Prophets, Idolatry, and Loyalty

In Hebrew Bibles this chapter begins one verse earlier: "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (English 12:32 = Hebrew 13:1).

"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass… saying, Let us go after other gods… Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet… for the LORD your God proveth you." That prophet is to be put to death.

"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly… Thou shalt not consent unto him… neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him." If a whole town is drawn away, after diligent inquiry it is to be destroyed and burned, "and it shall be an heap for ever."

An Assyrian loyalty oath

In 672 BC the Assyrian king Esarhaddon made his officials and vassals swear to support his son Ashurbanipal as heir. The oath required them to report anyone, "whether your brothers, your sons, your daughters," or a prophet, ecstatic or diviner, who spoke against the crown prince, and to seize and kill conspirators. A complete copy was found in 2009 in a temple at Tell Tayinat in southern Turkey; others came from Nimrud. Deuteronomy 13 shares the logic and some of the categories: prophets and dreamers, close family, and the duty to report rather than conceal.

Scholars disagree on what this means. Some argue that Deuteronomy 13 and 28 consciously adapt Assyrian treaty language, replacing the Assyrian king with Israel's God, in the 7th century BC. Others argue that the parallels reflect a wider tradition of loyalty oaths and curses found in Aramaic and other treaties, and that Deuteronomy is not a translation of any Assyrian text. The Esarhaddon treaty investigation sets out the evidence.

Later uses

In later centuries Deuteronomy 13 was cited in debates over heresy and religious coercion, by Jews, Christians and others. Rabbinic law surrounded the destroyed-town law with so many conditions that the Tosefta says such a town "never was and never will be" (Sanhedrin 14:1). These later readings are part of the history of interpretation; they do not change what the ancient text says.