Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation

Rating:
Summary: A superb book
Review: An excellent work that examines the legal corpora of Exodus and Deuteronomy textually and demonstrates the dependence that exists between them. Levinson then uses these data to investigate the legal revolution the authors of Deuteronomy had to create, and how they went about revolutionizing the law by manipulating the very texts they were overturning.

Rating:
Summary: A superb book
Review: An excellent work that examines the legal corpora of Exodus and Deuteronomy textually and demonstrates the dependence that exists between them. Levinson then uses these data to investigate the legal revolution the authors of Deuteronomy had to create, and how they went about revolutionizing the law by manipulating the very texts they were overturning.

Rating:
Summary: Trends in OT legal studies.
Review: Levinson's book is an attempted illustration of how earlier textual material has been changed by the author's of Deuteronomy to support the centralization of Israel's religion in Jerusalem. His study examines admittedly difficult passages in Deuteronomy to show how various phrases were used to support this change in Israel's religion and society. According to Levinson, earlier materials (individual phrases) were reworked, at times producing a sense just opposite of the original intention, in support of the authors' program. This close examination of the biblical text illustrates the hermeneutics employed by the authors of Deuteronomy to achieve their goal for the purpose of exposing the motives behind inner-biblical exegesis. Levinson writes well and argues his case clearly. The book illustrates how the older tenants of source criticism have not changed, just shifted. Doublets and conflicts in various stratum are key tools for observing stages of textual growth. In support of recent scholarship Moses becomes but the voice of the redactor and Passover is completely disassociated from the Exodus while the author's of Josianic Deuteronomy are credited with centralizing Israel's religion. This book is a must read for students of OT legal materials and will be of interested for all those in OT studies as an illustration of a current approach to the difficulties of the biblical text.

Rating:
Summary: Trends in OT legal studies.
Review: Levinson's book is an attempted illustration of how earlier textual material has been changed by the author's of Deuteronomy to support the centralization of Israel's religion in Jerusalem. His study examines admittedly difficult passages in Deuteronomy to show how various phrases were used to support this change in Israel's religion and society. According to Levinson, earlier materials (individual phrases) were reworked, at times producing a sense just opposite of the original intention, in support of the authors' program. This close examination of the biblical text illustrates the hermeneutics employed by the authors of Deuteronomy to achieve their goal for the purpose of exposing the motives behind inner-biblical exegesis. Levinson writes well and argues his case clearly. The book illustrates how the older tenants of source criticism have not changed, just shifted. Doublets and conflicts in various stratum are key tools for observing stages of textual growth. In support of recent scholarship Moses becomes but the voice of the redactor and Passover is completely disassociated from the Exodus while the author's of Josianic Deuteronomy are credited with centralizing Israel's religion. This book is a must read for students of OT legal materials and will be of interested for all those in OT studies as an illustration of a current approach to the difficulties of the biblical text.