Category Archives: Deuteronomy

Millgram-Joseph disinherited

Posted on August 25, 2020 by theoutwardquest

I have read Rabbi Hillel Millgram’s, The Joseph Paradox: a Radical Reading of Genesis 37-50. Previously I had read his The Elijah Enigma. The Joseph Paradox is a thought-provoking examination and rethinking of the story of Joseph. Millgram does not … Continue reading →

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Margaret Barker-drawing outside the lines

Posted on May 17, 2019 by theoutwardquest

Margaret Barker, a fiercely independent British Methodist scholar, has a theory about Solomon’s temple and the religion that was practiced there. She has taken up a quest to rediscover the worship that took place in that temple. This has become … Continue reading →

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Moses’ death a mystery, but not a murder mystery

Posted on January 18, 2019 by theoutwardquest

Sigmund Freud thought that the Israelites had murdered Moses. He based this on Hosea 12:13-14, which he saw as the oldest source. 13 The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet, and due to a prophet Israel was … Continue reading →

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Leuchter-the penknife and the sunken book

Posted on August 13, 2018 by theoutwardquest

I apologize for interrupting the series on Leuchter’s book in the middle of a discussion of Jeremiah. The election last Tuesday had been my focus. When it was over, I woke up to the fact that I had places to … Continue reading →

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Leuchter-Levites at the gate

Posted on August 1, 2018 by theoutwardquest

In The Levites and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity Mark Leuchter deals with Deuteronomy as a text composed retrospectively in about -622. The story about the discovery of the scroll in the Temple is fiction. What really happened is that … Continue reading →

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The oldest worship service?

Posted on July 3, 2018 by theoutwardquest

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 gives us a piece of very ancient Israelite worship language. It calls for a simple ceremony. An Israelite farmer must take some of the first fruits of the crop, put them in a basket, carry them to the … Continue reading →

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Gnuse-invention or tradition?

Posted on May 7, 2018 by theoutwardquest

The basic claim of Robert Karl Gnuse in The Elohist is that the presumed source document of the Torah called the Elohist or E was composed in the 7th century to meet a specific need. That need was the loss … Continue reading →

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Gnuse and Hoffmeier-the mystery mountain

Posted on April 24, 2018 by theoutwardquest

Both Robert Karl Gnuse and James Hoffmeier deal with the question of the location of Sinai/Horeb.  Gnuse, in The Elohist,  says that in E the operative phrase is the “mountain of God.”  Horeb, he thinks, has become attached to this … Continue reading →

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Gnuse-traces of a separate Elohist document

Posted on April 9, 2018 by theoutwardquest

I am reading Robert Karl Gnuse’s The Elohist, where he defends the existence of a contributory document to the Pentateuch, called the Elohist or E. Some of the critics of E deny the  whole theory about documents. Some of these … Continue reading →

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Terrien-new read for Ash-Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2018 by theoutwardquest

Joy seems to get chilled out of life by the divisions between people today.  On social media I notice that people obsess about politics and have a hard time remaining “friends” with people on the other side. I miss the kind … Continue reading →

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