According to its own testimony, Deuteronomy originated as farewell messages from Moses to a new generation of Israelites. He pleaded passionately for them to keep God at the center of their national life once they settled in the land. The book is essentially a covenant-renewal document. The large central section largely repeats laws found earlier in the Pentateuch. So important was Deuteronomy to early Christians that the New Testament writers cited it more than