God and Gods in the Deuteronomistic History ed. by Corrine Carvalho and John L. Mclaughlin

Abstract

Reviewed by: God and Gods in the Deuteronomistic History ed. by Corrine Carvalho and John L. Mclaughlin Mark Lackowski corrine carvalho and john l. mclaughlin (eds.), God and Gods in the Deuteronomistic History (CBQI 2; Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2021). Pp xxiii + 277. Paper $39.99. This collection of essays came out of the Divinity in Ancient Israel Continuing Seminar at the annual meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association. Over a period of four years, the scholars who participated and published the essays in this volume examined the Deuteronomistic History (DH). Across the introduction and twelve different essays, attention is given to each book in the DH, providing a rich variety of texts to explore. Indeed, the literary diversity in the DH is reflected in its different portrayals of divinity, something even seen in the title of the book, which uses the words “God” and “Gods.” After an introduction [End Page 175] that provides a clear and concise overview of past and present scholarship on the DH and the central arguments of the different authors in the volume, the essays are organized canonically, followed by useful indexes of ancient sources, modern authors, and relevant subjects. The opening essay by Thomas B. Dozeman (“‘El, the Living’: Divinity and Holy War in the Book of Joshua,” pp. 1–29) uses diachronic exegesis to offer a synchronic reading of the final form(s) of Joshua, which he argues combined Deuteronomistic and Priestly themes to create a unique revelation of Israel’s God during the postexilic period. Dozeman shows how the controversial holy war stories in Joshua marked by “the ban” (ḥērem) are the combination of cultic features from Priestly texts and warlike features from Deuteronomistic texts into a unique revelation of “El, the Living” (Josh 3:10), who “demands ritualized genocide as the highest form of religious obedience in taking possession of the promised land” (p. 29). The essay by Corrine Carvalho (“Yhwh, Rahab, and Gibeonites: The Hybrid Other in the Book of Joshua,” pp. 30–48) challenges scholars who excuse the violent actions of Yhwh toward the Canaanites by appealing to the seemingly positive portrayals of Rahab and the Gibeonites. Rather than interpret Yhwh’s mercy toward Rahab and the Gibeonites as a divine characteristic that overcomes the merciless action of the ḥērem, Carvalho argues that it most likely reflects the postexilic author’s belief that faithful obedience by the colonized (e.g., Judahites) can result in positive treatment by the colonizer (e.g., Persians). Thus, she demonstrates how “the narrator cannot manage to tamper with the ideology of obedience to the colonizer” (p. 48). Mahri Leonard-Fleckman’s essay (“Binding Samson to Yhwh: From Disorder to Order in the Samson Cycle,” pp. 49–68) focuses on the compositional history of the Samson stories and argues how it is reflected in the complex social landscape of the Shephelah, where the stories are set. According to Leonard-Fleckman, the Samson stories are marked by blurred lines of identity, reminiscent of a preexilic reality where even the deities are not clearly delineated. However, with the addition of Samson’s death in the temple of Dagon, Deuteronomistic scribes made it clear that the “final act of terror against the Philistines and their god, with the questionable help of Yhwh, leaves the reader with the unmistakable impression that Samson belongs to Israel” (p. 65). Mark Smith (“Retrospective Deities in Judges: Memory and Amnesia about ‘Other Gods,’” pp. 69–103) uses the compositional history of Judges to highlight traces of a polytheistic past. According to the Deuteronomists, the Israelites who follow other Gods and disobey Yhwh are given into the hands of their enemies. Nevertheless, this happens repeatedly and with increasing severity from one tribe and judge to the next, reflecting a form of cultural amnesia by scribes describing cultic contexts and foreign Gods centuries after those represented in the text. The religious reforms of the Deuteronomists in Judah from the seventh century b.c.e. onward are superimposed then on an ancient Israelite past marked by cultic pluriformity and what Smith calls “retrospective deities.” Mark Enemali (“Divine Presence in the Ark of the Covenant in 1 Samuel 4:1b–7:1,” pp. 104...