NEW STUDIES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY 6

Series editor: D. A. Carson

Now choose life

THEOLOGY AND

ETHICS IN

DEUTERONOMY

J. Gary Millar

Apollos

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. Gary Millar 1998

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.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Limited. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790.

First published 1998

Reprinted 2002

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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

UK ISBN 0-85111-515-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

This data has been requested.

USA ISBN 0-8308-2606-8

For Fiona

who follows the Lord wholeheartedly

(Deuteronomy 1:36)

Contents

Series preface

Author’s preface

Abbreviations

Introduction: Old Testament ethics and Deuteronomy

1. Ethics and covenant

2. Ethics and journey

3. Ethics and law

4. Ethics and the nations

5. Ethics and human nature

Conclusion: Theology and ethics in Deuteronomy

Bibliography

Index of authors

Index of Scripture references

Series preface

New Studies in Biblical Theology is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology. Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: 1. The nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other disciplines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, historical criticism, narrative theology); 2. the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and 3. the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the biblical corpora.

Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help thinking Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simultaneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead. In God’s universe, mind and heart should not be divorced: in this series we will try not to separate what God has joined together. While the notes interact with the best of the scholarly literature, the text is uncluttered with untransliterated Greek and Hebrew, and tries to avoid too much technical jargon. The volumes are written within the framework of confessional evangelicalism, but there is always an attempt at thoughtful engagement with the ...