Course Syllabus

Prof. Mark K. George
I-202C
mgeorge@iliff.edu

Course Description
The book of Deuteronomy for centuries has been viewed as laying out a political view of Israel’s life together. Josephus, for example, described Deuteronomy as Israel’s politeia or “form of government.” Government certainly is an issue in the book, particularly as it involves the conduct of self and others. More recently, Deuteronomy is understood to play a foundational role in the books of the Former Prophets within the theory of the Deuteronomistic History. This course examines these and other critical issues in the study of Deuteronomy. Prerequisite: TX-Breadth.

About this Course
Deuteronomy receives a great deal of scholarly attention, and not without reason. A variety of scholarly issues confront those who study this book. There are various canonical issues associated with the book. Deuteronomy is a boundary book, in the sense that Israel is poised at the Jordan, waiting to cross into the land promised to Abraham. It is the fifth book of the Pentateuch, and the Former Prophets begin after Deuteronomy ends. The homiletical nature of the book also marks it as different from other books, because its style is quite different from the books preceding and following it. Thematic concerns, such as centralizing where YHWH is worshipped, link it with what follows, even as Moses’ presence in the book ties it with what precedes it. These issues and others raise canonical questions of various sorts, most clearly in terms of the Tetrateuch, Pentateuch, Hexateuch issue. The literary form of Deuteronomy is another issue. Scholars widely accept Moshe Weinfeld’s arguments about Deuteronomy being structured in the form of an ancient Near Eastern vassal treaty. Even though debate continues as to whether Hittite or Neo-Assyrian vassal treaties are the basis of this formal comparison. In light of this formal argument, how does it influence interpretation of the book and its contents? Another issue involves the various compositional issues in Deuteronomy (when its various parts were written and then brought together into one scroll), whether it was the first written text to link the ancestors with the Exodus or whether it drew upon earlier sources for this linkage, and other such matters. Related issues take up the relative dating of Deuteronomy and other legal codes in the Pentateuch, as well as connections between legal materials in the book and other ancient Near Eastern legal codes, practices, traditions, and ideas. There also are numerous interpretive issues involving the content of the laws, of the social world they portray (or not), and so on. These are but a few of the issues swirling around Deuteronomy.

One way to focus these scholarly issues for our work is with a different sort of question. How is it that readers come to find themselves in the book of Deuteronomy? This question may be interpreted and answered in several different ways. For example, we find ourselves in Deuteronomy because we enrolled in this course. Jews and Christians might answer this question by saying they find themselves in Deuteronomy as part of their collection of canonical books. I want us to explore this question in a different manner, namely with respect to how readers become subjects of, and subject to, Deuteronomy. In other words, I want us to pursue the how of finding oneself in the text.

For our work this term I chose readings and shaped the schedule around comparative concerns, and balanced these with a well-regarded commentary (Lundbom). The comparison emerges in both traditional biblical studies work and the philosophical work of Michel Foucault. Levinson’s work, representing more traditional biblical scholarship, will help us compare Deuteronomy’s legal materials with other ANE legal materials (including elsewhere in the HB). The Foucault reading provides a different point of comparison, with that of legal ideas, systems, and practices in the Western world from the 18^th–20^th centuries (C.E.) that led to the establishment of particular types of subjectivities in the western world. It will enable us to be more aware of our own assumptions and ideas about legal materials as we read Deuteronomy, to ask how readers read themselves into texts, and to consider relationships between individuals and institutions. Additional readings will help us consider other issues related to Deuteronomy. Beyond this, the interests, concerns, ideas, and research of each class member will enrich our study of this book.

Course Objectives

• To develop and improve exegetical and interpretive skills in reading the Hebrew Bible, through weekly readings of biblical and secondary literature.
• To increase students’ knowledge of the Book of Deuteronomy and the various interpretive issues it presents, through readings, discussions, and written work.
• To improve critical thinking and writing skills, through class work and the final paper.

Books

Required

• Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage, 1979). The version now available is the 1995 2^nd edition, ISBN 9780679752554.
• Levinson, Bernard M. Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation. New York: Oxford, 1997. ISBN 9780195152883 (p).
• Lundbom, Jack R. Deuteronomy: A Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2013. ISBN 9780802826145 (p).
• New Revised Standard Version (I recommend the HarperCollins Study Bible if you do not own a copy of the NRSV. The Student edition is ISBN 9780060786847).

Reading assignment for the first week's class session: Please read the "Introduction" (pp. 1-97) in the Jack Lundbom Deuteronomy commentary. This is a very informative Introduction that covers a range of background issues related to the reading and interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy as well as for the remainder of the commentary.

Requirements

Grading

Grade Scale

NB: Changes and corrections may by made as necessary to this syllabus at the sole discretion of the professor.