DtrH: Books and Key Texts

Introduction

This is the sixth and final post in our series on the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH). In five previous posts, we’ve covered the following topics:

• The Deuteronomistic History: Two Milestones in the History of Scholarship on Martin Noth and Frank Moore Cross (here)
• DtrH: The Göttingen School and Neo-Nothians on Rudolf Smend, Walter Dietrich, Timo Veijola, John Van Seters, and Steve McKenzie (here)
• DtrH: Five Further Developments on Richard Nelson, Norbert Lohfink, Moshe Weinfeld, Bernard Levinson, and Gary Knoppers (here)
• The Doyen of DtrH: Thomas Römer (here)
• Does DtrH even exist? (here)

In this current post, we turn our attention to the books that comprise the DtrH and their key texts, offering a concise overview of their structure, contents, and significance. From the Israelites’ grand entrance into the Promised Land in the book of Joshua to the Israelites’ and Judeans’ somber exile from their homeland in the book of Kings, we examine how these books serve as both a theological manifesto and historical reflection on Israel’s covenantal journey.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy serves as the theological foundation of DtrH, providing the covenant framework and legal ideals that become the standard of covenantal obedience for successive generations of Israelites. It emphasizes monotheism, centralized worship in the place/city Yhwh will choose, as well as stipulates blessings for obedience and divine retribution (curses) for disobedience. Deuteronomy is structured as three long speeches by Moses, functioning as his valedictory (farewell) addresses, a model which will be applied by the Deuteronomist to Joshua (Josh 23) and David (1 Kgs 2). Key texts include the Israelite monotheistic creed (Deut 6:4-9), command for centralized worship (Deut 12), blessings and curses for covenant fidelity or disobedience (Deut 28), and Moses’s farewell speech and death as well as transition to Joshua’s leadership (Deut 31-34).

Although these speeches are essentially considered the torah of Moses, the main collection of legal material (laws) occurs in Deut 12-26 which has two introductions (ch. 1-4 and ch. 5-11) as well as evidence for multiple conclusions, suggesting a complex and layered editorial process. The question of Deuteronomy’s chronological relationship with the Tetrateuch is complex and debated. Scholars generally suggest a later date due to its monotheistic and centralized cultic emphases, a position rooted in the 19th century higher critical models that suggested these religious ideals reflected a more “evolved” (i.e. later) stage of Israelite religion. For example, Levinson suggests that Deuteronomy is intentionally reshaping the Pentateuchal legal material with regard to its treatment of the festal calendar, cultic practices (especially sacrifice), and social hierarchy. Others, however, view Deuteronomy as earlier. A more nuanced approach might be to set aside the chronological question and focus on which social groups are responsible for each textual tradition (“library,” to use Römer’s terminology for DtrH). For example, it’s quite striking that the Levites appear prominently in the narrative of Exodus and Numbers, but only thrice in Deuteronomy and, ironically, none in Leviticus where the more general kōhēnîm are responsible for cult. Meanwhile, Exodus (over-)emphasizes the Levitical birth of Moses and Aaron: וַיֵּ֥לֶךְ אִ֖ישׁ מִבֵּ֣ית לֵוִ֑י וַיִּקַּ֖ח אֶת־בַּת־לֵוִֽי׃ ‘A man from the House of Levi went, and he married a Levite daughter’ (Exod 2:1) and ‏הֲלֹ֨א אַהֲרֹ֤ן אָחִ֙יךָ֙ הַלֵּוִ֔י ‘Is this not Aaron your brother, the Levite?’ (Exod 4:4). This begs the question as to what extent the social identity and relationship of the exilic priestly groups had on the transmission of biblical traditions. What if Leviticus, despite its name in reception history, was not so Levitical after all?

Joshua

The book of Joshua marks the transition from the Transjordan wilderness to the conquest and settlement of the land, as promised in Deuteronomy. This book is therefore foundational to Israelite historiography. It portrays Joshua as Moses’s successor and shows what can happen if Israel remains obedient to the covenant (but occasionally what also can go wrong if not, e.g. Achan’s sin). Thus, central to the narrative is the theme of covenantal fidelity, providing an essential part of the theological manifesto for later generations of Israelites.

The original core of Joshua, probably deriving from an independent source document, is the long military conquest narrative of Josh 1-11 which includes the destruction of Jericho (Josh 6), Ai (Josh 8), and Hazor (Josh 11). The account of Achan’s sin, its consequences, and the communal responsibility for covenant (in)fidelity might, however, be a secondary (Deuteronomistic) editorial interpolation onto this part of the narrative. This section ends with a recap of the kings which Moses and Joshua together have defeated (Josh 12). Turning to the second half of the book, especially important to the Deuteronomist is Joshua’s valedictory address (Josh 23) and the covenant renewal at Shechem, affirming Israel’s commitment to serve Yhwh alone (Josh 24). Because of his optimistic outlook at the fitting conclusion to Pentateuchal promises, biblical scholars long before Noth thought that Joshua might have originally been part of the Pentateuchal narrative (i.e., in reality they comprise a “Hexateuch”). Subsequent scholarship, especially since Martin Noth, has since rejected a Hexateuchal composition and connected the narrative of Deuteronomy-Joshua with what follows rather than precedes it.

Judges

The judges are divided by scholars into major and minor judges. The major judges include Othniel (Judah), Ehud (Benjamin), Deborah (Ephraim) and Barak (Naphtali), Gideon (Manasseh), Jephthah (Gilead-Manasseh in Transjordan), and Samson (Dan). The minor judges include Shamgar (unknown tribe), Tola (Issachar), Jair (Gilead-Manasseh), Ibzan (Judah), Elon (Zebulun), and Abdon (Ephraim). One obvious difference between the social and military leadership of Judges and Samuel-Kings is
the much more localized political leadership of the tribal judges.

The book of Judges is, on the one hand, the most overtly edited, but on the other hand the least obviously Deuteronomistic. The repeated cyclical pattern of apostasy, oppression, repentance, and deliverance shows a heavy editorial hand that wove together the folk tales about military heroes of old (called “judges”) who saved Israelites in times of trouble. However, it shares the least Deuteronomistic phraseology and formulaic language with the rest of DtrH (with the exception of the repeated refrain “they did what was evil in the eyes of Yhwh”). Stories about the individual judges were likely transmitted both orally (esp. Judg 5) and textually in the period leading up to their redaction into the DtrH. The scribal Redaktor, whom I call “DtrK” (the kingly Deuteronomist), combined this material into a narrative framework which established a pattern of moral and political instability in order to critique Israel’s failure and set up their need for a king—but not just any king. Using the story about the tribe of Benjamin, Judges 19-21 is a polemic against Saulide kingship, reflecting that our DtrK editor strongly favored Davidic/Judahite kingship. This implies a socio-political context in which Judah had access to old northern traditions but still existed as a political entity of their own, perhaps the seventh or early sixth century BCE.

Samuel-Kings (originally “the Book of Kingdoms”)

A note on terminology: The books of 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings were originally a single narrative, but due to their length were written on two different scrolls (which later became identified in rabbinic tradition as “Samuel” and “Kings”). When these two scrolls were translated into Greek, a language written with vowels and longer words, the copyists required four scrolls, hence 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings. In the Greek and Latin traditions, however, the names for these books were preserved: the Book of Kingdoms, called 1-4 Kingdoms. When in Early Modern Europe scholars such as Martin Luther (in German) and William Tyndale (in English) began translating the Old Testament from the original Hebrew into their vernaculars, they “discovered” (and subsequently followed) the Hebrew (= rabbinic) tradition of calling these “four” books as 1 Sam, 2 Sam, 1 Kgs, and 2 Kgs. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the structure and contents of Samuel-Kings belies the fact that these were originally composed as a single coherent narrative.

The Book of Kingdoms presents the history of Israel and Judah from the last of the judges (Samuel) through the Babylonian exile, i.e. mid-11^th to mid-6^th cent. BCE. 1-2 Samuel marks the transition from tribal confederacy to the establishment of Israel’s monarchy. First Samuel covers the rise of Samuel and decline of Eli’s priesthood, ultimately culminating in the rise of the Saulide monarchy. Second Samuel includes three major parts: the rise of David, the “Apology of David” (using McCarter’s terminology), David’s “Court History” (military conquests, moral failings). First Kings begins with the Succession document and includes the reign of Solomon (rather than Adonijah), recounts the history of the division of the kingdom after Solomon’s death, as well as the early kings of Judah and Israel for about a century. These include Rehoboam, Abijam/Abijah, and Asa in the South as well as Jeroboam I, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, and Ahab in the North. Second Kings continues the history of the divided kingdoms, including the decline and fall of both kings, first Israel to the Neo-Assyrians then Judah to the Neo-Babylonians, ultimately culminating the Babylonian exile. There are 12 kings of Israel from Ahaziah to Hoshea, during whose reign Tiglath-Pileser III intervened in the Syro-Ephramite War as well as Shalmaneser V and Sargon II seiged and destroyed Samaria then exiled the Israelites. There are 17 kings of Judah from Jehoshaphat to Zedekiah, at which point Nebuchadnezzar besieged and captured Jerusalem, set up Gedaliah as the new governor, and concludes with Jehoiachin’s release from prison by Awil-Marduk during the 37th year of exile, providing a terminus post quem (earliest possible date) of approximately 549 BCE for the first layer of redaction of Kings.

Key texts for the Deuteronomist(s) include 1 Sam 8 (the desire for kingship), 1 Sam 15 (Saul’s disobedience and rejection by Yhwh), 2 Sam 7 (the Davidic Covenant), 1 Kgs 2 (David’s valedictory address), 1 Kgs 8 (Solomon’s prayer), 1 Kgs 12 (the division of the monarchy), 2 Kgs 17 (the fall of Israel), 2 Kgs 18-20 (Hezekiah’s reign), 2 Kgs 22-23 (Josiah’s reforms), and 2 Kgs 25 (fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile).

Internal chronological factors, however, suggest a date of 486 BCE. 1 Kgs 6:1 suggests that Solomon built the temple in the 480^th year of the Israelite exodus, unquestionably a symbolic figure representing the ideal generation (40 years) multiplied by the number of tribes (12), or something similar. If the temple is intended to mark the central point of history from the supposed Egyptian exodus to the authorship of the book of Kings, then the three dates in question are as follows: according to the theological ideology of the editor of Kings, the construction of the first temple occurred during the fourth year of the reign of Solomon (966 BCE) which was the 480^th year after the Exodus (1446 BCE) and 480 years from the time of the historiographer himself (486 BCE). This occurred shortly after the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, suggesting that DtrH—at least one version of it—may have emerged from a scribal school connected with the returned exilic community.

Conclusion

DtrH offers a sweeping theological and historical narrative from the life of Moses to the Babylonian exile. This series has explored its scholarly interpretations, compositional layers, and key texts across Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Kingdoms (Samuel-Kings). While debates persist about its unity and origins, DtrH remains a vital lens for understanding the development of Israelite social identity, covenant theology, and biblical historiography.

About The Author

Matthew Saunders

Matthew Saunders is a PhD student in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He researches the languages and literatures of the ancient Near East, especially Aramaic Studies, Ugaritic Studies, and Comparative Semitics.

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