i--. J Journal of A Asia Adventist A Seminary S 10.1 2007 .n 1908-4862 JOURNAL OF ASIA ADVENTIST SEMINARY (ISSN 1908-4862) formerly Asia Adventist Seminary Studies (ISSN 0119-8432) Theological Seminary Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies Volume 10 ■ Number 1 • 2007 Editor: Gerald A. Klingbeil Associate Editor: Clinton Wahlen Book Review Editor: Mxolisi M. Sokupa Subscription Manager: Emmer Chacon Cover Design: James H. Park Copy Editor: Chantal J. Klingbeil EDITORIAL BOARD A. Cain's, E. Chacon, G. A. Klingbeil, J. Musvosvi, J. H. Park, M. M. Sokupa, C. Wahletz INTERNATIONAL REVIEW BOARD David W. Baker (Ashland Theological Seminary, USA) • Erich Baumgartner (Andrews Univer- ■ sity, USA) Peter van Bemmelen (Andrews University, USA) • Fernando L. Canale (Andrews University, USA) ■ JoAnn Davidson (Andrews University, USA) • Richard M. Davidson (An- drews University, USA) ■ Jon Dybdahl (Andrews University, USA) ■ Craig A. Evans (Acadia ■ ■ Divinity College, CANADA) Daniel E. Fleming (New York University, USA) I. H. Denis Fortin (Andrews University, USA) ■ Mary Getui (Kenyatta University, KENYA) ■ Frank M. Hasel (Bogenhofen Seminary, AUSTRIA) ■ Michael G. Hasel (Southern Adventist University, ■ USA) Daniel Heinz (Friedensau Theologische Hochschule, GERMANY) • Richard S. Hess (Denver Seminary, USA) ■ Othmar Keel (Fribourg University, SWITZERLAND) ■ Martin G. Klingbeil (Helderberg College, Sarni AFRICA) ■ lens Bruun Kofoed (Copenhagen Lutheran School of Theology, DENMARK) ■ Wagner Kuhn (Institute of World Mission, USA) ■ Carlos Martin (Southern Adventist University, USA) ■ John K. McVay (Walla Walla University, USA) Cynthia L. Miller (University of Wisconsin, USA) • Ekkehardt Muller (Biblical Research Insti- tute, USA) ■ Roberto Pereyra (UNASP, BRAZIL) ■ Gerhard Pfandl (Biblical Research Institute, ■ USA) Stanley E. Porter (McMaster Divinity College, CANADA) ■ Martin Probstle (Seminar Schloss Bogenhofen, AUSTRIA) ■ Nestor C. Rilloma (Northern Luzon Adventist College, PHILIPPINES) ■ Angel M. Rodriguez (Biblical Research Institute, USA) ■ Tom Shepherd (Union College, USA) ■ Kenton L. Sparks (Eastern University, USA) ■ Peter van der Veen (Universitat Mainz, GERMANY/Verlag Wort and Wissen, GERMANY) ■ J. Dudley Woodberry (Fuller Theo- logical Seminary, USA) • Randall W. Younker (Andrews University, USA) EDITORIAL STATEMENT The Journal of Asia Adventist Seminary (JAAS) is a biannual peer-refereed academic journal that publishes, in the context of a faith community, quality biblical-theological research, including studies in biblical theology, archaeology of the biblical world, systematic and historical theology, applied theology, and missiology. JAAS is indexed in Index Theologicus (Universitat Tubingen, GERMANY), International Review of Biblical Studies (Brill, NETHER- LANDS; Universitat Paderborn, GERMANY), Religious and Theological Abstracts, Old Testament Abstracts, New Testament Abstracts, BiBIL (Bibliographie biblique informatisee de Lausanne, SWITZERLAND), Bulletin de Bibliographie Biblique, and THEOLDI (Theological Literature Documented In Innsbruck, AUSTRIA). The ideas expressed in the articles, research notes, book reviews, and thesis and dissertation abstracts are the sole responsibility of the au- thors and do not necessarily represent the thinking of the Theological Seminary of the Ad- ventist International Institute of Advanced Studies. ISSN 1908-4862 Printed in the Philippines (0 Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (2007) Journal of Asia Adventist Seminary 10.1 (2007): 1-13 DEUTERONOMY AS DIDACTIC POETRY? A CRITIQUE OF D. L. CHRISTENSEN'S VIEW JASON S. DEROUCHIE, PH.D. Northwestern College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA For years, a minority voice has asserted that Deuteronomy is best characterized as didactic poetry rather than prose, falling on the more heightened side of the Hebrew Bible's continuum of elevated style. In contrast, through rigorous comparative statis- tical analysis, this study argues that Deuteronomy, while including instances of em- bedded poetry (e.g., chs. 32-33), is as a whole literary didactic prose. Specifically, the book's frequent employment of the waw + verb-first clause pattern, its tendency to precede a verb by no more than one constituent, and its high appropriation of prose particles all point toward a prosaic rather than poetic nature for the book Key Words: Deuteronomy, Hebrew language, genre, poetry, prose, mainline, syntax, word-order, prose particles, literary analysis, linguistic analysis 1. Introduction In his revised 2001-02 two-volume study on Deuteronomy for the Word Biblical Commentary series, Duane L. Christensen continues to proffer that Deuteronomy is poetry over prose—"a didactic poem, composed to be re- cited publicly to music in ancient Israel within a liturgical setting."1 While he affirms that the book is far from "the lyric poetry of the Psalter," he ob- serves that it is highly liturgical,2 bears an "epic style," and has "poetic fea- i Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1-21:9 (rev. ed.; WBC 6A; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001), lvii-lviii, bcxx-lxxxvii, quote from lxxxiv; see idem, Deuteronomy 21:10- 34:12 (rev. ed.; WBC 6B; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2002). For some of his earlier dis- cussions of the issue, see idem, "Prose and Poetry in the Bible: The Narrative Poetics of Deuteronomy 1,9-18," ZAW 97 (1985): 170-89; idem, "Form and Structure in Deuter- onomy 1-11," in Das Deuteronomium: Entstehung, Gestalt und Botschaft (ed. Norbert Lohfink; BETL 68; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1985), 135-44; idem, "The Nume- ruswechsel in Deuteronomy 12," in Proceedings from the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, division A: The Period of the Bible (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1986), 61-68; repr. in A Song of Power and the Power of Song: Essays on the Book of Deuter- onomy (ed. Duane L. Christensen; SBTS 3; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1993); idem, Deuteronomy 1-11 (WBC 6A; Dallas: Word, 1991), xli, lv-lxii. 2 Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1-21:9, boot, cites J. van Goudoever, who observes that Deuteronomy is "the most liturgical book of the Bible" ("The Liturgical Significance of the Date in Dt 1,3," in Das Deuteronomium: Entstehung, Gestalt und Botschaft [ed. Nor- bert Lohfink; BETL 68; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1985], 148). Compare von 2 Journal of Asia Adventist Seminary 10.1 (2007) tures such as inclusio, concentric framing devices, and inversion."3 The presence of such literary artistry causes Christensen to conclude that Deu- teronomy is poetry, landing on the more heightened side of what James Kugel has termed a "middle ground" on the Hebrew Bible's continuum of elevated style.4 While few scholars have affirmed Christensen's designation of Deuter- onomy as poetry, no study to date has provided a formal evaluation of his conclusions. This paper attempts to fill this gap, but the critique is posited principally through the lens of linguistic rather than literary features—a per- spective from which few in the field have approached the question. Tradi- tionally, in order to distinguish poetry from prose, scholars have sought to identify in a given text multiple "poetic" features like repetition, inclusio, parallelism as a structuring feature, and terseness/conciseness.3 Christen- sen's conclusions about Deuteronomy predominantly derive from this type of analysis. In contrast, a number of scholars like Kugel have legitimately shown how texts traditionally identified as prose regularly contain the same "poetic" indicators as those commonly designated as poetry. As such, Sue E. Gillingham has legitimately suggested that the distinction between prose and poetry is "more one of degree than kind."6 While affirming that there is a continuum of elevated style, I believe that a predominance of literary features like those mentioned above does at least help to mark certain texts as poetic. Indeed, my argument below will focus Rad's assertion that the arrangement of material in Deut 4-30 must be understood to be "following a traditional cultic pattern, probably that of the liturgy of a cultic festi- val". Cf. Gerhard von Rad, Deuteronomy (trans. D. Barton; OTL; Philadelphia: West- minster, 1966),12; German original: Das fiinfte Buch Mose: Deuteronomium (ATD 8; Got- tingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964). 3 Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1-21:9, lxxxiv. 4 Ibid. For comment regarding this "continuum" and the "middle ground" related to it, see James Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981; repr. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 59-95, esp. 85-87,94-95. 5 W. G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to Its Technique (JSOTSup 26; Shef- field: JSOT, 1984), 46-54, argues for at least nineteen different "indicators" of the po- etic genre, most of which are literary as opposed to linguistic. Broad indicators: pres- ence of established line forms, ellipsis (gapping), unusual vocabulary, conciseness (terseness), unusual word order, archaisms, use of meter, regularity and symmetry; structural indicators: parallelism, word pairs, chiastic patterns, envelope figure (inclu- sio), break-up of stereotyped phrases, repetition, gender-matched parallelism, tricolon, rhyme and other sound patterns, absence or rarity of prose elements. Significantly, all these elements are at times present in prose. 6 Sue E. Gillingham, The Poems and Psalms of the Hebrew Bible (The Oxford Bible Series; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 36. DERoucHIE: Deuteronomy as Didactic Poetry?