The readings - Days 58-59 - Deuteronomy 1-4
I hope I don't jinx it by speaking too soon or anything, but Deuteronomy's not half bad... But yeah, I know I'm done 4 of 34 chapters, so a lot can still happen.
It's got a different... feel... about it than Numbers or Leviticus had. It's somehow (so far) more conversational and less "all-business". We get a four-chapter re-cap to open the book, but it doesn't feel like you're just re-reading things you've already read, because it's Moses speaking. He's telling the Israelites' story back to them. And fair enough, considering how, unlike the preceding two books, this one starts after they're already done their time in the wilderness. He's speaking to the brand new generation that's finally allowed to go in to the Promised Land, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua.
The question of authorship in the Bible has rarely interested me, really. I usually just find it a distraction, and rarely actually contributes to any deeper understanding of the text itself.
That said, these first chapters of Deuteronomy do raise some questions in my mind. Traditionally, all five books of the Pentateuch are attributed to Moses, so much so that many Bibles that have the opening intro sections and plenty of footnotes just take it for an absolute and don't even address it.
But having gone through 80% of the Pentateuch now, and having dipped my toes into the last chapter, I can't help but tentatively raising my hand when it comes to Moses' literary prowess. First, there's the matter of style. Each book has its own distinct feel to it. They each read differently, they have a different pace and they clearly have have a different focus and purpose. They vary so wildly in style that it becomes difficult to imagine a single man penning all of them.
I'm not saying that he couldn't have written all five, mind you. If Moxy Fruvous can produce the epic silliness of King of Spain and My Baby Love a Bunch of Authors and also be responsible for the somber and poignant Gulf War Song and The Drinking Song, then Moses could surely have been behind the beautiful poetry of Genesis, the narrative pacing of Exodus and the dull chartered accountant drudgery of Leviticus and Numbers. Although the guys in Fruvous each shared writing duties, so that complicates things...
The other thing has to do directly with the way Moses is re-telling the story to the Israelites here in Deuteronomy. There are subtle differences between the way Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers described these events and the way Moses is presenting them. Nothing that amounts to a gigantic A-HA! moment or anything, but just enough to give me pause as far as actual authorship.
Anyway, I've already bored myself on this tangent, so I'm off to something different. Sort of.
---
Interestingly, though, there is one moment that seems like Moses may be trying to pull a fast one on just about everybody who's listening. Between verses 37 and 40, Moses makes a pretty serious revision to the reason behind his being prohibited from entering Israel. According to Deuteronomy Moses, he was punished by proxy because of the general cowardice and faithlessness of Israel after they despaired at the notion of actually going into the Promised Land.
Um... Moses?
According to the last time we heard this story, you actually weren't allowed to go in to Canaan because of what you did, not because of what Israel did. You struck the rock at Midian instead of just commanding it to produce water. It was your disobedience that lost you the ticket into Canaan, nobody else's.
This seems like one of those important moments to me. Here's Moses, THE prophet of Israel, the leader of the nation and God's personal messenger, intercessor and mediator. And here he is, just making stuff up right in the middle of his recap of Israel's epic journey through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan.
Maybe it's just the journalist in me, but this is something I'm going to have a hard time letting go. It's also one of those times when I think that God should be more angry than he seems to be...
There are two consolations for me in this case. The first is that it proves my earlier and oft-repeated point that God works through people who are definitely only human. Moses is one of two things: he is either monumentally forgetful, or he is more than willing to bend the truth in order to save face and do something petty like trying to bolster his legacy or whatever. In either case, he's doubtless fallible.
The other thing is that in previous books, it's taken a while for acts to come back and bite people (thinking particularly of Reuben sleeping with his dad's wife, or Simeon and Judah slaughtering a whole city of groin-hurt newly circumcised people) so maybe Moses will get some sort of chiding or something (for, you know, justice) at some point.
Maybe. Anyway, Deuteronomy is off to a roaring start, against all expectations. I'm stoked for this, and (if I'm honest) to finally be out of the Pentateuch and into the rest of the OT.
No comments:
Post a Comment