What is in the Deuteronomic History?

The Book of Deuteronomy is believed to be the Book of Law that was said to have been found in the Temple during the reign of King Josiah - around 622 BCE. Many scholars believe that the book was actually written at this time, but placed in the Temple, to be found, so as to lend antiquity to it. In fact, the Book of Deuteronomy clearly has the same style as the books of the Deuteronomic history, written around the time of Josiah, and used the same relatively modern Hebrew.

Deuteronomy was written by Moses to record the message he gave to the Israelites just prior to their entry into the promised land of Canaan. The Word itself in Greek deuteronomos means literally 'second law' , since this was the second time the law had been given to the Israelites. This was the 'new generation' who had arisen after their parents refused to enter Canaan due to unbelief and Deuteronomy is like a renewing of the covenant between God and Israel.

The end of the book contains an epitaph about the death of Moses which obviously was added later, but there is increasing concensus about the facts supporting Mosaic authorship of this document.

The ideas developed in the 19th century by Graf, Wellhausen, Kuenen and others regarding the date of authorship are now thoroughly discredited in terms of any factual base. The idea that writing was not in use in Moses time led the proponents of this theory to propose a later date for its authorship as mentioned above. This has been thoroughly refuted by archaeological discoveries which show that writing was widespread even in the time of Abraham centuries before Moses.

Another presuppositional reason for putting Deuteronomy into the time of Josiah was the mistaken idea that religion in Israel and elsewhere took an evolutionary path from primitive polytheism (many gods) through to Henotheism (one chief god among many) to Monotheism (one true God). Thus, according to this mistaken view Israel's religion followed this path and 'could not' (they stated it as plainly as that) have had such a view of God at such an early stage in their history. Mistaken is an appropraite term (as used by scholars in referring to this theory) since Archaeology has demonstrated that Monotheism was early, that Israel did not go through the alleged evolution in their religion and that even other nearby cultures descended into polytheism after an earlier Monotheism not the other way around.

In addition to this there are a number of clear cultural and historical incongruities which are not explained by Deuteronomy being put into the time of Josiah, which are explained when it is placed in its proper historical and literary time period in Moses' time. Deuteronomy simply does not fit into the time of Josiah and only the entirely subjective criteria (so-called by scholars) of Wellhausen and the other theorists could place it there.

Further to all this it is worth noting that outside of The Bible there is not one shred of historical or textual evidence of any kind for the existence of the alleged writer of Deuteronomy in the time of Josiah. There is also not one single shred of textual evidence for the existence of the document refered to as the Deuteronomic history. Needless to say, there is no real evidence inside the Bible either. So, it is a complete fabrication to purport to compare an existent document with a fictional one. It gives a degree of credibility to the Deuteronomic history which it clearly does not deserve. Scholars have long recognized the possibility both today and in the ancient past for authors to use different styles as occasions demand, and so there is no reason whatsoever to even propose the existence of such a history.

Archaeological evidence also thoroughly refutes the false assertion regarding differences in Hebrew according to time of writing. Terms previously thought to be later have been found earlier. This is another example of a false theory refuted by facts. The real facts actually point in the opposite direction to the theory.

To put it very simply, Moses wrote Deuteronomy around 1400 BC prior to the Israelites entering Canaan, a momentous event in their history which he was not himself to participate in. There was no fraudulent placing in the temple to give an 'appearance of antiquity'. It was actually and factually ancient but had not been followed. Scholars have also determined that authors were able to use different literary styles as the occasion required. We do this even today. Moses was no exception.