Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy (Gr. deuteronomion, the 'second' or 'repeated law'), the Greek name of the fifth book of the Pentateuch. It presents the third and latest phase of the development of the Mosaic legislation. Its great aim is to check the encroachments of idolatry, and to concentrate the national worship in the great sanctuary at Jerusalem, especially at the three annual festivals. It is instinct with the prophetic spirit, and lays stress on the great commandment to love and fear God with the whole heart as the sum of the whole law. According to Kuenen and Wellhausen it was composed in the reign of Josiah; other critics think it cannot be later than the reign of Manasseh. See BIBLE, PENTATEUCH.