Encoding the Covenant Law in the Bible (Part 4 of 4)
The
compilation of written law codes in the ancient Near East is well known.
Several Hittite treaties have clauses requiring their periodic reading in
public, and the same would be true of what Moses wrote (cf. 31:24). In the
treaty between Suppiluliumas and Kurtiwaza, for instance, the code was to be
read “at regular intervals.”[7] The
precise extent of what Moses actually wrote is debated. It is unnecessary to
suppose that he wrote the entirety of the Torah as we now have it (especially
the account of his own death), but it is equally unnecessary to suppose that
everything was recorded later from oral tradition, as some scholars have
suggested (or was made up later and does not even date back to Moses).
Linguistically, we have only sparse indications of the state of the Hebrew
language at this early period, and whatever form Moses used, it may well have
needed updating later. Indeed, the Hebrew text of Moses’ song contains more
than a dozen hapax legomena as well
as some complicated syntax which remain as challenges for any translator. However
one wants to speculate on exactly what Moses wrote, the text clearly indicates
that he wrote some form of the covenant law and delivered it to the priests and
elders for safekeeping and periodic reading. There was to be a public reading
every seven years during the Festival of Booths “at the place God would choose”
(cf. 15:1ff.; 16:13-15).
There are even
some passages describing Moses as writing, such as, Dt. 31:9, which refers to
an unspecified section of law codes, Dt. 31:19, 22, (referring to chapter 32),
and 31:24ff. (probably referring to the Decalogue). Such references suggest
that portions were written out as smaller segments prior to the compilation of
the whole. The rabbinical custom of referring to everything in the Pentateuch
as the words of Moses, of course, was adopted by the writers of the New
Testament, but this convenience of speech does not necessarily support the view
that Moses personally penned the entire corpus. One can only speculate how long
elements in Deuteronomy and other books in the Pentateuch may have been
preserved as oral tradition before being codified. A generation later, Joshua
is commanded to obey the “book of the law” (Jos. 1:7-8), a reference that seems
to refer to the contents of Deuteronomy 5-26 or 5-30. Joshua is familiar with
the law code that altars were not to be fashioned using an iron tool (Jos.
8:31; Dt. 27:5), and indeed, the whole ceremony in the Shechem Pass is based on
the anticipation of this ceremony as described in Deuteronomy (Jos. 8:30-35;
Dt. 27). Even later, Joshua is said to have drawn up decrees and laws which
then were recorded in the “Book of the Law of God”, so apparently Joshua, also,
had a hand in the composition of the Torah (cf. Jos. 24:25-26). Even later
references also cite the “Book of the Law,” expressions that clearly seem to
refer to at least portions of Deuteronomy (cf. 2 Kg. 14:6//2 Chr. 25:4; Dt.
24:16). Certainly some of the prophets knew of law codes that were preserved in
Deuteronomy (cf. Hos. 5:10//Dt. 19:14; Am. 8:5 and Mic. 6:10ff.//Dt. 25:13ff.;
Am. 4:4//Dt. 14:28; Hos. 4:4ff.//Dt. 17:12), but whether all these things were
an oral memory or reference to a written code is unclear.
These, then, are
some of the factors that must be considered when assessing the earliest written
documents in the Bible. As Christians, we believe that God superintended this
production, which is what we mean by the term inspiration. At the same time,
these biblical texts bear the stamp of history so that it can be fairly said
that this is the Word of God in the words of humans.
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