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The Deuteronomic Code is the name given, by academics, to the law code within Deuteronomy[1], except for the portion discussing the Ethical Decalogue, which is usually treated separately. Deuteronomy (Greek deuteronomion, Δευτερονόμιον "second law" is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that according to Judeo-Christian tradition were authored by God and given This separate treatment stems not from any concern over authorship, but merely because the Ethical Decalogue is, academically, a subject in its own right. Almost the entirety of Deuteronomy is presented as the last few speeches of Moses, beginning with an historical introduction as well as a second introduction which expands on the Ethical Decalogue, and ending with hortatory speeches and final words of encouragement. Moses ( Latin: Moyses,; Greek: grc Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: ar موسىٰ Between these is found the law code, at Deuteronomy 12-26. In critical scholarship, this portion, as well as the majority of the remainder of Deuteronomy, was written by the Deuteronomist. The Deuteronomist (D is one of the sources of the Torah postulated by the Documentary Hypothesis

Contents

Laws of the Deuteronomic Code

The Deuteronomic Code forms several mitzvah, approximately one third of the mitzvot in the Torah, and is therefore a major constituent of Jewish Law. This article is about commandments in Judaism For the Jewish rite of passage see Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah Mitzvah ( Hebrew: מצוה Halakha ( הלכה; alternative transliterations include Halocho and Halacha) is the collective body of Jewish Religious law While several of the laws are repetitions of those present elsewhere in the Torah, many have notable variations, and there are additionally many further laws which are unique to the code.

Laws similar to those elsewhere in the torah

Laws of religious Observance

Laws concerning officials

Criminal Law

Civil law

Laws differing from those elsewhere in the torah

Laws of religious Observance

Criminal Law

Civil laws

Laws unique, within the torah, to the Deuteronomic Code

Laws of religious Observance

Laws concerning officials

Military Law

Criminal Law

Civil laws

Ritual

Characteristics

It is characteristic of the discourses of the Deuteronomic Code that the writer's aim is throughout parenetic, making passing allusions to history, for example at Deuteronomy 13:4-5, and 24:9, for the sake of the lessons that the writer believes deducible from it. Mourning is in the simplest sense synonymous with Grief over the Death of someone Asherah (from Hebrew אשרה generally taken as identical with the Ugaritic goddess Athirat (more accurately transcribed as ʼAṯirat) was In Sociology, seduction (also called inveigling or wheedling) is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage in some sort of behavior frequently In Criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or Asportation of a person against the person's will usually to hold the person in False imprisonment Tzitzit or tzitzis ( Hebrew: Biblical   ציצת Modern   ציצית) are "fringes" Usury (ˈjuːʒəri comes from the Medieval Latin usuria, "interest" or "excessive interest" from the Latin usura "interest" An orphan (from the Greek ὀρφανός) is a child whose natural parents are absent or dead and who are not there to bring him up A tithe (from Old English teogoþa "tenth" is a one-tenth part of something paid as a (usually voluntary contribution or as a Tax or levy For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being in a manner considered by law as less culpable than Murder. In Religion, the term false prophet is a label given to a person who is viewed as illegitimately claiming Charismatic authority within a Religious group A boundary marker, boundary stone or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary Primogeniture is the Common law right of the Firstborn son to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings This article deals with the history of the word 'transvestite' A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a Roof or structure. Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the termination of a Marriage. Threshing is the process of loosening the edible part of Cereal Grain from the scaly inedible Chaff that surrounds it In the treatment of the laws, they are not merely collected, or a series of legal enactments repeated, but developed with reference to the moral and religious purposes which they can subserve, and to the motives from which it is perceived that the Israelite is ought to obey them.

The law code seems methodically to provide legal compensation for those who are victimised by the inequities and brutalities that may otherwise inhere in the social system. Duties involving directly the application of a moral principle are especially insisted on, particularly justice, integrity, equity, philanthropy, and generosity; for example insisting on strict impartiality and judges being appointed in every city, as well as insisting that fathers are not to be condemned judicially for the sins of their children, nor vice-versa, in stark contrast to the sins of the father being visited upon the children even unto the tenth generation, as elsewhere. Nethertheless, despite this general philanthropic nature, breaches of the moral code are punished severely: death is the penalty not only for murder, but also for unchastity, and even for disrespectful behaviour by a son.

The style of the Deuteronomic discourses is very marked, being particularly distinct when compared with the style of the rest of the torah. Not only do particular words and expressions, embodying often the writer's characteristic thoughts, recur with remarkable frequency, giving a distinctive colouring to every part of his work, but the long and rolling clauses in which the author expresses himself are a new feature in Hebrew literature. Nowhere else in the Old Testament does there breathe such an atmosphere of generous devotion or of benevolence, neither is there such strong eloquence when duties are elsewhere set forward.

Comparison to other torah law codes

With the Priestly Code, Deuteronomy is only remotely related, according to textual criticism, and there are certainly no verbal parallels. The Priestly Code is the name given by academia to the body of laws expressed in the Torah which do not form part of Deuteronomy, the Holiness Code, the Some of the institutions and observances codified in the Priestly Code are indeed mentioned, mainly burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, heave-offerings, the distinction between clean and unclean, and rules about leprosy. Leprosy (from the Greek lepi (λέπι meaning scales on a fish or Hansen's disease, is a chronic disease caused by the bacterium However, they are destitute of the central significance with which they are placed in the Priestly Code.

Conversely, the distinction between priests and other Levites, the Levite cities, the jubilee year, the offering of cereal crops, sin-offerings, and Yom Kippur, which are fundamental institutions in the Priestly code, are not mentioned at all in the Deuteronomic Code. Yom Kippur (יוֹם כִּפּוּר ˈjɔm kiˈpur also known in English as the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn and important of the Jewish holidays Its In the laws which do touch common ground, there are frequently large discrepancies, which in some cases are regarded irreconcilable by critical scholarship. In the documentary hypothesis, this large variation is explained, by the Code being identified as the work of a group of priests, centred at Shiloh, whom were rival to the Aaronid group to whom the Priestly Code is assigned. Shiloh or Shilo may refer to People Shiloh (given name Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, daughter of Angelina Jolie This article is about Aaron the Levite in the Hebrew Bible, the Qu'ran, and other sources

Unlike the Priestly Code, with the laws contained in the Holiness Code, the Deuteronomic Code has some parallels, chiefly moral injunctions. The Holiness Code is a term used in Biblical Criticism to refer to Leviticus 17-26 and is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word Holy. Nethertheless, although in such cases the substance is often similar, the expression is nearly always different, for example the commandment concerning mourning at Deuteronomy 14:1 reflects Leviticus 19:28, and likewise the commandments of mixing kinds, at Leviticus 19:15 is reflected at Deuteronomy 16:19-20, but both occur in quite different phrasing. Thus it can not be said that the legislation of Deuteronomy is in any sense an expansion or development of the Holiness Code itself, although the underlying laws appear to have a greater affinity. The Holiness Code is a term used in Biblical Criticism to refer to Leviticus 17-26 and is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word Holy.

As far as critical scholarship is concerned, the Covenant Code, and the Ritual Decalogue which partially repeats it, can be seen to form the foundation of the Deuteronomic legislation. The Covenant Code, or alternatively Book of the Covenant, is the name given by academics to a text appearing in the Torah at Exodus -. The Ritual Decalogue is a list of ten commandments identified in Biblical criticism as a possible candidate for the "Ten Commandments" mentioned by the Bible This is evident partly from the numerous verbal coincidences, whole clauses, and sometimes even an entire law, being repeated verbatim, and partly from the fact that frequently a law in Deuteronomy consists of an expansion, or application to particular cases, of a principle laid down more briefly in the Covenant Code or Ritual Decalogue. This can, for example, be seen in Deuteronomy 16:1-17, concerning the three annual feasts, which are described very basically in the Covenant Code, at Exodus 23:14-17. The civil and social enactments which are new to Deuteronomy make provision chiefly for cases likely to arise in a more highly organised community than is contemplated in the legislation of the Covenant Code, and therefore critical scholarship regards the Deuteronomic Code as a development of the Covenant Code reflecting the increased organisation of society in the time between the two.

Repeatedly and pointedly the older laws of the Covenant Code are restated in Deuteronomy in terms which inescapably suggest the influence of Amos, Hosea and Isaiah. The difference between the two codes may be summarised as further tempering law on behalf of the offender, and providing a still more merciful view with respect to the weak, and powerless. It is a matter of dispute whether the author knew the Covenant Code and Ritual Decalogue as separate works, or after they had been united into JE, as rather than copying, the laws of the Deuteronomic Code are variously free modification or enlargement of them. JE is a hypothetical intermediate source text of the Torah postulated by the DH. Consequently, amongst critical scholarship, some think it to be simply an enlarged edition of the old code, whereas others feel it to have been intended as a replacement.

Dating and authorship

In the Deuteronomic Code, it is strictly laid down that sacrifice is to be offered at a single central sanctuary. However, in the Tanakh, from the Book of Joshua to the Books of Kings (I Kings 6), sacrifices are frequently described as offered in various different parts of the land, without any suggestion, by either the characters present in the narrative, or the narrator themselves, that any law, such as that of Deuteronomy, is being broken. See also Old testament, Septuagint, Targum, Peshitta The Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ (taˈnax or; also Tenakh or Tenak is The Book of Joshua ( Hebrew: Sefer Y'hoshua ספר יהושע is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian The Books of Kings ( Sefer Melachim, ספר מלכים are a part of Judaism 's Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. Other laws appear to more specifically point to a terminus post quem, after which the code must have been composed. The law concerning the king, and the prohibitions against multiplying horses, multiplying wives, and multiplying silver and gold, at Deuteronomy 17:14-20, appears to be coloured by reminiscences of Solomon (c. King Solomon ( Ge'ez: ስለሞን Arabic: ar سليمان, Sulayman, all from the Triliteral root S-L-M, "peace" 950 bce), and the forms of idolatry referred to, especially worship of the host of heaven, as described at Deuteronomy 17:3, appear to refer to behaviour during the reign of Ahaz (c. Ahaz (אחז lit "has held" an abbreviation of Jehoahaz, "God has held" was king of Judah, and the son and successor of Jotham 730 bce).

It is remarkable that Amos (c. The Book of Amos is one of the books of the Nevi'im (Hebrew "prophets" and of the Christian Old Testament. 760 bce), Hosea (c. Hosea ( Greek = Ōsēe) was the son of Beeri and a prophet in Israel in the 8th century BCE He is one of the Twelve Prophets 750 bce), and the undisputed portions of Isaiah (Isaiah 1-39 ["First Isaiah"], c. Isaiah (; Greek:, Ēsaiās; Arabic: اشعیاء, Ash-ee-yaa; "Salvation of/is YHWH " is 700 bce) show no certain traces of any influence from the Deuteronomic Code, or its style, while Jeremiah exhibits marks of these things on nearly every page, especially in his prose. Jeremiah ( jirmɛ'jahu; Septuagint Greek: Ἰερεμίας was one of the 'greater prophets ' of the Hebrew Bible. For the Wikipedia guideline regarding editing articles see WikipediaManual of Style. The prophetic teachings, the leading theological ideas, and the principles which the author seeks to inculcate, exhibit many points of contact with that of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and especially with the characteristic principles of the compiler of the Book of Kings, who must have lived after the events described in that Book, or during the later ones. If the code had been composed between Isaiah and Jeremiah, these facts would be exactly accounted for.

It is for these reasons that the unanimous opinion of modern biblical criticism is that Deuteronomy is not the work of Moses, as is the traditionally held opinion, but that it was, in its main parts, written in the seventh century B. C. , during the reign of Josiah. It is not difficult to realise the significance which the book must have had if it were written at this time. It would have formed a great protest against the prevalent tendencies of the age, a century, as Jeremiah readily testifies, in which religious viewpoints, other than that of centralised worship of Yahweh, was making serious encroachments in the Kingdom of Judah, associated with its decline. Judea is a term used for the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel. The Deuteronomic code thus may be described as the prophetic reformulation and adaptation to new needs of an older legislation, essentially the work not of a jurist or statesman, but of a prophet.

It should be noted, though, that traditionalists generally maintain that the Deuteronomic code was, indeed, the work of Moses. As regards the contention that the earlier books do not emphasize the centrality of the Temple worship in Jerusalem, those books primarily discuss the service in the desert Tabernacle. Nevertheless, Leviticus 17 clearly mandates a centralized venue of sacrifice. The similarity to the works of Jeremiah appears to be a result of the renewed interest in Deuteronomy during the reign of King Josiah, but with Jeremiah borrowing from the conventions of Deuteronomy - not the other way around.

Sources

  1. ^ Charles Foster Kent. "The Humanitarian Element in the Old Testament Legislation. " The Biblical World. 1901, p. 273. JSTOR, accessed December 16, 2007

External links

JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) is a United States -based online system for archiving Academic journals founded in 1995 Events 755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
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