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Mary Mills, The Origins of Deuteronomy 32: Intertextuality, Memory, Identity. By Tina Dykesteen Nilsen, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 70, Issue 2, October 2019, Pages 748–750, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flz124
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This monograph explores the Song of Moses, Deut. 32:1–43 under the title of its first word in Hebrew, translated as ‘Give Ear’. The text sits within the complex frame of the end of the book of Deuteronomy in a triple last unit that completes Deuteronomy as well as bridging into the Deuteronomistic Histories that follow. Scholarship has long debated the origins of this passage, which appears to be an independent unit inserted into existing text. Among scholarly views comes the note that there is a lexical crossover between the passage and Isaiah 40–55, suggesting to Nilsen that the song could belong to an Isaianic tradition even though it is not replicated directly in the book of Isaiah. Nilsen’s hypothesis concerning the who and when dimensions of the song’s origins stem from that possibility. In order to demonstrate that viability the book works logically from issues of linguistic usage to issues of period of origin. In each subsection Nilsen draws on existing theories, such as those of poetic devices, of intertextuality, and of social construction of cultural memory. Having defined these categories carefully in their own terms Nilsen shows how biblical scholars have made use of them, especially with regard to Deuteronomy and Isaiah.
