CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I | |
| PAGE | |
| THE AUTHORSHIP AND AGE OF DEUTERONOMY | [1] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| THE HISTORIC SETTING OF DEUTERONOMY | [37] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT | [48] |
| Deut. i.-iii. | |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| THE DECALOGUE—ITS FORM | [60] |
| Deut. v. 1-21. | |
| CHAPTER V | |
| THE DECALOGUE—ITS SUBSTANCE | [73] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| THE MEDIATORSHIP OF MOSES | [106] |
| Deut. v. 22-33. | |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| LOVE TO GOD THE LAW OF LIFE | [116] |
| Deut. vi. 4, 5. | |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| EDUCATION—MOSAIC VIEW | [146] |
| Deut. vi. 6-25. | |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| THE BAN | [168] |
| Deut. vii. | |
| CHAPTER X | |
| THE BAN IN MODERN LIFE | [184] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| THE BREAD OF THE SOUL | [202] |
| Deut. viii. | |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| ISRAEL'S ELECTION, AND MOTIVES FOR FAITHFULNESS | [218] |
| Deut. ix.-xi. | |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| LAW AND RELIGION | [239] |
| Deut. xii.-xxvi. | |
| CHAPTER XIV | |
| LAWS OF SACRIFICE | [253] |
| Deut. xii. | |
| CHAPTER XV | |
| THE RELATION OF OLD TESTAMENT SACRIFICE TO CHRISTIANITY | [267] |
| CHAPTER XVI | |
| LAWS AGAINST IDOLATROUS ACTS AND CUSTOMS | [277] |
| Deut. xiii., xiv. | |
| CHAPTER XVII | |
| THE SPEAKERS FOR GOD—I. THE KING | [295] |
| Deut. xvii. 14-20 | |
| CHAPTER XVIII | |
| SPEAKERS FOR GOD—II. THE PRIEST | [308] |
| Deut. xviii. 1-8 | |
| CHAPTER XIX | |
| SPEAKERS FOR GOD—III. THE PROPHET | [334] |
| Deut. xviii. 9-22 | |
| CHAPTER XX | |
| THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF ISRAELITE LIFE | [355] |
| CHAPTER XXI | |
| JUSTICE IN ISRAEL | [377] |
| CHAPTER XXII | |
| LAWS OF PURITY (CHASTITY AND MARRIAGE) | [396] |
| CHAPTER XXIII | |
| LAWS OF KINDNESS | [411] |
| CHAPTER XXIV | |
| MOSES' FAREWELL SPEECHES | [433] |
| Deut. iv. 1-40, xxvii.-xxx. | |
| CHAPTER XXV | |
| THE SONG AND BLESSING OF MOSES | [452] |
| Deut. xxxii., xxxiii. | |
| CHAPTER XXVI | |
| MOSES' CHARACTER AND DEATH | [471] |
CHAPTER I
THE AUTHORSHIP AND AGE OF DEUTERONOMY
In approaching a book so spiritually great as Deuteronomy, it might seem superfluous to allude to the critical questions which have been raised concerning it. On any supposition as to origin and authorship, its spiritual elevation and the moral impulse it gives are always there; and it might consequently seem sufficient to expound and illustrate the text as we have it. Minute and vexatious inquiry into details, such as any adequate treatment of the critical question demands, tends to draw away the mind, in a disastrous way, from the spiritual and moral purpose of the book. That however is precisely what the expositor has to elucidate and apply; and so it might seem to be an error in method to enter upon extraneous matters such as those with which criticism has mainly to do.
On the other hand, this has to be taken into account. The truth about the composition of a book, about the authorities it is founded on, about the times in which and the circumstances under which it was composed, if it be attainable, often throws a very welcome light upon the meaning. It clears up obscurities, removes chances of error, and often, when two or three possible paths have opened before us, it shuts us up to the right one. But if that is the case when no special conflict of opinion has arisen, it is much more so when a revolution of opinion concerning the whole religious life of a nation has been caused by the critical view of a book adopted by able men. Now that is plainly the case here. Deuteronomy has been the key of the position, the centre of the conflict, in the battle which has been waged so hotly as to the growth of religion in Israel. The attack upon the views hitherto generally held within the Church in regard to that matter has rested more upon the character and date of Deuteronomy than upon anything else. Consequently every part of the book has been the object of intense and microscopic scrutiny, and there is scarcely a cardinal point in it which must not be regarded differently, according as we accept or reject the strictly Mosaic origin of the book as a whole, or even of the legal portions. The difference is probably never absolutely fundamental. On either supposition, as we have said, the spiritual and moral teaching remains the same; but the mind is apt to be clouded with harassing doubt as to many important points, until clear views on the critical question have been attained. This is felt more or less acutely by all readers of the Old Testament who are touched by recent debates, and they expect that any new exposition shall help them to a clearer view. Many will even demand that some effort in that direction should be made; and, as we think, they rightly demand it.
But there is still another reason for dealing with the questions gathering round the authorship and age of our book, and it is decisive. The debate concerning the critical views of the Old Testament has reached a stage at which it is no longer confined to the professed teachers and students of the Old Testament. It has filtered down, through magazines first, and then through newspapers, into the public mind, and opinions are becoming current concerning the results of criticism which are so partial and ill-informed that they cannot but produce evil results of a formidable kind in the near future. By those who are sceptically inclined, as well as by those who cling most closely to the teaching of the Churches, it is loudly proclaimed that the acceptance of the critical view—viz. that the Levitical law, as a written code, came into existence after the Exile, and that Deuteronomy, written in the royal period of Israelite history, occupies a middle position between the first legislation (Exod. xx.-xxiii.) and this latest—destroys the character of the Old Testament as a record of Revelation, and undermines Christianity itself. The former class rejoice that this should be so, and think their scepticism is thereby justified. The latter, on the contrary, reject the critical conclusions with vehemence. They have found God through the Scripture, and, resting upon this experience, they turn away from theories which they believe to be in direct conflict with it. To write an exposition of Deuteronomy therefore, without correcting the false impression that the critical view as to its age, etc., is incompatible with faith in a Divine revelation, would be to miss one of the great opportunities which fall to writers on the Old Testament in our day. Questions regarding the age, authorship, and literary form of the books of Scripture cannot ultimately be so decided as to nullify the testimony borne to them by the experience of so many generations of Christian men and women. Whatever makes itself ultimately credible to the human mind in regard to such matters, will always be capable of being held along with a belief in the manifestation of Himself which God has given in the history and literature of Israel. But nothing will make that fact so readily apprehensible, nothing will make it stand out so clearly, as an exposition of a book like Deuteronomy, which takes account of all that seems established in the critical view. Even the most extreme critical positions, when separated from the totally irrelevant assumption (which too often accompanies them) that miracle is unhistorical, are compatible with a real faith in Revelation and Inspiration. It is not the fact of Revelation, but the common conception of its method, which is challenged by the critical theories. We shall therefore only try to meet a clamant need of our time, if we take with us into the explanation of the Deuteronomic teaching a definite conclusion as to the authorship, age, and literary character of the book.