Purge the Evil from among you
Deuteronomy's Social Vision of Israel's Social Boundaries
by Michael Cox
The study by Michael Cox illuminates how Deuteronomy serves as a document of community building by highlighting the social boundaries that the book provides. To answer the arising question why these forms of behavior are so valued in the vision of Deuteronomy, Cox discusses the following two-part thesis: The purification formula of Deuteronomy (eleven occurrences in 13:6; 17:7, 12; 19:13, 19; 21:9; 21:21; 22:21, 22, 24; 24:7) clarifies the group-boundaries of the community envisioned in Deuteronomy. These boundaries are then used by later authors to evaluate subsequent communities. By reading Deuteronomy in its final form as a community-building document, Cox explores group formation in general and the more specific phenomenon of the exclusion of members from the group, which by insiders is a significant method to establish and enforce ideological norms. He argues that Deuteronomy’s axiomatic claim – found in the Shema, 6:4-5 – provides the ideological foundation for evaluating the particular behaviors that were marked out in the social landscape by the purification cases. Deuteronomy I is intended to be read and used by later communities. An exploration of Psalm 78 and 1 Corinthians 5, both of which allude to these purification cases, shows how later canonical authors evaluate their own communities based on Deuteronomy’s social vision.
- By (author) Michael Cox
Other Titles in this Series
Deuteronomium – Tora fur eine neue Generation
Innsbrucker Deuteronomium-Tagung 2010 im Gedenken an Volkmar Premstaller SJ
Volume 17
Kritische Schriftgelehrsamkeit in priesterlichen und prophetischen Diskursen
Festschrift fur Reinhard Achenbach zum 65. Geburtstag
Volume 27
Die Entdeckung des Politischen im Alten Testament
Festschrift fur Wolfgang Oswald zu seinem funfundsechzigsten Geburtstag
Volume 29
Nicht darfst Du diesen Wortern etwas hinzufugen
Die Rezeption des Deuteronomiums in der Tempelrolle: Sprache, Autoren, Hermeneutik
Volume 11
Reading as a Disclosure of the Thoughts of the Heart
Proto-Halakhic Reuse and Appropriation between Torah and the Prophets
Volume 23
Aux commencements – Creation et temporalite dans la Bible et dans son contexte culturel
Collected Essays on Creation and Temporality in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Texts
Volume 24
Mosetora und Jahwetora
Das Verhaltnis von Deuteronomium 12-26 zu Exodus, Levitikus und Numeri
Volume 21
Persische Reichspolitik und lokale Heiligtumer
Beitrage einer Tagung des Exzellenzclusters Religion und Politik in Vormoderne und Moderne vom 24.-26. Februar 2016 in Munster
Volume 25
Gerechtigkeit und Recht zu uben’ (Gen 18,19)
Studien zur altorientalischen und biblischen Rechtsgeschichte, zur Religionsgeschichte Israels und zur Religionssoziologie. Festschrift fur Eckart Otto zum 65. Geburtstag
Volume 13
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
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