ABSTRACT
This volume advocates for a shift from a text-centered analysis of Deut 27–28 to an oral and performative-centered analysis, which opens the way for new connections to be discovered between Deuteronomy and other genres of literature beyond treaties. A ritual studies approach explores the symbolic world of oaths and treaties that invites comparison of Deuteronomy with a new set of comparative data: ritual texts. Elements shared by Deut 27–30 and Mesopotamian ritual texts include shared terminology for oaths and curses, curse themes and sequences, and legal and cosmological imagery. This book also includes an analysis of ritual instructions in two other well-known passages: the Law of Centralization (Deut 12), and the Shema (Deut 6). Ritual instructions in these two chapters disguise innovation with the use of traditional language and re-purposing and legitimating the use of ritual objects and ritual activity in everyday life.
