This study investigates Martin Noth’s conclusion about the Deuteronomistic History (DH) that the people of Israel had committed apostasy, ceased to obey the law code of YHWH, and thus lost their land. Scholars have challenged Noth’s hypothesis and even the existence of such a history. The present study adopts a thematic reading of the DH as a coherent corpus of writing with a consistent message. The study thus hypothesizes that the DH depicts an imperial military covenant. After a survey of the inscriptions of the second-millennium B.C.E. Levant, the Hittite empire, the Neo-Assyrian empire, and the first-millennium B.C.E Levant, the study concludes with a hypothesis that the evidence points to the ideology of the Neo-Assyrian empire, especially that of Tiglath-pileser III, as the historical precedent for the Dtr covenant. The study challenges two presuppositions that underlie both the DH and its scholarship: that of the tôrāh as law and that of YHWH as a unique god. [table “6” not found /]
Categories: PhD Research