Elmer A. Martens on Deuteronomy

Elmer A. Martens, ‘Accessing the Theological Readings of a Biblical Book’, Andrews University Seminary Studies 34:2 (1996), 233-49.

Taking up a suggestion from Gerhard F. Hasel of doing biblical theology via a book-by-book approach, Martens illustrates from Deuteronomy the theology-shaping factors pertinent to the form, Sitz im Leben, traditions, and literary features of the text.

Form-critical structure
Deuteronomy has been by some as structured along the lines of an international treaty, and so its theology is bound up with its character as a covenant document. But attention has also been given by others to the long speeches of Moses in the book, which suggests it may be a testament – which means that the calls for obedience are motivated not by the covenant so much as by the commands of a leader. Others have claimed the book is akin to a catechesis, which would mean that the legally-oriented materials (chs. 5-28) hold centre stage.

Of course, as Martens points out, form is only one of several components in discerning a book’s theology…

Sitz im Leben
There are three main proposals for the life-setting of Deuteronomy: (1) instruction by Moses to the generation on the verge of entering the promised land; (2) seventh-century Judah and the reform of the Jerusalem cult; (3) not long after the exile of the southern kingdom, redacted as part of the ‘Deuteronomistic history’ to show the inevitability of divine punishment on disobedience.

Traditions/redaction
This takes place in three stages, according to Martens: (1) identifying traditions (e.g., exodus, wilderness, Sinai, Decalogue, golden calf story); (2) investigating the ‘spin’ a tradition has in a text; (3) situating the tradition within the book (e.g., noticing the dominant emphasis of the Sinai tradition in Deuteronomy compared to the tradition about the centralisation of the cult).

Literary analysis
Unlike form criticism, which tends to focus on small units of text, literary analysis looks at the literary whole, including features such as characterisation, plot, repetition, patterning, metaphor, etc.

Given these several components, he offers a preliminary theological statement of Deuteronomy as follows:

‘Obedience to the expressed will of God is urged upon the people of God in view of God’s good intentions, the operating dynamic of love, his various grace-gifts (including Torah, land, and victory), the specificity of his expectations, and the warnings that emerge from the act-consequence nexus as illustrated in Israel’s checkered history. Further supporting theological nuances entail the authority (and also finitude) associated with the final words of a long-term, God-commissioned leader’ (233).

He also notes that the formulation of the theology of a biblical book will be affected by ‘factors residing in the theologian’ (233), dealing particularly with the role of imagination and creativity, prior views of biblical theology, and social location (233-37).