This study argues that the authors of Deuteronomy--a corpus of laws purportedly given to Israel through Moses--radically transformed ancient Israelite religion and society. Their new vision, says author Bernard Levinson, was completely without precedent and included matters of worship, justice, political administration, family life, and theology. In order to implement their radical program, the authors of the legal corpus faced a twofold task. They had not only to transform age-old popular institutions but also to justify their innovations in light of earlier biblical law, such as the Covenant Code (Exodus 21-23), that had a completely different religious orientation.

Where their agenda and the conventions of the Covenant Code conflicted, Levinson shows, the authors of Deuteronomy appropriated the problematic laws in question and reworked them in order to erase the conflict and to further their own program. The authors of Deuteronomy employed the Covenant Code, in other words, not as a textual source but as a resource, in order to purchase the legitimacy and authority that their reform agenda otherwise lacked. The reuses of the older material lent their innovations the guise of continuity with the past and consistency with traditional law. They cast their departure from tradition as its reaffirmation. For this reason, Levinson concludes, Deuteronomy is, on one hand, among the most subversive texts in the Hebrew Bible and, on the other, the text that most loudly silences any hint of subversion.

"Bernard Levinson is a brilliant young scholar who has written an outstanding book about how the Covenant Code from Mount Sinai became the Code of Deuteronomy at the borders of the River Jordan. It is a fascinating discourse on how to change law without changing tradition. The importance of Biblical law for canon theory, Biblical narrative, and Israelite religion usually is underestimated; this new approach will hopefully get more people reading law, and especially Deuteronomy. It will be compelling to both American and European readers as it integrates the leading scholarly discourses of both communities."

"An exemplary work of biblical scholarship--careful and controlled by analytic rigor, yet bold and innovative in its scope and suggestions. Students of ancient law, legal literature, religion, and culture will greatly benefit from Levinson's work."

"In noting that the Deuteronomic innovations were not simply interpolated into a reworked version of the Covenant Code but rather presented in a new, complete composition, Levinson demonstrates his own primary commitment to the text, to the history of textual transmission, and to the social milieu in which the text functions. Levinson elegantly presents the use of the Covenant Code as both a source and resource for the Deuteronomic authors."

"Bernard Levinson's book is a major study. He demonstrates the radical break with the past and the way in which the authors or composers of Deuteronomy not only transformed religion and society in ancient Israel but also radically revised its literary history. The power and accomplishment of the Deuteronomic movement has rarely been so clearly demonstrated. Levinson's work is a clarification of the way in which hermeneutics is not something that starts with the interpreter's handling of the canonical text but is a process by which the canonical text itself came into being. He shows how the new text subverts and dominates older texts in behalf of a radical cultural and religious transformation. With this book, Levinson places himself in the front rank of Deuteronomy scholars."

"This is a careful technical study, which incorporates the positions of the major scholars in the field....one will not be able to do serious study of Deuteronomy without consulting this book."

Bernard M. Levinson, Berman Family Chair in Jewish and Biblical Studies, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota