These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. – Deuteronomy 1:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 18, 2015): Deuteronomy 1

There is a question as to whether William Shakespeare was actually the man that is responsible for writing the Shakespearean corpus. The problem seems to be that the historical William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was a businessman who has left absolutely no record of being interested in writing at all. The real William Shakespeare left no library in his will and no record of who would be responsible for managing his writing – even though many of his plays were actually first published after the author’s death (including ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’). The Shakespeare of literature wrote well and seemed to know about the palace intrigue of his day, and yet the historical Shakespeare seemed to have absolutely no connection with the court of Elizabeth I. Shakespeare also seems to have been invisible to his contemporaries. Almost everyone knew the name, but almost no one seemed to know the person. To be clear, there is no doubt that William Shakespeare existed, but there seems to be controversy as to whether he actually wrote the words that are credited to him.  

Moses existed, and he is credited with being the author of the first five books of the Bible, but there are those that question that assumption, and maybe specifically they question the Mosaic authorship of the Book of Deuteronomy. Essentially, the book of Deuteronomy consists of three sermons that were preached by Moses. The first sermon recounts that adventures of Israel in the wilderness, the second sermon stresses Israel’s need to rely on God and God alone for the collective future of the nation, and the third sermon promises that even if Israel fails God, that they can repent of their sins and God will restore them and heal their land. The ideas are definitely that of Moses, they match up well with the other Mosaic books, but that may not mean that Moses was the actual person who wrote the ideas of Deuteronomy down.

A competing theory is that Deuteronomy was likely the book that was found in during renovations of the Temple that took place during the reign of Josiah. Israel had just gone through a very dark period of its history. It had forgotten God. The Temple in Jerusalem had become rundown and the people were chasing after other gods. And then a book, possibly this book, was found. And the finding of the book changed the worship of the people. The book seems to be precisely what Judah needed, in the moment that Judah needed it the most. But the question on some people’s minds is simply this – was the finding of the book in the Temple a coincidence, or was it written from Mosaic ideas at this moment of time when Judah needed it the most?

Is there a possibility that Deuteronomy was written during the reign of Josiah? Sure. But we don’t really know. And the answer to the question probably doesn’t really matter. The problem is that we live in a society where what is written down matters. But even during the reign of Josiah, the culture that existed was in Israel was still an oral culture. People told the stories long before anyone thought to write them down. So when something is written becomes less important. The more important question is this – are these ideas consistent with the teaching of Moses. And the answer to that question is a resounding yes – these are the ideas of Moses.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 2