Summary: Moses recaps the events of the last three books in a speech to the Israelites. He then gives instructions on entering Canaan, among other things, publicly appoints Joshua as his successor, and climbs Mount Pisgah and dies.
Deuteronomy isn’t the first place where the worship of other gods came up as an issue (and it won’t be the last); it’s not really the first time that anything came up – the book is almost entirely Moses’ speech to the Israelites recounting the events of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. But back in Numbers 25, the subject of other gods came up when some of the Israelites began to worship Baal, a Canaanite fertility god. After Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, solved that problem and received the forgiveness of the LORD for the entire camp, God says “[Phinehas] and his descendants are permanently established as priests, because he did not tolerate any rivals to me…” [Num. 25:13] When I checked a different translation online, it lacked the word “rival,” (which I found disappointing, if only because I didn’t get to use my “Patrick Swayze and Zack Morris weren’t rivals for the affections of Kelly Kapowski” joke) so I figured that was the end of it.
But then I came to Deuteronomy 13. Here’s what Moses says in Deuteronomy 13 (I’m paraphrasing): First, it is possible that a prophet or an interpreter of dreams will promise a miracle or wonder, and then deliver upon that promise; it’s a test from God and you shouldn’t follow him. Secondly, if a family member of loved one worships a different god and encourages you to do the same, kill him. Thirdly, if some people in Israel begin to worship a different god and convince others to do the same, kill them, kill everyone in their town, kill their livestock, and burn down their town so it can never be rebuilt.
And it occurred to me: these are the words of someone who is scared. This is exactly how bullshit artists act when they’re questioned. First, they deny. The people living three thousand years ago didn’t know which god was right, so the prospect of another god sending a prophet was very real to them. And when their most cherished and important beliefs are questioned, they deny. “No,” they say. “He’s faking. He’s not real. He’s a test from our God! His being right is proof you shouldn’t believe him!” Religion doesn’t tolerate doubt or uncertainty, because they lead to questioning, and questioning requires logic, and logic and religion don’t mix.
But after the denial, there’s the anger. How dare anyone doubt? Where do these guys get off? So, kill them. But it’s not enough to be angry – you have to scare everyone around you into believing as you do. After all, there’s not going to be any real reason for them to believe in Yahweh over Baal or Zeus or whoever, so you have to scare them into it. You have to make sure they know that they will be punished so harshly that they can’t afford not to believe as you do.
The thing is, monotheism was not what people believed at the time. Moses was supposedly alive around 1300 BC or so. Judaism never became the dominant religion in the world, and Christianity didn’t move from “silly sect” to “legitimate religion” in the mind of the world until around 300 AD. And people would tend to see their gods in other societies, just with different names. In The Histories, Herodotus mentions that the Egyptians call Zeus by the name of Amun (2.42) and that the Ethiopians worship Zeus and Dionysus (2.29), though to them, the names would have been Amun and Osiris; different cultures see their gods in the gods of foreigners. So it would have been a natural thing for Israelites in Canaan to bring those Canaanite gods like Baal into their religion unless they were stopped.
And it would have been just as natural a thing for the priests to try to stop them. The Bible reads like preventing the Israelites from worshipping other gods was a goal, but maybe as an afterthought. In Exodus, when Moses led his people out of Egypt, God sent the plagues not to show that the other gods were not real, but that he was greater than them. And the existence of other gods isn’t explicitly denied until Deuteronomy 32 in Moses’ song.
So I can’t speak for what the people who wrote this book thought 3000 years ago, but I can say what it looks like to me. And to me, it looks like a con job.
Some other notes:
- Near the end of Deuteronomy 3, Moses says “Because of you people the Lord was angry with me…” (3:26) Yeah, Moses. It was their fault. They made you take credit for drawing water from a rock. Look, either blame God or blame yourself. Don’t blame people for being thirsty when they’re living in a damn desert, okay?
- “[God] does not show partiality and he does not accept bribes.” [10:17] I have to say, God seems pretty partial to the people of Israel (not to mention the reason Cain killed Abel back in Genesis was specifically because God showed partiality to him), and bribes to his priests are mandatory to appease him and avoid his holy wrath and stuff. So, not quite.
- 21:10-14 says it’s totally cool to rape women prisoners who were taken from the villages of defeated peoples in war. But – and just to be clear, there’s no free lunch, guys! – you do have to marry her. Later, she can leave if she wants to leave the guy who raped her and forced her to marry him, for whatever reason she might want to leave that prince. I mean, what does a guy have to do? Not only does he show her that she’s attractive by raping her, but he also shows her that she’s an important person by marrying her. Morality in the Bible: totally sweet.
- For anyone who travels back in time to Israel circa 1300 BC or so, a pretty good way to insult someone’s family is apparently to call them “the family of the man who had his sandal pulled off.” OH. SNAP.
