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Topic:
Deuteronomy
In all the Hebrew manuscripts, the Pentateuch (q.v.) forms one roll
or volume divided into larger and smaller sections called parshioth and
sedarim. It is not easy to say when the Pentateuch was divided into five
books. This was probably first done by the Greek translators of the
book, whom the Vulgate follows. The fifth of these books was called by
the Greeks Deuteronomion, i.e., the second law, hence our name
Deuteronomy, or a second statement of the laws already promulgated. The
Jews designated the book by the two first Hebrew words that occur, 'Elle
haddabharim , i.e., "These are the words." They divided it
into eleven parshioth . In the English Bible it contains thirty-four
chapters. It consists chiefly of three discourses delivered by Moses a
short time before his death. They were spoken to all Israel in the
plains of Moab, in the eleventh month of the last year of their
wanderings. The first discourse (1-4:40) recapitulates the chief events
of the last forty years in the wilderness, with earnest exhortations to
obedience to the divine ordinances, and warnings against the danger of
forsaking the God of their fathers. The seond discourse (5-26:19) is in
effect the body of the whole book. The first address is introductory to
it. It contains practically a recapitulation of the law already given by
God at Mount Sinai, together with many admonitions and injunctions as to
the course of conduct they were to follow when they were settled in
Canaan. The concluding discourse (ch. 27-30) relates almost wholly to
the solemn sanctions of the law, the blessings to the obedient, and the
curse that would fall on the rebellious. He solemnly adjures them to
adhere faithfully to the covenant God had made with them, and so secure
for themselves and their posterity the promised blessings. These
addresses to the people are followed by what may be called three
appendices, namely (1), a song which God had commanded Moses to write
(32:1-47); (2) the blessings he pronounced on the separate tribes (ch.
33); and (3) the story of his death (32:48-52) and burial (ch. 34),
written by some other hand, probably that of Joshua. These farewell
addresses of Moses to the tribes of Israel he had so long led in the
wilderness "glow in each line with the emotions of a great leader
recounting to his contemporaries the marvellous story of their common
experience. The enthusiasm they kindle, even to-day, though obscured by
translation, reveals their matchless adaptation to the circumstances
under which they were first spoken. Confidence for the future is evoked
by remembrance of the past. The same God who had done mighty works for
the tribes since the Exodus would cover their head in the day of battle
with the nations of Palestine, soon to be invaded. Their great lawgiver
stands before us, vigorous in his hoary age, stern in his abhorrence of
evil, earnest in his zeal for God, but mellowed in all relations to
earth by his nearness to heaven. The commanding wisdom of his
enactments, the dignity of his position as the founder of the nation and
the first of prophets, enforce his utterances. But he touches our
deepest emotions by the human tenderness that breathes in all his words.
Standing on the verge of life, he speaks as a father giving his parting
counsels to those he loves; willing to depart and be with God he has
served so well, but fondly lengthening out his last farewell to the dear
ones of earth. No book can compare with Deuteronomy in its mingled
sublimity and tenderness." Geikie, Hours, etc. The whole style and
method of this book, its tone and its peculiarities of conception and
expression, show that it must have come from one hand. That the author
was none other than Moses is established by the following
considerations:
(1.) The uniform tradition both of the Jewish and the Christian Church
down to recent times.
(2.) The book professes to have been written by Moses (1:1; 29:1; 31:1,
9-11, etc.), and was obviously intended to be accepted as his work.
(3.) The incontrovertible testimony of our Lord and his apostles (Matt.
19:7, 8; Mark 10:3, 4; John 5:46, 47; Acts 3:22; 7:37; Rom. 10:19)
establishes the same conclusion.
(4.) The frequent references to it in the later books of the canon
(Josh. 8:31; 1 Kings 2:9; 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chr. 23:18; 25:4; 34:14; Ezra
3:2; 7:6; Neh. 8:1; Dan. 9:11, 13) prove its antiquity; and (5) the
archaisms found in it are in harmony with the age in which Moses lived.
(6.) Its style and allusions are also strikingly consistent with the
circumstances and position of Moses and of the people at that time. This
body of positive evidence cannot be set aside by the conjectures and
reasonings of modern critics, who contended that the book was somewhat
like a forgery, introduced among the Jews some seven or eight centuries
after the Exodus.
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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