Chapter 7 A Priest in Exile Summary and Analysis

After King Josiah dies, Judah falls and the Judeans become exiles in Egypt, the first edition of Deuteronomy stops making sense. The family that was supposed to have the throne of Judah forever, guaranteed by God, no longer has the throne. The one central place for worship is burned to the ground. Somebody had to fix the text for it to reflect the new and disturbing reality. Freidman compares this problem to a modern hypothetical situation.

"Probably the nearest modern analogy would be if someone who admired the American President John Kennedy assembled a history of the United States from George Washington to Kennedy, constructing the story to climax in Kennedy's presidency as a culmination of things past and as the beginning of something new and hopeful. And then the president's early death...