DEUTERONOMY, BOOK OF, The Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the first division of the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament (q.v.), derives its name from the Septuagint, in which the words in chapter xvii. vs. Is, mishneh hat-teirah ha7-zoth, " the copy of this law," are translated to deuterononzion fordo. Early Christian writers understood the term to mean either supplementary legislation or recapitulation of the law. G. F. Moore points out that to modern critics also it is the Second Legislation in the sense that it is an expansion and revision of older collections of laws such as the codes preserved in Exodus xxi.-xxiii., xxxiv. In the Hebrew Bible the book bears the title 'Mich had debarim (the opening words) or debarim. The book discovered in the temple in the eighteenth year of king Josiah (622-621 B.C.) was not the whole Pentateuch, as used to be thought, but an early edition of the Book of Deuteronomy, which did not comprise the whole of the present book (see BOOK OF THE LAW). Deuteronomy. as we have it, " contains the last injunctions and admonitions of Moses, delivered to Israel in the land of Moab, as they were about to cross the Jordan to the conquest of Canaan; and with the exception of chaps. xxvii., xxxi., xxxiv., and a few verses elsewhere, is all in the form of address. It is not, however, one con tinuous discourse, but consists of at least three distinct speeches (i.-iv. 40: v.-xxvi.; xxviii.; xxix. f.), together with two poems recited by Moses in the hearing of the people (xxxii. f.). The narrative chapters record doings and sayings of Moses in the last days of his life, and are more or less closely connected with the speeches " (G. F. Moore). Only in a few sections do we detect the sources (JE and P) which have been so largely used in the other books of the Hexateuch. Deuteronomy has a thought, diction, and style of its own, which powerfully influenced a whole school of subsequent writers. This influence is manifest in the Books of
Joshua, Judges. Kings, etc. The many resemblances between Deuteronomy and the Book of Jeremiah suggest either that the two books were produced at about the same time, or that Jeremiah was familiar with the ancient Deuteronomy, or even that he was the author of Deuteronomy. According to Moore, evidence of every kind " concurs to prove that the primitive Deuteronomy was a product of the seventh century." It seems to have been written at Jerusalem, both priests and prophets co-operating in its production. Moore thinks the book " will ever stand as one of the noblest monu ments of the religion of Israel. and as one of the most noteworthy attempts in history to regulate the whole life of a people by its highest religious principles." To P (the Priestly Writer) have been assigned i. 3, xxxii. 48-52; xxxiv. la, 5b, 7-9: to JE earlier fragments. xxvii. 5-7a, xxxi. 14. 15, xxxi. 23, xxxiii.. xxxiv. la, lb-5a, 6, 10. To D (the First Deuteronomic Writer) have been assigned i. If., i. 13; iii. 1S-iv. 2S; iv. 32-40; v. 1-xxvi. 19; xxvii. 9f.: xxviii. 1-xxix. 8; xxx. 11-20; xxxi. 1.13: xxxi. 24-27; xxxii. 45-47; to (Second Deuteronomic Writer) iii. 14-17; iv. 29-31: iv. 41-49; xxvii. 1-4; xxvii. 7b-S; xxvii. 11-26; xxix. 9-28; xxx. 1-10; xxxi. 16-22; xxxi. 28-30; xxxiv. llf. The Second Deuteronomic Writer would seem to have followed some time after the First. See Moore in Eneyel. Bibl.; S. R. Driver, Dent., in I.C.C.; J. E. Carpenter and G. Harford-Battersby, The Hexateuch, 1900; W. R. Harper, The Priestly Element in the O.T., 1905; C. F. Kent, Israel's Laws, 1907; G. H. Box; O. C. Whitehouse.