Deuteronomy’s Central Flow Theory in Practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT For the last two centuries, cultic centralization was considered the main theme in Deuteronomy. As long as the place chosen for Israel to meet was Jerusalem, the cultic centre was the temple renovated by King Josiah. The recent challenges of the validity of the Josianic hypothesis leave Deuteronomy centreless. To remediate this problem, Kåre Berge proposed either the Book of the Torah of Moses or the autonomous cities (“your gates”) as Deuteronomy’s centres. In light of Central Flow Theory, the alternative put forward here is that, as YHWH’s holy people Israel, is the centre around which the other people gravitate.