Book of Deuteronomy

The Book of Deuteronomy (from Greek Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, "second law"; Hebrew: דְּבָרִים, Devārīm, "[spoken] words") is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible.

Quotes

Chapter 4

• I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day.
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 4:26

Chapter 6

• Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God s one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 6:4-5
• Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people whch are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you).
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 6:14-15

Chapter 8

• And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with Manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might thee know what man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 8:3

About Book of Deuteronomy

• Deuteronomy prohibits cult prostitution because the Hebrews were adopting the practice from their neighbors.
  • David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality, University of Chicago Press, (Aug 15, 1990), p. 95

• Josiah “broke down the houses of the qdeshim, that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women were weaving coverings for the Asherah.” It was during his reign that a book of the Law, thought by most scholars to have been Deuteronomy, was conveniently discovered in the Temple. Although some of the manuscript may have been written earlier, many scholars think it was forged during Josiah’s reign in order to legitimate his reforms. It is in Deuteronomy that the prohibition of cult prostitution appears.
  • Ibid, p. 140

• Among the earliest proponents of the northern-origin theory were A. C. Welch and A. Alt. The latter saw in Deuteronomy a restoration programme drawn up in the northern kingdom some time after the catastrophe of 721 BC, i.e., the destruction of the kingdom by the Assyrians. However, Alt had shed no light on how the book arrived at the Jerusalem temple in Josiah's reign. This is the question that Nicholson wishes to answer in a very interesting monograph. Nicholson's view is that the the ancient core of the Deuteronomic traditions was preserved at the major shrine in the North in the period of the judges. 'Behold there is the feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh' (Judges 21.19) may be a reference to an annual covenant festival. Shechem, Gilgal and Bethel were perhaps other such centers of covenant traditions.
  • "Ancient Judaism: Biblical Criticism from Max Weber to the Present", by Irving M. Zeitlin, (1984)