Blurb:

The proposal that Deuteronomy exhibits northern/Israelite ideology is evaluated and found to be inconclusive. Three suggested dating indicators thought to point to the initial composition of the scroll either soon after 722 BCE or during the reign of King Josiah are then assessed: the expansion of Jerusalem in the late eighth century BCE, the hypothetical dependence of small portions of Deuteronomy on Esarhaddon’s Succession Oath Documents, and the equation of the scroll of Torah purportedly found in the temple during repairs under Josiah with Deuteronomy (2 Kgs 22:8–10). The first and third are found to be inconclusive and the second erroneous. The religious worldview associated with Yhwh Elohim found in the book is argued to be a more reliable indicator of the book’s initial creation in either the Neo-Babylonian or early Persian period. Finally, options for the place of composition in Yehud or Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian period and in Yehud, Babylonia, or on Mt Gerizim in the early Achaemenid period are evaluated.