INTERPRETING DEUTERONOMY
Issues and approaches
Edited by David G. Firth and Philip S. Johnston. IVP (Apollos). 262 pages. £19.99
ISBN 978 1 844 745 975
This volume contains 11 stimulating essays on an important book of the Bible. Written by members of the Tyndale Fellowship Old Testament Study group they will be of benefit to those who are familiar with academic discourse. Each essay is heavily footnoted and related to author and Scripture indices.
The essays are grouped in three parts:
Part 1, ‘Approaching Deuteronomy’, sets the scene with two lengthy essays, one on its literary composition and the other its theological interpretation. The first upholds a Mosaic origin for much of the book (but not authorship). The second discusses the weighty themes of mission, election, war, grace and covenant and, of course, the solemn confession, ‘the LORD our God; the LORD is one’ — a declaration which (surprisingly) may not mean anything about God in himself (let alone the non-existence of other gods) but only the kind of single-minded devotion due to him by Israel!
