which all too often are largely unconcerned with theology. Another reason for a synchronic reading is that it avoids redactional speculation. What we have, in the case of Deuteronomy, is a book of thirty-four chapters. No matter what the scholarly consensus is concerning the origins of Deuteronomy, any Urdt or redaction is ultimately hypothesis and speculation. Though in a minority in this approach, we are in fact on firmer ground than those who assume various sources, forms and redactions.13 Our