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3 - Community Violence in Deuteronomy

from Part I - Legal Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2021

By
Caryn A. Reeder
Edited by
C. L. Crouch
C. L. Crouch
Affiliation:
Fuller Theological Seminary, California
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Summary

According to a number of recent interpreters, Deuteronomy represents a humanistic vision, establishing the protection of the economically and socially marginalized as a center of Israel’s covenant. The people of Israel have a responsibility to care for the poor, widows and orphans, slaves, and foreigners who are resident in Israelite communities because of both Israel’s own story (they were foreign slaves in the land of Egypt) and the character of God (who enacts justice for widows and orphans and loves foreigners). In sharp contrast to this vision, one group does not receive protection: those who worship the gods of the nations. These people are killed without mercy – even if they are Israelite. In perhaps the most horrifying example, if a person’s sibling, child, spouse, or dear friend invites the person to worship the gods of the nations, the response must be immediate and absolute. Without pausing for an investigation or public trial, the person must initiate the execution of the offender by stoning: “your own hand shall be first against them to execute them” (13:6–11).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics , pp. 36 - 50
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Barrett, R. Disloyalty and Destruction: Religion and Politics in Deuteronomy and the Modern World. LHBOTS 511. New York: T&T Clark, 2009.Google Scholar
Cohn, R. L. “The Second Coming of Moses: Deuteronomy and the Construction of Israelite Identity.” Pages 133–46 in The Comity and Grace of Method. Edited by Ryba, Thomas, Bond, George D., and Tull, Herman. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Crouch, C. L. The Making of Israel: Cultural Diversity in the Southern Levant and the Formation of Ethnic Identity in Deuteronomy. VTSup 162. Leiden: Brill, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dion, P. E. “Deuteronomy 13: The Suppression of Alien Religious Propaganda in Israel during the Late Monarchical Era.” Pages 147–216 in Law and Ideology in Monarchic Israel. Edited by Halpern, Baruch and Hobson, Deborah W.. JSOTSup 124. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1991.Google Scholar
Halberstam, C. “The Art of Biblical Law.” Prooftexts 27 (2007): 345–64.Google Scholar
Hamilton, J. M. “How to Read an Abhorrent Text: Deuteronomy 13 and the Nature of Authority.” HBT 20 (1998): 12–32.Google Scholar
Levinson, B. M., and Stackert, J.. “Between the Covenant Code and Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty: Deuteronomy 13 and the Composition of Deuteronomy.” Journal of Ancient Judaism 3 (2012): 123–40.Google Scholar
McConville, J. G. “Singular Address in the Deuteronomic Law and the Politics of Legal Administration.” JSOT 97 (2002): 19–36.Google Scholar
Nelson, R. D. “Herem and the Deuteronomic Social Conscience.” Pages 39–54 in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Literature. Edited by Vervenne, M. and Lust, J.. BETL 133. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Noll, K. L. “Deuteronomistic History or Deuteronomistic Debate? (A Thought Experiment).” JSOT 31 (2007): 311–45.Google Scholar
Reeder, C. A. The Enemy in the Household: Family Violence in Deuteronomy and Beyond. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.Google Scholar
Scheffler, E.. “Reflecting on (Non-)Violence in the Book of Deuteronomy in (Old Testament) Canonical Context.” OTE 27 (2014): 579–96.Google Scholar
Sparks, K. L. Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel: Prolegomena to the Study of Ethnic Sentiments and Their Expression in the Hebrew Bible. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1998.Google Scholar
Vogt, P. T. “Social Justice and the Vision of Deuteronomy.” JETS 51 (2008): 35–44.Google Scholar
Wills, L. M. Not God’s People: Insiders and Outsiders in the Biblical World. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.Google Scholar

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