Deuteronomy as Mischgattung: A comparative and contrastive discourse analysis of Deuteronomy and ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions

The deuteronomic corpus comprises an intentional hybridization of discourse types incorporating a composite structure analogous to the Hittite subordination treaty in its interdiscourse relationships. Deuteronomy's synchronic form encapsulates this composite genre in parenetic and theologically significant language. While this composite is its central interdiscourse structure, it is framed by Mosaic parenesis and a theologized historiographic tradition which is carried forward by its final narratorial framing into the deuteronomic present. The project advances a discourse analytical methodology based on a Hallidayan hierarchical model as applied by Robert Longacre. This text-linguistic approach discerns ten unique discourse types within Deuteronomy, and establishes seven unique ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions covering all significant treaty texts from 2500-600 BC. These ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions are compared and contrasted with one-another in order to determine interdiscourse markers unique to each tradition. A further comparison and contrast of Deuteronomy with these texts and their observed traditions demonstrates a significant number of marked interdiscourse parallels, especially with the Hittite general tradition. As demonstrated early in the project through linguistic, onomastic, and archaeological means, the influence of Anatolian political culture is both feasible and probable in early Israel and her subsequent monarchy. Deuteronomy nonetheless expresses a significant transformation of these parallels on both formal and functional levels. The project concludes by applying its contributions to select contemporary perspectives related to its topic.