Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation

Positioned at the boundary of traditional biblical studies, legal history, and literary theory, Deuteronomy and the- Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation shows how the legislation of Deuteromomy reflects the struggle of its authors to renew late seventh-century Judaean society. Seeking to defend their revolutionary vision, the reformers turned to earlier laws, even when they disagreed with them, and revised them in such a way as to lend authority to their understanding of God's will. Passages that other scholars have long viewed as _ redundant, contradictory, or displaced actually reflect the attempt by Deuteronomy's authors to sanction their new _ religious aims before the legacy of the past.
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