Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Deuteronomy |
DeuteronomyNoun1. The fifth book of the Old Testament; contains a second statement of Mosaic Law. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
"Deuteronomy" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "repetition of the law". |
Date "Deuteronomy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1415. (references) |
Etymology: Deuteronomy \Deu`ter*on"o*my\, noun. [expression of Greek origin; second law: compare to Latin Deuteronomium.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Bible | Deuteronomy In all the Hebrew manuscripts the Pentateuch (q.v.) forms one roll or volume divided into larger and smaller sections called _parshioth_ and _sedarim_. It is not easy to say when it was divided into five books. This was probably first done by the Greek translators of the book, whom the Vulgate follows. The fifth of these books was called by the Greeks Deuteronomion, i.e., the second law, hence our name Deuteronomy, or a second statement of the laws already promulgated. The Jews designated the book by the two first Hebrew words that occur, _'Elle haddabharim_, i.e., "These are the words." They divided it into eleven _parshioth_. In the English Bible it contains thirty-four chapters. It consists chiefly of three discourses delivered by Moses a short time before his death. They were spoken to all Israel in the plains of Moab, in the eleventh month of the last year of their wanderings. The first discourse (1-4:40) recapitulates the chief events of the last forty years in the wilderness, with earnest exhortations to obedience to the divine ordinances, and warnings against the danger of forsaking the God of their fathers. The seond discourse (5-26:19) is in effect the body of the whole book. The first address is introductory to it. It contains practically a recapitulation of the law already given by God at Mount Sinai, together with many admonitions and injunctions as to the course of conduct they were to follow when they were settled in Canaan. The concluding discourse (ch. 27-30) relates almost wholly to the solemn sanctions of the law, the blessings to the obedient, and the curse that would fall on the rebellious. He solemnly adjures them to adhere faithfully to the covenant God had made with them, and so secure for themselves and their posterity the promised blessings. These addresses to the people are followed by what may be called three appendices, namely (1), a song which God had commanded Moses to write (32:1-47); (2) the blessings he pronounced on the separate tribes (ch. 33); and (3) the story of his death (32:48-52) and burial (ch. 34), written by some other hand, probably that of Joshua. These farewell addresses of Moses to the tribes of Israel he had so long led in the wilderness "glow in each line with the emotions of a great leader recounting to his contemporaries the marvellous story of their common experience. The enthusiasm they kindle, even to-day, though obscured by translation, reveals their matchless adaptation to the circumstances under which they were first spoken. Confidence for the future is evoked by remembrance of the past. The same God who had done mighty works for the tribes since the Exodus would cover their head in the day of battle with the nations of Palestine, soon to be invaded. Their great lawgiver stands before us, vigorous in his hoary age, stern in his abhorrence of evil, earnest in his zeal for God, but mellowed in all relations to earth by his nearness to heaven. The commanding wisdom of his enactments, the dignity of his position as the founder of the nation and the first of prophets, enforce his utterances. But he touches our deepest emotions by the human tenderness that breathes in all his words. Standing on the verge of life, he speaks as a father giving his parting counsels to those he loves; willing to depart and be with God he has served so well, but fondly lengthening out his last farewell to the dear ones of earth. No book can compare with Deuteronomy in its mingled sublimity and tenderness." Geikie, Hours, etc. The whole style and method of this book, its tone and its peculiarities of conception and expression, show that it must have come from one hand. That the author was none other than Moses is established by the following considerations: (1.) The uniform tradition both of the Jewish and the Christian Church down to recent times. (2.) The book professes to have been written by Moses (1:1; 29:1; 31:1, 9-11, etc.), and was obviously intended to be accepted as his work. (3.) The incontrovertible testimony of our Lord and his apostles (Matt. 19:7, 8; Mark 10:3, 4; John 5:46, 47; Acts 3:22; 7:37; Rom. 10:19) establishes the same conclusion. (4.) The frequent references to it in the later books of the canon (Josh. 8:31; 1 Kings 2:9; 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chr. 23:18; 25:4; 34:14; Ezra 3:2; 7:6; Neh. 8:1; Dan. 9:11, 13) prove its antiquity; and (5) the archaisms found in it are in harmony with the age in which Moses lived. (6.) Its style and allusions are also strikingly consistent with the circumstances and position of Moses and of the people at that time. This body of positive evidence cannot be set aside by the conjectures and reasonings of modern critics, who contended that the book was somewhat like a forgery, introduced among the Jews some seven or eight centuries after the Exodus. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Deuteronomy is the English name for the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, also the fifth book of the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is Devarim ("words"), which comes from the opening phrase "Eleh ha-devarim." In rabbinic literature it is known also as the Mishneh Torah.
Origin of name
The English name, "Deuteronomy", comes from the name which the book bears in the Septuagint (Δευτερουόμιου) and in the Vulgate (Deuteronomium). This is based upon the erroneous Septuagint rendering of "mishnah ha-torah ha-zot" (xvii. 18), which grammatically can mean only "a repetition [that is, a copy] of this law," but which is rendered by the Septuagint τὸ Δευτερουόμιου τοῦτο, as though the expression meant "this repetition of the law." While, however, the name is thus a mistranslation, it is not inappropriate; for the book does include, by the side of much new matter, a repetition or reformulation of a large part of the laws found in the non-priestly sections of Exodus.
Summary of the book
Deuteronomy consists chiefly of three discourses delivered by Moses a short time before his death. They were spoken to all Israelites in the plains of Moab in the eleventh month of the last year of their wanderings.
The first discourse (1-4:40) recapitulates the chief events of the past forty years in the wilderness, with earnest exhortations to obedience to the divine ordinances and warnings against the danger of forsaking the God of their fathers.
The second discourse (5-26:19) is, in effect, the body of the whole book. The first address (5-11) is an introduction, repeating the Ten Commandments given by God at Mount Sinai (with some changes to the text), followed by the Deuteronomic Code (12-26), describing admonitions and injunctions to the Israelites regarding their conduct once they settled in Canaan.
The concluding discourse (ch. 27-30) relates almost wholly to the solemn sanctions of the law, the blessings to the obedient, and the curse that would fall on the rebellious (27-28). He solemnly adjures them to adhere faithfully to the covenant God had made with them, and so secure for themselves and their posterity the promised blessings.
As Moses prepared to die, he renewed the covenant between God and the Israelites, conditional on people's loyalty. At the same time, he appointed Joshua as his heir to lead the people into the Land of Cananan.
These addresses to the people are followed by what may be called three appendices, namely:
- A song that God had commanded Moses to write (32:1-47).
- The blessings he pronounced on the individual tribes (ch. 33).
- The story of his death (32:48-52) and burial (ch. 34), written by some other hand, probably that of Joshua.
Critical historical analysis
The style and method of this book, and its peculiarities of expression, show that it came from a school of thought separate from the rest of the Torah. In fact, Deuteronomy often refers to itself as a separate code of law (1:5; 27:3; 8:26; 31:26), distinct from the four preceding books of the Bible. Scholars have also noted differences in language and style, the laws themselves, and some anachronisms in the text.
Early Jewish analysis
Several rabbis Talmud were the first to notice these problems. Basing themselves on the premise that Moses wrote the entire five books of Moses, they asked how he could possibly have written the text describing his own death and burial. While some contended that he wrote them prophetically, the dominant opinion seems to be that Joshua wrote them and added them to the text
Later Jewish biblical exegetes, such as Abraham ibn Ezra (c.1093 - 1167) also noted the different style and language of Deuteronomy and stated that a number of verses must have been written by a later author, probably (in their view) Joshua.
In his introduction to Deuteronomy, Don Isaac Abravanel (1437 - 1508) was clear that the book had a different author than the first four books of the Pentateuch. Both men prefigured more contemporary exponents of documentary hypothesis, which claims that the book is indeed a distinct document, appended to the preceding books at a relatively late date.
They had no problem identifying the period in which it was written. At the end of the Book of Kings II, there is an enigmatic story of the religious reform conducted during the reign of King Josiah (see also the Chronicles II 34:3). After eradicating the cultic centers that rivaled Jerusalem, Josiah purged the Temple in Jerusalem of pagan influences (621 BC). During the cleansing, Hilkiah the High Priest found a "lost scroll" of the Torah, whose laws were in complete accord with the reforms then being instituted. For example, it is the only book of the Pentateuch to mention the centrality of single place of worship (Jerusalem), where sacrifices could be offered. In effect, this was the very essence of Josiah's reform.
The story continues that Josiah and Hilkiah went to Huldah the Prophetess to confirm that this was indeed a lost book of the law. She did so, adding that failure to comply would result in the fulfillment of the curses described in the book. As a result, a ceremony (also found only in the Book of Deuteronomy) was arranged, whereby the king read the entire scroll to the people assembled for the pilgrimage holiday of Tabernacles in order to renew the covenant between them and the Law, in a reenactment of the original giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.
Several rabbis in the Talmud cite a longstanding tradition (echoed by modern researchers) that the scroll discovered by Hilkiah was none other than the Book of Deuteronomy, which had been lost but now restored. They also point to various aspects of the story, which are somewhat enigmatic in their effort to understand what actually happened. For example, they ask why the king and high priest chose to go to an otherwise unknown prophetess for confirmation of the text, when there were two major prophets, Jeremiah and Zechariah, living at that time. The answer they give is far from satisfactory: Zechariah was home sick that day, and Jeremiah was away on business!
In fact, this non-answer may actually be an indication of the historical importance of the Reform and the conflict it would have generated among the masses. Rather than have it originate with overly zealous religious leaders (the prophets), it came from the king and high priest, both of whom were political figures. By attributing the book to Moses, it would have the same authority as the other books and its precepts would be similarly observed.
Modern critical analysis
Scholars reject the claim that Moses wrote all of Deuteronomy or all of the other books of the Torah. They hold that modern critical text study has proven that the book of Deuteronomy came from a period many centuries after the time of Moses. See the article on the documentary hypothesis.
Most Orthodox Jews and many fundamentalist Christians nevertheless maintain that the original author of the book was Moses, and that the book was lost and recovered (see documentary hypothesis). In defense of their claim they argue that:
See also: Torah
- The book professes to have been written by Moses (1:1; 29:1; 31:1, 9-11, etc.) and was obviously intended to be accepted as his work.
- The frequent references to it in the later books of the canon (Joshua 8:31; 1 Kings 2:9; 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chronicles 23:18; 25:4; 34:14; Ezra 3:2; 7:6; Nehemiah 8:1; Daniel 9:11, 13) prove its antiquity.
- Orthodox Jews note that testimony of Moses's authorship of nearly all of deuteronomy appears in the Mishnah and Talmud.
- Christians note that testimony of Moses's authorship appears in the New Testament (Matthew 19:7, 8; Mark 10:3, 4; John 5:46, 47; Acts 3:22; 7:37; Romans 10:19) and establishes the same conclusion.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Deuteronomy."
Crosswords: Deuteronomy |
| English words defined with "Deuteronomy": Deuteronomist. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Deuteronomy" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 93.33% of the time. "Deuteronomy" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 93.33% | 14 | 93,893 |
| Noun (singular) | 6.67% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 15 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "Deuteronomy": Exodus-deuteronomy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
deuteronomy | 31 |
deuteronomy sermon | 5 |
22 5 deuteronomy | 4 |
28 deuteronomy | 3 |
the book of deuteronomy | 2 |
12 15 5 deuteronomy | 2 |
10 deuteronomy sermon | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "Deuteronomy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | Deuteronomium. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | второзаконие. (various references) | |
Chinese | 申命記 . (various references) | |
Dutch | Deuteronomium. (various references) | |
Esperanto | Readmono. (various references) | |
French | Deutéronome. (various references) | |
Greek | δευτερονόμιο. (various references) | |
Hebrew | דברים (stuff), ספר דברים. (various references) | |
Hungarian | mózes ötödik könyve. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 申命記 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | しんめいき. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | euteronomyday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | deuteronômio. (various references) | |
Russian | второзаконие. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ponovljeni zakon. (various references) | |
Spanish | deuteronomio, de deuteronomio. (various references) | |
Swedish | femte moseboken, femte mosebok. (various references) | |
Turkish | on emir kitaplarının beşincisi. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Deuteronomy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: deuteronomic. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-e-m-n-o-o-r-t-u-y" | |
-2 letters: remounted, tourneyed. | |
-3 letters: deuteron, enrooted, entoderm, mentored, odometer, odometry, routemen, udometer, udometry, unmoored, unrooted. | |
-4 letters: demeton, demount, denture, doormen, duotone, erodent, eudemon, moderne, moneyed, moneyer, montero, mooneye, mordent, motored, mounted, mounter, mourned, orotund, outdoer, outdone, outmode, outrode, remount, retuned, tenured, tourney. | |
-5 letters: dement, demote, demure, denote, detour, dromon, emerod, emoted, emoter, endure, enduro, enroot. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-e-m-n-o-o-r-t-u-y" | |
+2 letters: countermelody. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
