Deuteronomy

Biddle’s Deuteronomy is thoughtful and often pastorally stimulating, especially on covenant and Deuteronomy’s canonical significance, but it is uneven as a primary scholarly guide. As Longman notes, Biddle’s introduction creates a straw man on Mosaic authorship: he suggests conservatives treat any doubt that Moses wrote every word of the Pentateuch as irreverent or heretical, yet evangelical commentators such as Thompson, Craigie, Block, Arnold, and Merrill all allow some degree of post-Mosaic shaping while still preserving substantial Mosaic origin or authority. The volume also contains avoidable errors and inconsistencies: Biddle says observant Jews “twice daily donned” phylacteries at “morning and evening prayers,” but Thompson and Tigay note weekday morning use, not evening prayer; and on asherim he calls them “probably phallic fertility symbols” in one place but elsewhere “wooden carvings in the form of stylized trees, probably date palms,” with Thompson, Weinfeld, Nelson, Arnold, and Christensen supporting the latter view. His Decalogue-grid for chapters 12–26 is also often strained: McConville says it has only “some cogency” and is “not wholly convincing at every point,” and Biddle’s assignment of 14:1–21 to misuse of the divine name is a particularly weak example. The sidebar-heavy SHBC format can also drift from exposition into contemporary political discussion, so that application sometimes overtakes careful textual analysis. Best used for pastoral reflection, it is less reliable where its structural theories or applications outrun the evidence.

An in-depth study of Deuteronomy that includes some history of its interpretation in history and culture

Mark Biddle calls Deuteronomy "the lynchpin of the Old Testament canon" (p. 1), and I would argue that this commentary ought to be considered the new lynchpin of sources for those interested in the theological ramifications of Deuteronomy on a 21st century society. Biddle stays true to the spirit of the text, yet also points out how the text has often been abused. For example, in his discussion on the third commandment he comments, "Popular wisdom has a way of reading cultural values into sacred tradition." He then goes on to explain that the third commandment has nothing directly to do with our modern concept of profanity. The Smyth & Helwys series as a whole uses wonderful sidebars and rich visuals to deliver a holistic approach to commenting on the sacred texts.