Deuteronomy is a book about a community being prepared for a new life. Hardship and the wilderness lie behind; the promised land lies ahead. But in the present moment, there is a call for a new commitment to God and a fresh understanding of the nature of the community of God's people. Though the scene is set more than three thousand years in the past, Deuteronomy is still a book of considerable contemporary relevance. The book of Deuteronomy, however, is not only a book of contemporary relevance. It has been, and continues to be, one of the most important and debated works in modern biblical scholarship. - Author's preface.

The word "Deuteronomy" derives from the Greek for "second law," and it's an apt name: there's little in this book of scripture that can't be found elsewhere in the first five books of the Bible. But what sets Deuteronomy apart is its format: the book's contents are arranged as three first-person speeches delivered by Moses to the Israelite people as they stand on the doorstep of the Promised Land. Moses recounts the people's experience wandering the desert for 40 years and restates the laws and commandments of God. But unlike the sprawling, complicated stories of the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, Deuteronomy is focused and compact. "Hear, O Israel," Moses says, giving voice to one of the central tenets of Judaism, "The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

This is a major study on the book of Deuteronomy by an acclaimed expert in the field.Paying particular attention to the legal passages in Deuteronomy, Professor RofT seeks to clarify the contents and unity of each section, its literary history, the origin of the single laws and their relation to other kindred laws in other documents of the Pentateuch.Bringing together different methods of biblical study - traditional Jewish interpretation, classical biblical criticism, form criticism, history of tradition and textual criticism - the author argues that the roots of Deuteronomy lie in monarchial Israel and Judah, that the literary climax belongs to the seventh century BCE, and that the final stages of the text are exilic and early post-exilic.

“The book of Deuteronomy can rightly be called a compendium of the most important ideas of the Old Testament.” So begins this commentary on the book of Deuteronomy, which Bill Arnold treats as the heart of the Torah and the fulcrum of the Old Testament—crystallizing the themes of the first four books of the Bible and establishing the theological foundation of the books that follow. After a thorough introduction that explores these and other matters, Arnold provides an original translation of the first eleven chapters of Deuteronomy along with verse-by-verse commentary (with the translation and commentary of the remaining chapters following in a second volume). As with the other entries in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Arnold remains rooted in the book’s historical context while focusing on its meaning and use as Christian Scripture today. Ideal for pastors, students, scholars, and interested laypersons, this commentary is an authoritative yet accessible companion to the book of Deuteronomy.

As a dominant voice in our society, Western Christianity (including fundamentalism) is dying despite the growing tendency of people to identify as spiritual but not religious. In the face of this reality, churches continue to preach the same message of sin, judgment, guilt, in order to be saved, or in the case of more progressive churches, feel-good messages. No wonder Western Christianity is failing. If it is ever to regain its viability, Christianity must rethink its total devotion to Christ and look again at its roots. A new Christianity must start over with the original vision of God's dream for us as expressed by Moses and Jesus. Jesus was not a Christian. He was a Jewish reformer and he worked within the context of the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament). Deuteronomy was one of these books. When this ancient wisdom is paired with post-modern Christianity we see that the teachings of Moses and Jesus are as relevant today as they were two to three thousand years ago, perhaps even more so.

One of the most common phrases in the Torah is "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying . . ." So many of the Torah's commandments are introduced in this way. These words represent God speaking to Moses and instructing him what to repeat or teach to the Jewish people. Yet, this phrase is not found at all in Deuteronomy, and this helps explain why this book is so very different from the other books of the Torah. Deuteronomy is Moses's book. It is the record of Moses's final speech to the Jewish people before his death. But this leads to a very basic and very fundamental question. Why are the words of man, even a man as great as Moses, part of God's holy Torah? A very good question, a powerful one indeed. And while we may not come up with a good or satisfying answer, this book examines and presents life lessons just as important as those found in any other biblical text.