Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>]

MODERATORS: Although this post begins in response to something from the 
"absence of evidence" thread, I have started anew based on the belief 
that the subsequent textual analysis is germane to the list. Let me know 
if I'm wrong.


If Deuteronomy is from the 15th century the mentions of iron seem 
anachronistic, leading Karl to doubt the mainstream archaeological 
account. Some of his argument concerned the textual motivation to say 
"iron" (iron yoke in Deut.28) when the reality might have been something 
else. But what is the motivation for telling people NOT to use iron 
tools (Deut.27:5)? Here there can be no metaphor; rather it is assumed 
that iron tools will be available in Shechem or will be brought there. 
Just a guess: if the text is really quite old, it might reflect a 
situation in which Israelites were in contact with iron-using people, 
but had no history of iron use -- a situation also suggested by Joshua 
17. Then the use of iron to build a holy altar might be regarded as 
something foreign. (Perhaps there is a whole theological explanation for 
the no-iron thing here, of which I am ignorant.)

But what I really want to talk about is the structure of Deut.28. It is 
well-known that a number of the curses here are also found in 
Esarhaddon's loyalty oath from the 7th century (VTE for Vassal Treaty of 
Esarhaddon below). There can be no doubt that one of the two authors 
read either the other one, or a third text similar to both. It's of 
course possible that late Assyrian scribes had a copy of Deuteronomy. 
But if you compare the two texts, Deuteronomy sounds derivative. Take 
the mention of iron in verse 23...

Deut.28:23 And your skies that are over you will be bronze, and the land 
that is under you iron.
VTE 526-530: May the gods of this treaty make your ground like iron, so 
nothing can sprout from it. Just as rain does not fall from a brazen 
heaven so may rain and dew not come upon your fields and meadows.

But that's just the beginning. Verses 22,23,26,27,29,30 and31 all 
directly parallel VTE (526, 425, 419, 420, 428, 429).
Furthermore, the sequence in Deuteronomy seems random, but part of it 
matches the VTE sequence, which is determined by the traditional 
ordering of the gods associated with each of the curses (e.g. 
Sin=leprosy precedes Shamash=blindness [the sun will hide his light]).

But wait, there's more: Deut.28 already shows itself to be composite 
based on internal evidence. Verses 2-10 are blessings with parallel 
curses in 15-20. Verse 25 corresponds to verse 7, it is out of order. 
Verse 10 corresponds to verse 37, which seems like the original end of 
the unit.
Therefore it looks like the section written by someone familiar with VTE 
was inserted in the middle of the text from another source. Is there any 
other explanation for the sequence of blessings and curses from verses 2-32?


Gabe Eisenstein