum Deuteronomium (BWANT, 93; Stuttgart:
Kohlhammer, 1971), pp. 212-14.
3. M. Noth, The Deuteronomistic History (JSOTSup, 15; Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1981).