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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 18

1 The Levitical priests—indeed,⁠ the entire tribe of Levi—will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. 2 They will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; the Lord alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them. 3 This shall be the priests’ fair allotment from the people who offer sacrifices, whether bull or sheep—they must give to the priest the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. 4 You must give them the best of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, as well as the best of your wool when you shear your flocks.⁠ 5 For the Lord your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently. 6 Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, to the place the Lord chooses 7 and serves in the name of the Lord his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. 8 He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family’s inheritance. 9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. 10 There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire,⁠ anyone who practices divination,⁠ an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer,⁠ 11 one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer.⁠ 12 Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord, and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is about to drive them out from before you. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not given you permission to do such things. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you—from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him. 16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this great fire anymore lest we die.” 17 The Lord then said to me, “What they have said is good. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you⁠ for them from among their fellow Israelites.⁠ I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.⁠ 19 I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name. 20 “But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 21 Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’— 22 whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 18:10 and Wisdom of Solomon 12:4

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Deuteronomy lists child sacrifice, divination, and sorcery as among the worst practices that bring nations under judgment, language that Wisdom of Solomon repeats when it recounts the judgment and removal of the Canaanites from the land.

Passages

Deuteronomy 18:10

Hebrew Bible
8 He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family’s inheritance. 9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. 10 There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, 11 one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. 12 Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord, and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is about to drive them out from before you.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Wisdom of Solomon 12:4

Deuterocanon
2 Therefore you convict little by little those who fall from the right way, and, putting them in remembrance by the things in which they sin, you admonish them, that escaping from their wickedness they may believe in you, O Lord. 3 For truly the old inhabitants of your holy land, 4 hating them because they practiced detestable works of enchantments and unholy rites— 5 merciless slaughters of children and sacrificial banquets of men’s flesh and of blood— 6 allies in an impious fellowship, and murderers of their own helpless babes, it was your counsel to destroy by the hands of our fathers;
50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Wisdom of Solomon

References

"... By the time the reader arrives at “the works of the flesh” vice list (Galatians 5:19–21), there is little surprise to find overlap with the opponents. This is not to suggest that the opponents are guilty of the entire list but that several features of the list are precisely aimed at the opponents. The return to slavery under the στοιχεῖα which are “not gods” (Galatians 4:8-11) is a form of “idolatry” (Galatians 5:20). The opponents are making Paul an “enemy” of the Galatians (Galatians 4:16), causing “enmity” (Galatians 5:19). They “pay zealous court” to the Galatians for their own advantage (Galatians 4:17), embodying fleshy “jealousy” (Galatians 5:20). The “envy” of the opponents is displayed in their use of the evil eye (Galatians 3:1). Paul even includes “magic” among the “works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:20). The etiology for magical arts, and specifically φαρμακεία, is the rebellious descent of the Watchers found in 1 Enoch 7:1; 8:3. (See also Exodus 7:1; Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 9:22; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Isaiah 47:9, 12; Daniel 2:2; Micah 5:11; Nahum 3:4; Malachi 3:5) Although the Evil Eye (Galatians 3:1) is typically associated with “envy,” Paul may have also considered it a form of “magic” ... The noun “magic” φαρμακεία is rare in Second Temple literature, only twice in the New Testament (Galatians 5:20; Revelation 18:23), eight times in the LXX (Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:3, 14; Wisdom of Solomon 12:4; 18:13; Isaiah 47:9, 12) where it refers to sorcery somewhat broadly. In Philo and Josephus it is specifically associated with “poison” ..."
Tyler Allen Stewart, “‘The Present Evil Age’: The Origin and Persistence of Evil in Galatians” (diss., Marquette University, 2019), 235–236.

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Deuteronomy 18:10 and Wisdom of Solomon 12:4

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