The Discovery of the Deuteronomic Law

Abstract

In a series of communications made by Professor Edouard Naville, the well-known Egyptologist, in 1907, to the Society of the Theological Sciences in Geneva, and to the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London,' and in 1909 to the Academie des Inscriptions et Belle-Lettres in Paris,2 this scholar has proposed an original hypothesis concerning the origin of Deuteronomy and the discovery of the Book of the Law under Josiah. stakes placed by Professor Naville for the erection of this historical structure, or, to speak without figures, the fundamental arguments of his course of reasoning are as follows: i. point of departure of Professor Naville's whole argument consists essentially in the testimony of some Egyptian texts concerning the origin of The of the Heart from the Book of the Dead found under the statue of the god in the temple at Hermopolis. authority which the Book of the-Dead enjoyed in ancient Egypt is well known. This authority was equal to that of the law among the ancient Hebrews. Chapter of the Heart contains the words which the deceased was supposed to address to his heart at the judgment scene at the moment when he is about to be weighed in the balances. Concerning this chapter we read in various papyri the following statements :3