e Book of Deuteronomy

In the Book of Deuteronomy of the Old Testament, Moses addresses the new generation of Israelites as they are about to enter the promised land. His farewell speech is essentially a sermon that reaffirms God's covenant with his people. However, Moses also stresses the importance of God's laws and the fact that Israel must show absolute faith and devotion to these laws. Deuteronomic theology, therefore, is quite simple: if the Israelites obey God explicitly, they will then receive the benefit of His kindness and good will. If the Israelites disobey God or ignore the requirements of His laws, He will then mete out punishment and retribution. In setting up this conditional covenant, Moses also continually reminds Israel of its history, particularly of its instances of unfaithfulness and disobedience. It is through this discussion that we are able to understand the impact that Deuteronomic theology has on the presentation of history in the Old Testament. At times, this history seems highly prophetic, as inspired by Moses' bold prediction of Israel's repeated disobedience. However, the ideas that Deuteronomic theology puts forth also serve to oversimplify God's actions in history, as every deed committed by the Israelites must be viewed in terms of moral absolutes: obedience vs. disobedience or righteousness vs. wickedness.

The idea of God's conditional covenant with His people has an influence beyond the Book of Deuteronomy itself. In fact, near the end of the sixty

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reform movement that was based upon Deuteronomic theology, and began gathering old stories and historical archives into a large collection (Coogan 145). These Deuteronomists accumulated enough materials to produce a complete history of the Israelites from the time of Joshua's conquest through to their own time. It was a difficult task as they had to find a way to explain the religious significance of ancient history's events so that readers could grasp their meaning (Boadt 376). The heart of this history was thus created by using the Book of Deuteronomy as a prologue to the entire work. Indeed, by analyzing Deuteronomy, it is relatively easy to grasp the meaning of the two most significant aspects of Israel's faith, namely the covenant between God and the Israelites and why God punished them for their disobedience, as well as the idea of the promised land and why they lost it. In many ways, the Book of Deuteronomy is the perfect lenses through which to view Israel's ancient history because it blends "both the authority of the lawgiver Moses himself, a clear explanation of the covenant laws and demands tied to the blessing and curse, and a spirit of prophecy that could both foresee what would happen and warn against it"

Category: Philosophy - E