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RAYMOND F. PERSON, JR., The Deutewnomic School: History, Social Setting, and Literature (SBL Studies in Biblical Literature 2; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002). Pp. x + 175. Paper $29.95.
In summary, Person's basic claims in this book are the following: (1) There was a Deuteronomic school (P.'s "Deuteronomic" is essentially what most other scholars call "Deuteronomistic"). (2) The school was responsible for the production of works in various literary genres (e.g., for law, see Deuteronomy; for historiography, see Joshua-Kings; for prophecy, see Jeremiah and the likely redaction of Haggai and Zechariah). (3) The school existed for several generations and under substantially different historical circumstances. (4) It was probably formed in Babylon by exiled scribes who had previously worked for the monarchic bureaucracy, either at the palace or at the temple. (5) In exile in Babylon, the scribes of the school wrote the first version of the Deuteronomic History, partially on the basis of texts from the monarchic period that had been carried into exile by the scribes; this version is only the first of several, since the Deuteronomic school continued to redact that history well into the Achaemenid period. (6) The school returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel to provide theological and literary instruction as well as bureaucratic support for the reestablishment of the temple. (7) The Deuteronomic scholars, facing the sharp contrast between the post-Zerubbabel Yehudite reality and their previous hopes, became disillusioned and increasingly eschatological in their thinking; nevertheless, they opposed any kind of military action against the Achaemenid empire. (8) Ezra's mission and the "new law" that replaced the one existing in Yehud since Zerubbabel's days signaled the demise of the school, prompted by their alienation from the Persian regime.
Person initially advances this argument through discussions of redactional and text-critical matters as they apply in particular to the Deuteronomic History. he explains illustrative passages to show how they could have been read by the Deuteronomic school against different historical circumstances and to point out the different theological positions they support. In addition to his version of the history of the Deuteronomic school, P. advances proposals about its inner structure, which was strongly hierarchical; its sociopolitical contexts; and its interactions with the general society, including their social...