Deuteronomist

The Deuteronomist (D) is one of the sources of the Torah postulated by the documentary hypothesis that treats the texts of Scripture as products of human intellect, working in time. (Supernatural views are presented at Documentary hypothesis.) Martin Noth argued that there was an underlying unity in language and cultural content of the books from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings (Noth 1943). He presented the persona of "The Deuteronomist", a single author who was using pre-Exilic material but was editing and writing in the age of exile, the mid 6th century BCE. The majority of scholars follow Noth's opinion, that the Deuteronomist also wrote the Deuteronomistic History (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings). Some suggest that the same source may also have written the account of Jeremiah. Others suggest that "The Deuteronomist" is a close-knit group of Temple scholars rather than a sole individual.

Related Topics:
Torah - Documentary hypothesis - Martin Noth - Age of exile

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It is thought that the Deuteronomic part of the Torah, and the Deuteronomistic History were originally composed as a single work, ever since the investigation of Martin Noth. Since Noth's work, some scholars attribute two separate stages to the text, a first (referred to as Dtr1) and second (referred to as Dtr2) edition of the text, although most still consider that both editions were the result of the same author.

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The actual identity of the Deuteronomist is less secure than the body of his editing work: scholars postulate that the author was Baruch (Neriyah's son), Jeremiah's scribe, or possibly Jeremiah, due to the similarities in style between Jeremiah, and the inclusion in Jeremiah of direct (unattributed) quotes of D, as well as the affiliation of Jeremiah to the Shiloh priests, the time period at which Jeremiah lived.

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:This article describes the opinion of the documentary hypothesis without taking into account alternative opinions; see the documentary hypothesis article for details on the disputes to this theory

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