Chapter 6 D Summary and Analysis

The contents of the law code presented in Deuteronomy gives clues as to the identity of the author. The first law is to worship in a central place. This brings the slaughter of animals other than fish or fowl from all over the land to the priests in the central place where they take ten percent of the sacrifices. Another important part of the law is to protect Levites. Levites also gain jurisdiction in legal matters.

Friedman, while referring to a paper that Baruch Halpern presented to the Harvard Near East Department in 1974, eliminates the possibility that a king had written Deuteronomy because the law restricts how much wealth the king can possess, among other restrictions that a king would not likely impose upon himself.

The evidence indicates that the author of Deuteronomy is a Levite of Shiloh. The...