Deuteronomy and the Material Transmission of Tradition

By Mark Lester

Winner of the 2025 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise

Deuteronomy and the inscribed texts depicted within it are often called "books." Moreover, its treatment of writing has earned it a prominent place in historical accounts of the religion of ancient Israel and Judah. Neither Deuteronomy nor its text-artifacts, however, are books in any conventional sense of the term. This interdisciplinary study reorients the analysis of Deuteronomic textuality around the materiality, visuality, and rhetoric of ancient rather than modern media. It argues that the Deuteronomic composition adapts the media aesthetics of ancient treaty tablets and monumental inscriptions to a story that is itself transformed into an artifact of the past.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004691804
• ISBN13: 9789004691803
• Release Date: February 2024
• Publisher: Brill
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.4"