The Old Testament Is Dying by Brent A. Strawn

Author:Brent A. Strawn [A. Strawn, Brent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Old Testament Bible—Criticism | interpretation | etc., REL006090, REL006210
ISBN: 9781441244833
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

Deuteronomy as a Model of/for Second-Language Acquisition (SLA)

The problems besetting the language that is the Old Testament are both several and significant. And yet, in the specific cases laid out here, it has repeatedly been seen that the full language of the Old Testament redresses these very real, very large problems. It is appropriate, then, to turn to the language of the Old Testament itself for help in the quest to save it. Furthermore, it is high time to do so: most of the arguments thus far have been about the Bible; what can be said with it or from it and on the basis of it?

The linguistic side of language survival was considered in chapter 7. Among other things, that chapter discussed how children learn languages, the problem of second-language acquisition, and some strategies for teaching languages, whether a first (L1) or a second (L2), so that they are effectively acquired. In what follows, I wish to consider Deuteronomy as a model of and for second-language acquisition (SLA).

Deuteronomy is an excellent book to consider for several reasons, the first of which is its ubiquity. This is captured memorably by J. G. McConville, when he writes that wherever one goes in the Old Testament, “Deuteronomy is always somehow there.” It is, he continues, the “theological colossus that guards the entrance to Old Testament theology.”25 Deuteronomy’s import extends into the New Testament as well, where it takes its place alongside Psalms and Isaiah as one of the three most important Old Testament books for the New.26 If Deuteronomy is useful, then, as a model of language acquisition and thus language survival, its example may well carry significant weight and be broadly applicable, even beyond the confines of Deuteronomy proper.

Moreover, Deuteronomy is the book of teaching par excellence in the Old Testament. It repeatedly calls itself “Torah” (tôrâ) or sēper (ha-)tôrâ (book of the Torah) or is referred to as the same elsewhere in the Old Testament (see Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18–19; 27:3, 8, 26; 28:58, 61; 29:21, 29; 30:10; 31:9, 11–12, 24, 26; 32:46; Josh. 1:7–8; 8:31–32, 34; 22:5; 23:6; 24:26; 2 Kings 22:8, 11; 23:24–25; cf. Deut. 28:58; 29:20, 27; 31:24; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 10:31; 14:6; 17:13, 34, 37).27 Etymologically, the word “Torah” derives from the verb √yrh, “to throw,” and so carries with it connotations of that which is thrown (by a teacher) or, perhaps better, that which is caught (by a student), and therefore “Teaching” (NJPS) or “Instruction” (CEB) are valid translations; so also is “Law” (NRSV, NIV).28

Appealing to etymology is hardly definitive, sometimes even fallacious, but in this case its utility is confirmed by the content of Deuteronomy, which is everywhere about teaching.29 Moses will not accompany the Israelites into Canaan. What they will have, instead, is his teaching—enshrined and encapsulated in Deuteronomy itself—in the book and in the poem (see below), which is to be placed with the ark of the covenant (Deut. 31:26) to go with the people of God from thence forward.

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