DEUTERONOMY CHAPTERS 1-5 I. INTRODUCTION: A. Title: The Hebrew name of Deuteronomy is elleh haddbarim (“these are the words”) or more briefly, Debarim (“words”)—taken from the opening line of 1:1. The LXX, Greek Translation of the OT, called it by the more descriptive term Deuteronomion (“second law-giving”), because it consists mostly of a restatement of the law contained in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. The name Deuteronomion comes from a translation of Deut. 17:18 “a copy of this law”.
B. Date: Internal data locates the events in the book as transpiring east of the Jordan in Moab starting on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year (1:3). “According to Joshua 4:19 Israel crossed the Jordan river into Canaan in the forty-first year after leaving Egypt, the first month and the tenth day. This would be about seventy days after Moses’ first address (Deut. 1:5). Subtracting the thirty days of mourning following Moses’ death (34:8), leaves roughly forty days for the addresses (1:5; 5:1; 29:2) of Deuteronomy” (Smith p. 477).
C. Authorship: In addition to many statements about Moses’ speaking, there are statements made within the book itself that indicate that he was the author at the direction of the Lord (1:5; 31:9,22,24,30). Other OT books assert Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy (1 Kings 2:3; 8:53; 2 Kings 14:6; 18:6,12). Jesus and the NT writers quote from Deuteronomy and then assign Moses as being the actual writer (Matthew 19:7-8; Mark 10:3-5; 12:19; John 5:46-47; Acts 3:22; 7:37-38; Romans 10:19). Paul quotes Deut. 25:4 in 1 Corinthians 9:9 and refers to it as the law of Moses, the writer of the book of Hebrews (10:28), likewise refers to the law of Moses, and then quotes Deut. 17:2-6.
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