X.II.

X.II.1.  In the 18th year of King Josiah (621 B.C) Deuteronomy was found and published.  In the account of the discovery, 2Kings xxii. xxiii., it is always called simply the book of the Torah; it was accordingly the first, and in its time the only book of the kind.  It is certainly the case that the prophets had written down some of their speeches before this, and the priests also may before this time have written down many of their precepts:  it appears in fact, as Vatke surmises, that we have a monument of their spirit, e.g., in the Sinaitic Book of the Covenant.  Deuteronomy presupposes earlier attempts of this kind, and borrows its materials largely from them; but on the other hand it is distinguished from them not only by its greater compass but also by its much higher claims.  It is written with the distinct intention not to remain a private memorandum, but to obtain public authority as a book.  The idea of making a definite formulated written Torah the law of the land, is the important point 1

************************************** 1.  Duhm, ap.  Cil. p. 201. **************************************

it was a first attempt and succeeded at the outset beyond expectation.  A reaction set in afterwards, it is true; but the Babylonian exile completed the triumph of the law.  Extraordinary excitement was at that time followed by the deepest depression (Amos viii. 11 seq.).  At such a time those who did not despair of the future clung anxiously to the religious acquisitions of the past.  These had been put in a book just in time in Deuteronomy, with a view to practical use in the civil and religious life of the people .  The book of the Torah did not perish in the general ruin, but remained in existence, and was the compass of those who were shaping their course for a new Israel.  How thoroughly determined they were to use it as their rule we see from the revision of the Hexateuch and of the historical books which was taken in hand during the exile.

With the appearance of the law came to an end the old freedom, not only in the sphere of worship, now restricted to Jerusalem, but in the sphere of the religious spirit as well.  There was now in existence an authority as objective as could be; and this was the death of prophecy.

For it was a necessary condition of prophecy that the tares should be at liberty to grow up beside the wheat.  The signs given in Deuteronomy to distinguish the true from the false prophet, are no doubt vague and unpractical:  still they show the tendency towards control and the introduction of uniformity; that is the great step which is new. 1