On scroll-making in ancient Jerusalem

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Spring, 2003 by Walter Brueggemann

   Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in
   Accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded
   you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the
   left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This
   book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall
   meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to
   act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you
   shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful
   [Josh 1:7-8].

The phrase "Be strong and courageous" is a military phrase not unlike a coach's pep talk. But here the military phrase is claimed for Torah obedience. The only "weapon" needed for the taking of the land is the Torah of Deuteronomy. This is the first chapter of the long account of life in the land and voices a primal thesis concerning the cruciality of the Torah that is to dominate the entire account to follow. That is, Torah obedience is the single requirement for keeping the land; alternately it is, so goes the argument, the neglect of Torah that eventuated in the loss of land and the culminating deportation.

And second, in 2 Kings 22, near the end of this long account, it is reported that a scroll was unexpectedly found in the temple. In contemporary criticism, the historicity of the event narrated in 2 Kings 22 is treated skeptically. If it is historical, the narrative report presents Josiah as the royal embodiment of the passions of the scroll-makers. If on the other hand the narrative report is fictive, the role of Josiah is in any case offered as a didactic model. Either way, interest turns on the intention of the scroll-makers. The scroll was read to King Josiah. The scroll was so startling and demanding that this obedient king immediately instituted a great reform in an attempt to save the realm from the threats articulated in the scroll (see Deut 28). Almost all scholars believe that this scroll that motivated King Josiah to reform is some form of the Book of Deuteronomy, and so Josiah's great reform is referred to as the "Deuteronomic reform."

If we consider Joshua 1 at the beginning of the account and 2 Kings 22 at its end, this entire "history" of life in the land is framed by accent upon a Torah scroll and an insistence upon the defining conditionality for secure life in the land. In the second text, Josiah is presented as the perfectly good king who takes the Torah scroll seriously, and Joshua, at the outset, is taken to be a deliberate anticipation of Josiah. Taken together, Joshua and Josiah are offered as the two defining witnesses to an alternative reading of Israel's life, a subversive, scroll-based alternative to the posture and pretenses of the urban elite. Indeed, one could imagine that this account is as dangerous and threatening to established power in Jerusalem as were the "Pentagon papers" to established power in Washington D.C.

III

The other scroll to be considered is the Book of Jeremiah, commonly thought, in its final form, to be saturated with Deuteronomic ideology (Romer).