Deuteronomy
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Apollos Old Testament

commentary

5

DEUTERONOMY

Series Editors

David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham

J. G. McCONVILLE

Apollos

Leicester, England

InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois 60515

APOLLOS

An imprint of Inter-Varsity Press

38 De Montfort Street, Leicester LE1 7GP, England

Email: ivp@uccf.org.uk

Website: www.ivpbooks.com

INTERVARSITY PRESS

PO Box 1400, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515, USA

Email: mail@ivpress.com

Website: www.ivpress.com

© J. G. McConville 2002

J. G. McConville has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

First published 2002

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

UK ISBN 0-85111-779-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

This data has been requested.

US ISBN 0-8308-2505-3

To my mother, Betty McConville

and in memory of my father, Walter McConville

(1919–95)

CONTENTS

Editors’ preface

Author’s preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. The name of the book

2. Its place in the canon

3. The distinctive features of Deuteronomy

4. The critical interpretation of Deuteronomy

4.1. Deuteronomy and Josiah’s reform

4.2. The reform as a royal programme

4.3. The development of Old Testament religion

4.4. Deuteronomy as a literary tradition

4.5. Conclusion

5. A fresh approach to Deuteronomy

5.1. Setting and ideology

5.2. The thesis above may be retold as a ‘story’

6. The composition of Deuteronomy

7. The reading of Deuteronomy

7.1. Deuteronomy and its audiences

7.2. Deuteronomy and theology

7.3. Deuteronomy in biblical theology

8. The form and aims of this commentary

Text and commentary

Bibliography

Index of Scripture references

Index of authors

Index of subjects

EDITORS’ PREFACE

The Apollos Old Testament Commentary takes its name from the Alexandrian Jewish Christian who was able to impart his great learning fervently and powerfully through his teaching (Acts 18:24–25). He ably applied his understanding of past events to his contemporary society. This series seeks to do the same, keeping one foot firmly planted in the universe of the original text and the other in that of the target audience, which consists of preachers, teachers and students of the Bible. The series editors have selected scholars who are adept in both areas, exhibiting scholarly excellence along with practical insight for application.

Translators need to be at home with the linguistic practices and semantic nuances of both the original and target languages in order to be able to transfer the full impact of the one into the other. Commentators, however, serve as interpreters of the text rather than simply as its translators. They ...

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About Deuteronomy

In this outstanding commentary J. Gordon McConville offers a theological interpretation of the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy in the context of the biblical canon. He gives due attention to historical issues where these bear on what can be known about the settings in which the text emerged. His dominant method is one that approaches Deuteronomy as a finished work.

McConville argues that in the context of the ancient world Deuteronomy should be understood as the radical blueprint for the life of a people, at the same time both spiritual and political, and profoundly different from every other social, political and religious program. The book incorporates the tension between an open-minded vision of a perfectly ordered society under God and practical provisions for dealing with the frailty and imperfections of real people. Hence, it is capable of informing our thinking about the organization of societies while maintaining a vision of the kingdom of God.

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