In 596 before Christ the city of Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. The city was sacked and in keeping with Babylonian policy, a program of deportation into exile began, most of the elite of Judah were marched into captivity. In 586 before Christ, following an abortive attempt at revolution, another deportation occurred that all but obliterated the nation, also other peoples were brought in to resettle Judah. In the ancient world this policy normally meant the end of a nations life. In captivity the conquered people tended after a period of time to intermarry with their captors and lose their national identity. This is what eventually happened, these people intermarried with the few natives left in Judah and became known as the half-breed Samaritans. This is exactly what also happened when the people of the Northern kingdom of Israel were resettled after their defeat by Assyria some 130 years before. For Judah this moment was the supreme challenge. Everything she stood for, her worship, her God, her Law and even the values that resided at the moment only in the genes of her people where in jeopardy.
It was about twenty five years after the discovery of Law Book in the temple that the nation of Judah was defeated and destroyed by the Babylonians. Into captivity the people went, but they carried with them their growing sacred story. The Yahwist-Elohist document and the Deuteronomic document blended together with other religious traditions kept alive particularly by the priests. These traditions may also have been ancient in origin, but they have not yet been incorporated into Israel's growing sacred story. During the exile, however, this sacred story would undergo its final and most dramatic editing and revision under the impact of this Priestly material. Thus it would emerge in the post exile world more or less in the form that we have in our Bibles today. During the exile the priests of the Southern Kingdom also started revising and adapting the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy). We talk of these people as the Priestly writers. They where also responsible for committing to writing the bulk of Leviticus and for the completion of the Pentateuch and sections containing the Law.
the Yahwist writers believed that it was Yahweh himself that fetched Israel out of Egypt and placed them in Canaan, they believed they are Yahweh's chosen people. And further they believed that because they are Yahweh's chosen people, they are also his private possession and private property. It is therefore that they believed Yahweh has the right to be jealous about his property. This jealousy is evident in the Deuteronomy attitude towards the Baal religion. The Israelites was under strong pressure from Canaanite religions. The name of Baal cropped up in the names of their people and Baal characteristics were also attributed to Yahweh such as "Rider of the cloud's" Their struggle for independence was interpreted in Deuteronomy as a holy war for the conquest of Canaan, that is that it was an religious war. A holy war where Yahweh himself was the commander of Israelites armies and he battled against the gods of Canaan and that gods adherents. This is why in Deuteronomy it is so intent that every trace and symbol of the Baal religion should be banned and annihilated. It must be remembered that the very contamination of the Yahweh religion by Baal religious traditions was repugnant. For example, it was punishable by death to practice cultic transvestism, that is the religious ceremony during which women wore men's clothing. Deuteronomy 22:5. The breake with the Canaanites was to be radical.
More coming soon!