Page "Torah" Paragraph 12

Deuteronomy is often treated separately from Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus.

The process of its formation probably took several hundred years, from the 8th century to the 6th, and its authors have been variously identified as prophetic circles ( because the concerns of Deuteronomy mirror those of the prophets, especially Hosea ), Levitical priestly circles ( because it stresses the role of the Levites ), and wisdom and scribal circles ( because it esteems wisdom, and because the treaty-form in which it is written would be best known to scribes ).

According to the theory of the Deuteronomistic history proposed by Martin Noth and widely accepted, Deuteronomy was a product of the court of Josiah ( late 7th century ) before being used as the introduction to a comprehensive history of Israel written in the early part of the 6th century ; later still it was detached from the history and used to round off the Pentateuch.