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The JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy, by Jeffrey H. Tigay. Philadelphia/Jerusalem: The Jewish Publication Society, 1996. Pp. 1 + 548. $60.00.
The goal of Tigay's extensive critical commentary on Deuteronomy is determined by the program of the JPS Torah Commentary Series: to build on the venerable tradition of classical Jewish commentary by adding the insights and fruits of modern Jewish critical scholarship. The book comprises an introduction (pp. xi-xxxi: themes in Deuteronomy, issues of historical-critical scholarship, Deuteronomy in Jewish tradition), glossary and abbreviations (pp. xxxiii-xliii), maps (pp. xlv-1), text, commentary, and critical notes (pp. -413), and an extensive set of 33 excursuses with notes on wide-ranging topics from historical geography and vassal treaties to child sacrifice and cultic prostitution (pp. 41748). The volume is more than a handful, physically, and left-to-right readers must adjust their habits of book handling. The English-language translation, commentary, and notes are all subordinated to the right-to-left Hebrew original supplied, complete, throughout the commentary.
Biblical scholars will find that the commentary is conservative in historical orientation (e.g., excursus 6, p. 433, puts monotheism's origins at Moses' feet [in the train of Kaufmann and Albright]) and in historical-critical methodology (e.g., excursus 29, a lengthy explanation and defense of source criticism as a tool to understand literary repetition and disjunction in Deuteronomy 31). Deuteronomy is identified as the "book of the torah," catalyst of Josiah's reform, composed, at least in part, shortly before the reform of 622 BCE....