Gottes Recht als Menschenrecht: Rechts- und literaturhistorische Studien zum Deuteronomium.

• Author: Wells, Bruce
• Position: Book Review

Gottes Recht als Menschenrecht: Rechts- und literaturhistorische Studien zum Deuteronomium. By ECKART OTTO. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur Altorientalistische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2002. Pp. vii + 331. [euro]78.

Eckart Otto's work on Deuteronomy is abundant and has expanded rapidly in recent years. This monograph summarizes a number of his views on the history of the book and breaks new ground in his analysis of its legal and ethical program. Otto argues here that a proper source-critical and redaction-critical understanding of the book of Deuteronomy will do two important things. It will, first, open the way toward a more accurate view of the Pentateuch's compositional history. Second, it will provide the key to grasping Deuteronomy's system of ethics and how that system can be relevant for modern societies. The book falls into two major parts based on those premises. A few controversial conclusions turn up along the way.

In the first major section, Otto claims that source-critical work on the Pentateuch can escape what he sees as its circular reasoning only with the aid of extra-biblical sources. "Mit der direkten Ubernahme eines sicher datierbaren ausseralttestamentlichen Textes im Pentateuch ist ein Angelpunkt fur die Pentateuchkritik gewonnen" (p. 12). The key extra-biblical text is the loyalty oath (SAA 2, 6) to the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon from the year 672 B.C. Portions of a very similar oath appear to be utilized in Deuteronomy 13 and 28, where one finds what amounts to a loyalty oath to Yahweh modeled on the Neo-Assyrian version. Thus, the way to begin dating Deuteronomy, as well as the Pentateuch as a whole, is not with the customary connection to Josiah's reforms in 2 Kings, but with this connection to Neo-Assyrian material.

This anchors Otto's other conclusions. A pre-exilic, and most likely Josianic, version of Deuteronomy (DtnD) existed in the form of the loyalty oath to Yahweh, combined with a reinterpretation (in light of cultic centralization) of the Covenant Code, which now forms the core of chapters 12-26. Out of the Deuteronomistic movement came an exilic form of Deuteronomy (DtrD), which incorporated items such as the Decalog, the laws on public office holders, and the figure of Moses. Next was the post-exilic DtrL (L for Landnahme, based on a theory of N. Lohfink's), which included the emphasis on possession of the land, the laws of warfare, and the thematic and...