A Multi-Disciplinary Study of Deuteronomy 23:12-14

Abstract

Deuteronomy 23:12-14 is pregnant with interesting theological, moral, and socio-cultural concepts which require exploration. From the premise that the possession of and survival on the Promised Land required that Israel would engage in warfare, YHWH’s presence in their camp to engage in a war against His enemies, who were Israel’s enemies, had to be ensured. Such divine presence required the maintenance of holiness of their military camp,which called for the people having to bury their faces outside it, a practice argued to be motivated by other reasons as well.This multi-disciplinary study focuses not only on unearthing these concepts,but also determining the interconnections between themand integrating them meaning fully to show that the usual interpretation of the holiness laws from a dichotomous perspective needs revision. Based on the historical-grammatical model for exegesis, the contextual,literary and textual underpinnings of the pericope are analysed, bringing to bear its structural and rhetorical undertones. The analyses identify major concepts:ritual purity, hygiene, sanitation,‘place theology’, ‘name theology’, and ‘YHWH/holy war’, and produce a translation of the text that was interpreted for the original and other OT audiences. It is shown that the overall motivation for the pericope was not YHWH’s presence in the camp; rather the war that He would execute.On the strength of a proposed hermeneutical grid for the interpretation of OT laws in the NT context, the dissertation links the pericope to some NT passages. One major link is to Paul’s letters to the Corinthians,where he discusses purity of the temple (2 Cor 6:14-7:1). Ultimately, the undergirding concepts find allusions in the apocalyptic camp (19:11-21:27), where the prophecy of God’s final war is given.The analyses confirm the hypothesis that the pericope is not only undergirded by many concepts (or disciplines) which can be integrated meaningfully,but also helps in providing a general framework for the study of OT passages.Overall, not only are the findings presented in this dissertation relevant to contemporary Christians as they look forward to the fulfilment of the ‘camp’promises,but the larger society of today can also derive some benefits from the recommendations it makes.