Paper instructions
(1) COnsiderable debate is present of provenance of Deuteronomy. Provide insight into this controversy by discussing how the research of von Rad, Nicholson, and Weinfeld assist in adjudicating this issue. In your response identify two major presuppositions.
(2) A close read of Deuteronomy suggests two major layers of material comprise this document. How has scholarship sought to resolve this problem? That is to say, what are the main criteria scholars used to separate-out these two distinct layers of data in Deuteronomy? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to studying Deuteronomy?
(3) Critical scholarship on Deuteronomy argues that the final form of Deuteronomy resembles Ancient Near Easter/Ancient Southwestern Asia suzerainty treaties. Discuss this issue. In your attempt to answer this question, cite important features of these treaties, and show why scholars proffer that literary/structural similarities exist between Deuteronomy and these extra-biblical data.
(4)Deuteronomy contains unique phrases and ideology. Your task is two-fold; 1) identify one phrase and one ideological position that is distinctive of Deuteronomy 2) Cast light on how the theme of deliverance from Egypt functions in Deuteronomy.
5) Bernard Levinson contends that similarities are present between the Deuteronomic code and the Covenant Code. Why do scholars make this claim? Should the scholar apply the term revisionist to Deuteronomy? Why or Why not?
6) Law is a major part of the book of Deuteronomy. To interpret legislations in Deuteronomy, however, the agent needs a conceptual framework to abet in this process, for Deuteronomy nowhere tells its reader how to interpret its contents. Harold Bennett examines dives into this issue by proffering a paradigm for interpreting legal traditions in Deuteronomy. What are two premises of Bennetts thesis about law in Deuteronomy? In your thinking, does Bennett’s model clarify or obfuscate understanding the legal injunctions in the book of Deuteronomy?
7) Why do biblical scholars use the term Deuteronomistic History to refer to a subgroup of books in the HB? Be sure to identify these documents in which this worldview is present and discuss the interpretation of history this line of theologizing offers