The elements of persuasion in the four orations of the "Book of Deuteronomy"

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Content THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION
IN THE FOUR ORATIONS
OF THE BOOK OF LEUTEEOHOÎsîy
A Thesis
Presented, to
the Faculty of the Department of Speech
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
by
Charles Elliott Weniger
August 1933
UMI Number: EP65985
All rights reserved
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DissaftMion
UMI EP65985
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
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cepted by the C ouncil on Graduate S tudy and
Research in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the require
m ents fo r the degree of
-.Secretary
Dean
F acu l^ Committee
C h a irm a n
To
DOCTOR W. NORWOOD BRICÆNCE
Waloash College
In appreciation of an idea
TABDE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PACE
INTRODUCTION .................................. vi
I. A BRIEF SmVEY OF THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION . . 1
The classical rhetoricians: Aristotle, Cicero,
Quintilian, Blair, Campbell, Whately .... 1
Some recent text-book writers ............... 15
The "social psychologists" .......... 18
Business men ........................ £1
II. DEUTERONOMY: HISTORY, INFDUENCE, AND CONTENT . . £6
Chronological comparison with Creek oratory . S6
The immediate historical backgrounds of
Deuteronomy ...........................05
The influence of Deuteronomy.................. 43
Structure and content of the orations of
Deuteronomy .................. ...... 49
First oration.................................51
Second oration .................. ...... 54
Third oration................................ 57
Fourth oration.................................59
III. ANADYSIS OF THE EIEMENTS OF PERSUASION IN
DEUTERONOMY , . -.... 62
Ethical appeal .............................. 63
Emotional appeal ............................ 73
CHAPTER
IV.
Logical appeal .................. ....
Some devices for reenforcing appeal . . . .
THE UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION OF HEBREW RHETORIC TO
THE PERSUASIVE APPEAL OF DEUTERONO&IY . . .
Rhythm.............................. .
Analytical nature of the language . . .
Concreteness of the vocabulary ........
Discrimination in the choice of synonyms
Use of the idiom of the "ethical dative"
V. SUMmRY, WITH CONCLUS IONS..............
BIBLIOGRAPHY .....................
Deuteronomy; critical, exegetical, and historical
Theory and practice of persuasion ..............
V
PACE
83
90
100
101
HE
113
115
118
lEO
1E5
1E5
1E9
INTRODUCTION
Although modern culture is largely classical in its
forebears, it will not be denied that many phases of this
culture can be traced to Hebraic influences. This fact is
especially true of English culture. Baldwin, in summing up
our modern cultural debt, says ;
We have at last come to understand that modern culture
both artistic and ethical, goes back to Athens and to
Jerusalem, but that English culture owes far more to the
Hebrew than to the Creek. By clearly revealing the con
tributions made to our intellectual and moral life by the
leaders of Israelitish thought, modern scholars have
shown that we are what we are, not only morally but
intellectually, as a result of the influence of Moses,
David, Solomon, Isaiah, of Paul, and of Jesus, rather
than as a result of the influence of Homer, Hesiod,
Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle
If the Creeks, endowed with a highly artistic sense,
taught the world a knowledge of beauty; if the Romans, with
a genius for law and administration, taught the world the
rudiments of the science of government; perhaps it was the
mission of the Hebrews, equipped with "a genius for religion,"
as Baldwin phrases it, "an inherent faculty, that is, for
recognizing, understanding, and expressing the life of Cod in
S
the soul of man," to teach the world a knowledge of religion.
It is not the purpose of this study to defend or explain
^Edward Chauncey Baldwin, Our Modern Debt to Israel
(Boston: Sherman, French & Company, 1910), p. 6.
^Ibid., p. 8.
vil
these statements, but rather, from the point of view expressed
by them, to take for its field the product of Hebraic literary
culture known as the Book of Deuteronomy, and to show by way
of analysis the persuasive appeal of the oratory of the book.
To the casual reader the Book of Deuteronomy, as pre
sented in the King James Version of the English Bible or in
any other of the versions commonly used, appears to be little
more than a hodgepodge of laws and ordinances, of history
and exhortation, put together in such a manner that its
unity is barely discernible.
To the more thoughtful student who undertakes the study
of the book as presented in a literary form such as that
employed by Dr. Moulton in his Modern Reader^s Bible, Deu
teronomy becomes a series of magnificent orations unified
in a unique fashion and characterized by certain distinctions
that set them apart from all other cycles of oratory.
Numerous students of the book have used almostt super
lative terms in expressing their recognition of the high
quality of the Deuteronomic oratory. Moulton speaks of "the
splendor of the oratory in itself," and says :
The "rush of speech"which belongs to oratory is in this
book seen in its perfection; yet is always held in perfect
command. The speaker will begin in the simple style of
^Richard C. Moulton, The Modern Reader's Bible (New
York: The Macmillan Company, 19191, p. 1369.
viil
historié survey, entirely free from the straining after
effect which makes a speech all peroration. But when the
feeling rises— when Moses tells of all the way the Lord
has led the people in the wilderness, or depicts the
bright prosperity of life in the good land, or contrasts
with recurrent rebellions the simple requirements of ser
vice and love-“the musical poise of sentences lays hold
of the reader. As the motion of a vessel in a long voy
age continues itself in the traveller's brain after he
has landed, so no one can read Deuteronomy through with
out the swing of its sentences being felt even when there
are no words to fill them out. And when the orator^s
passion rises to a climax, we have a breathless torrent
of woes sustained to a length without precedent in the
literature of denunciation.^
In his further discussion of the cycle of Deuteronomic ora
tions and the interest which, in his opinion, separates it
from every other collection of speeches, Moulton character
izes the orator as "a spiritual conception which tasks the
imagination to take in,and adds :
Moses as a lonely leader, yearning to impart himself to
a commonplace people yet in the bonds of sense and fear—
here is a human interest such as belongs to none other
of the world's great orators.®
To Moulton "The orations of Deuteronomy are as noble models
as the orations of Oicero.
Sears, in his History of Oratory, esteems the "prose
orations" of Moses "as literary compositions. ... of similar
, p. 1370.
^Ibid., p. 1370,
hbia. , p. 1371.
. , p. X.
IX
o
excellenoe" to the poetry of the great poet-prophet•
Baldwin, in his Types of Literature in the Old Testa
ment . says of Deuteronomy :
It is really a prophetic oration, or series of orations,
attributed to Moses, and dealing with laws designed to
regulate the common life of^eople. It is a people^s law
book in distinction from L^iticus, which is a priests’
law book. It does not deal with the ritual, nor with the
sacrificial ceremonies, nor with any of the priestly of
fices about which the Book of Leviticus is so explicit
and detailed........The style throughout is oratorical
rather than legal. , . .9
Schenck, in his Oratory and Poetry of the Bible, sums
up the views of many as follows: ,
The form of it fDeuteronomy1 is that of oratory. One of
the greatest men in the world’s history, at the close of
his life, makes a series of orations with the lofty pur
pose of persuading a nation to elect God as their king.
Very few orators are great enough to be compared with
Moses; very few orations compare with these in lofty elo
quence; each oration leads to the next, the pause of
silence and reflection between adds to the impression,
and there is the steady progression to the climax of the
final oration; Moses marshals facts, arguments and ap
peals with marvelous p o w e r .10
To the student of the theory of persuasion it must ap
pear from the above quotations that the oratory of Deuteronomy
has a unique appeal. The fundamental persuasive tone of the
Lorenzo Sears, The History of Oratory from the Age of
Pericles to the Present Time (Chicago ' 0 . Griggs and Com
pany, 1896T, p. 28.
^Edward Chauncey Baldwin, Types of Literature in the
Old Testament (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1929T7 P* 211
lOperdinand S. Schenck, The Oratory and Poetry of the
Bible (New York: George H. Doran Company, 01915), p. 22.
X
book in general has been recognized by critical students.
Orr characterizes the orations of the book as "hortatory dis
courses."^^ Bleek recognises the aim of the orator of Deuter
onomy as "cQSontially hortatory, with a view to his euntempoi'-
aries, and with reference to the circumstances and exigencies
12
of his own time." Moulton emphasizes the presence of duties,
motives, threats, promises, appeals— the instruments of per
suasion— as occupying a prominent place in these orations^^
and characterizes the third oration as "the masterpiece of all
literature for the rhetoric of denunciation."^^ Noyes says
that the authors of Deuteronomy "aim to state the Law in such
terms as shall command the people’s eager acquiescence. To
this end, the mere statute is amplified into a plea; to this
end also the facts of history serve as argument.’ ’1^ In
Peuteronomy, says he:
.... statutes and ordinances are set forth in the form
of direct address, supplemented by urgent petition.
James Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament (New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907T, p. 248.
n o
Friedrich Bleek and Adolph Kamphausen, ^ Introduc
tion to the Old Testament (London: George Bell and Sons,
1894), I, 322.
^^Richard G. Moulton, pp.. cit.. p. 1370.
^^Richard G. Moulton, The Modern Study of Literature
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press'^ ^915) , p. 47.
^^Oarleton Noyes, The Genius of Israel (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1929), p. 303.
Xi
statement expands into exhortation. The stark majesty of
legal formula is made to burn with the fervor of prophétie
eloquence.
The general persuasive appeal of Deuteronomy is clear
ly stated by Jordan:
It is a broad appeal to the nation, as a whole,, to bring
its sacred services and general conduct into harmony with
the divine requirements, and so become "a holy nation."
These laws are therefore presented in a persuasive form,
with motives and reasons from life and history.
Kent recognizes the uniqueness of the appeal of Deu
teronomy in these words:
The book of Deuteronomy is unique among the law-books of
antiquity. In it the work of the priests and prophets
blend, although its point of view from beginning to end
is more prophetic than legal. Not only is it introduced
by earnest prophetic exhortations, but frequent warnings
and exhortations are found in connection with the indi
vidual laws......... The authors of these laws evidently
aimed to appeal to the conscience of the people and to
provide definite regulations to guide the conduct of the
ordinary citizen rather than the actions of the judges
in the public tribunal.
But, however replete with a general recognition of the
persuasive appeal of Deuteronomy the above statements may be,
it is evident that none of the critics cited suggest a detailed
and exact treatment of the elements of persuasion found in
the book or a critical evaluation of these elements. It is
^^Oarleton Noyes, loo. cit.
W. G. Jordan, Commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1911), p. 13. '
18
Charles Foster Kent, The Kings and Prophets of
Israel and Judah (New York: CT Bcribner’s Sons, 1909T7 p. 217.
x i i
the purpose of this thesis to present a study of the orator
ical portions of Deuteronomy in an endeavor to define the
methods employed by the orator to effect belief and produce
action in the lives of his hearers.
As a basis for the study it is necessary first to give
a brief, but fairly comprehensive, survey of the elements of
persuasive theory. Next, some attention must be given to the
Book of Deuteronomy itself: its chronological setting in the
history of oratory, the immediate historic backgrounds of its
reception among the Jews, the subject matter of the cycle,
and the influence of the book upon its own age and upon modern
civilization. Chapters I and II, respectively, provide these
materials, while Chapters III and IV present a somewhat
detailed analysis of certain elements of persuasion found in
the four orations. Chapter V is a summary, with conclusions.
CHAPTER I
A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION
Before proceeding to an analysis of the elements of
persuasion found in the Book of Deuteronomy, it is necessary
to formulate the basic criteria for the study. This chapter,
therefore, presents a brief survey of the contributions to
the theory of persuasion made by the classical rhetoricians
of the ancient and modern schools, Aristotle, Cicero, and
Quintilian, and Blair, Campbell, and Whately; by the more
recent text-book writers; and by the contemporary schools of
"social psychology" and modern business., Choice is made of
those writers that seem to have particular bearing on the
problem.
The Classical Rhetoricians
Aristotle
The starting-point for this analysis must necessarily
be Aristotle’s Rhetoric : therefore a more extended resume of
his contribution will be made than of the contributions of
his successors. Since the Rhetoric was the first systematic
study of the art of the orator, it is basic to an adequate
treatment of the theories of persuasion. Aristotle wrote
this work to express his belief that his predecessors had
neglected the argumentative element in oratory and had
a
bestowed undue attention on the use of extraneous matter
calculated merely to produce emotion in the hearers. His
definition of rh’ etoric is comprehensive : "Rhetoric ....
may be defined as the faculty of discovering the possible
means of persuasion in reference to any subject whatsoever."^
The successful rhetorician is the one who employs all these
possible means to induce belief in his hearers; as Fuller says:
.The rhetorical artist is one who has the power so to im
press his own personality upon his audience, so to stir
their emotions, and so to manipulate his language that
whatever he says will seem credible to them and win
their assent.^
According to Aristotle, persuasion is effected by
three means: (l) the ethical appeal, which is derived from
the speaker’s moral character, (E) the emotional appeal, the
object of which is to put the hearer into a,certain frame of
mind, and (3) the logical appeal, which is contained in the
speech itself and consists in the demonstration of proposi
tions.^ Therefore the orator must be a judge of virtue and
character, must know the emotions, and must have the power
of reasoning.
Aristotle places emphasis on the matter of logical
^John Henry Freese, Aristotle {New York: G. P. Put
nam’s Sons, 19E6), p. 15.
E
B. A. G. Fuller, History of Greek Philosophy: Aris
totle (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 01931), p. E94.
^John Henry Freese, pp,. cit. , p. xxxii.
3
proof, basing his study on dialectic. Logical proof deals in
deductions, with emphasis on the enthymeme, and inductions,
with emphasis on examples. The orator must know the rules of
argument, and must be able to answer objections and to refute
the attacks of his opponents. But while reasoning is impor
tant , oratory must go beyond mere logic. The persuasive
orator must deal in suggestive examples rather than in true
inductions, in probable consequences rather than in hard and
fast syllogisms. It is here that he must know his subject,
his audience, and the appeals that may be made to them. Con
sequently, Aristotle gives much attention to the psychology
of persuasion.
The primary appeal of the speech is that of the speak
er’s personality. He must be a man of common sense, of good
moral character, of good will; and must by his manner of
speaking and treatment of theme create a favorable impression
of himself, convincing his audience of his own trustworthiness,
practical wisdom, virtue, and good will. On this point
Freese quotes Aristotle:
It makes a great difference with regard to producing con
viction— especially in demonstrative, and, next to this,
in forensic oratory--that the speaker should show himself
to be possessed of certain qualities and that his hear
ers should think that he is disposed in a certain way
towards them; and further, that they themselves should be
disposed in a certain way towards him.^
^IMd. , p. 169.
4
He must also know his hearers. This confidence in his own
native worth and in the essential hnmanity of his audience
constitutes the ethical appeal. However, such appeal may be
extended to upholding the character portrayed as the subject
of the speech.
The orator must know his hearers in order to move their
feelings. He must know their ultimate desires and understand
their reactions to various stimuli. He must recognize that
happiness is the aim of all men, and therefore the subject of
all exhortation and dissuasion. Aristotle analyzes happiness
into its component parts of noble birth, friends, wealth,
children, honorable old age, health, beauty, strength,
stature, athletic prowess, reputation, good fortune, virtue.
In order to accomplish his end, the orator must be able to
stir or assuage anger, to instil friendliness or hatred, to
work on his hearers’ fears or inspire confidence, to make
them ashamed or shameless, to appeal to their sense of pity,
to excite envy or emulation, etc. Aristotle catalogues and
defines the emotions to which oratory appeals. In brief, he
says :
The emotions are all those affections which cause men to
change their opinion in regard to their judgments, and
ai’ e accompanied by pleasure and pain; such are anger,
pity, fear, and all similar emotions and their contra
ries.^
^Ibia.. p. 173.
s . "
But Aristotle wants the orator to be sure that the emotions
must be played on aooording to a sound knowledge of psychol
ogy. As Ross explains,
He [Aristotle] himself recognizes the part played by
the appeal to emotion, but insists that the emotion must
be produced by the speech itself and not by the cheap
adventitious devices common in the Greek law-courts.b
But even in the use of the ethical and emotional appeal
Aristotle would assure the orator that he must rely upon the
basic principles of logic. Examples, syllogisms, and maxims
move all men. Examples may be drawn from the past or invent
ed: parallels from history are better for political effect;
parables are better for popular orations. Maxims are like
the premises of a syllogism; their application to the situa
tion in question is like the conclusion. They must be uni
versally true and teach a moral lesson. The orator who
chooses or devises maxims that express common beliefs gets a
reputation for being a man of good moral character and conse
quently makes a good ethical appeal.
In brief, Aristotle believed that logic is supreme in
effecting persuasion, that ethical appeal is a strong factor,
and that while appeals to the emotions are necessary, they
are but accessory and should grow out of the subject-matter
of the speech. Truth is the goal, not how we feel about truth.
^W, D. Ross, Aristotle (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd.,
1923), p. 270.
Cicero
Cicero in his De Oratore and his Brutus maintains that
"it is the business of an orator to speak in a manner adapted
7
to persuade." He accepts Aristotle’s three classic methods
of effecting persuasion and repeats them over and over. In
one instance he makes Antonius say:
When, after hearing and understanding the nature of a
cause, I proceed to examine the subject-matter of it, I
settle nothing until I have ascertained to what point my
whole speech, bearing immediately on the question and
case, must be directed. I then very diligently consider
two other points: the one, how to recommend myself, or
those for whom I plead; the other, how to sway the minds
of those before whom I speak to that which I desire.
Thus the whole business of speaking rests upon three
things for success in persuasion: that we prove what we
maintain to be true ; that we conciliate those who hear;
that we produce in their minds whatever feelings our
cause may require.®
While Cicero grants the place of logical argument in effect
ing persuasion, he nevertheless places emphasis upon the
emotional and ethical appeals, a shift of stress which has
persisted ever since. He maintains that men make more deter
minations through appeals to their emotions than from regard
for truth or principles of right,^ and insists that the
speaker must cultivate the ability to feel sincerely what he
7
Cicero, On Oratory and Orators {New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1890), p. 40; cf. pp. 80, 277.
^Ibid., p. 114.
hbid. ■ pp. 131-132.
10
desires his hearers to feel. In fact, says he:
.... the highest power of an orator consists in excit
ing the minds of men to anger, or to hatred, or to grief,
or in recalling them from these more violent emotions to
gentleness and eompassion.^^
Perhaps Cicero’s most important contribution to the
theory of persuasion is his emphasis upon the ethical appeal,
specifically upon the moral worth and previous life integ
rity of the speaker. In the opinion of Cicero, the speaker
must above all things, be a "good man." Book II, chapter
XLIII, of his Be Oratore is a succinct statement of this
teaching; the following quotation is to the point:
It contributes much to success in speaking that the
morals, principles, conduct, and lives of those who plead
causes, and of those for whom they plead, should be such
as to merit esteem, and that those of their adversaries
should be such as to deserve censure; and also that the
minds of those before whom the cause is pleaded should be
moved as much as possible to a favorable feeling, as well
toward the speaker as toward him for whom he speaks. The
feelings of the hearers are conciliated by a person’s
dignity, by his actions, by the character of his life;
particulars which can more easily be adorned by elo
quence if they really exist, than be invented if they
have no existence. But the qualities that attract favor
to the orator are a soft tone of voice, a countenance
expressive of modesty, a mild manner of speaking; so that
if he attacks anyone with severity, he may seem to do so
unwillingly and from compulsion. It is of peculiar ad
vantage that indications of good-nature, of liberality,
of gentleness, of piety, of grateful feelings, free from
selfishness and avarice, should appear in him; and every
thing that characterizes men of probity and humility,
not acrimonious, nor pertinacious, nor litigious, nor
lOlbid., p. 137.
. p. 19.
8
harsh, very much conciliates benevolence, and alienates
the affections from those in whom such qualities are not
apparent.
To Cicero style and manner, both in composition and
delivery, are of equal importance with content in arousing
the emotions, gaining confidence in the speaker, and thus
effecting persuasion.
Quintilian
In his Institutes of Oratory, Quintilian embellishes
both Aristotle and Cicero, but seems to treat oratory more as
it actually occurs in human experience. Perhaps he is more
social in his outlook than Aristotle. To him, "oratory is
the art of spealcing well, and it is only the good man who
can speak well. Therefore, although he recognizes the place
of formal logic in persuasion, his most important contribution
to the field is his emphasis upon the ability and high moral
character of the speaker. He says: "Let the orator, then,
whom I propose to form, be such a one as is characterized by
the definition of Marcus Cato, & good man skilled in speak-
14
ing." This orator must maintain a high moral character,
must have a knowledge of civil law, must have a fund of
. pp. 132-183.
12
Quintilian. Institutes of Oratory (London: George
Bell and Sons, 1887), 1, 147.
. p. 391.
9
ancient and modern examples available, and must have great
firmness and presence of mind. Of these qualities, the last
he considers of greatest importance:
But the most important of all qualities is steady presence
of mind, whiceh fear cannot shake or clamour intimidate,
nor the authority of an audience restrain beyond the just
portion of respect that is due them; for though faults
of an opposite nature, those of presumption, temerity,
audacity, and arrogance, are in the highest degree offen
sive, yet without proper firmness, confidence, and cour
age, neither art, nor study, nor knowledge would be of
the least avail, any more than weapons put into the hands
of weakness and timidity.
Quintilian also adds emphasis to t f c i e appeal to the
feelings as a primary need; he considers methods of appealing
to the feelings especially in the exordium and in the perora
tion but grants their need throughout the speech. The orator
must first be impressed by the material with which he intends
to impress others, must first be touched before he begins to
touch others. This demands that he be able to employ mental
imagery and to visualize in his own mind the situation that
he intends to portray to others.
Quintilian adds nothing essentially new to the theory
of persuasion; he is rather a skillful compiler of text-book
material available for his age, maintaining Cicero’s shift
of emphasis upon ethical and emotional appeal.
ISibia.. pp. 414-415.
10
Blair
Volume II of Blair’s Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles
Lettres deals largely with the subject of persuasion. In
discussing the best means of attaining success in public
speaking, he says :
.... the most essential requisites are, solid argument,
clear method, a character of probity appearing in the
speaker, joined with such graces of style and.utterance,
as shall draw our attention to what he says.-^®
Blair draws a sharp distinction between conviction and
persuasion, maintaining that conviction affects the under
standing only, and persuasion, the will and practice. Con
viction precedes persuasion and is a necessary foundation for
stable persuasion. He therefore considers the conviction of
the understanding of primary value in speaking to popular
audiences; this remark of his is; significant and typical of
his attitude: "Even the common people are better judges of
17
argument and good sense than we sometimes think them."
But, while emphasizing the basic need of sound argu
ment , he grants the place of the emotional and ethical ap
peals :
But, in order to persuade, the orator must go farther
than merely producing conviction; he must consider man
^^Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
(London: V/. Sharpe and Son, 1820), II, 161.
■ p. 215.
11
as a creature moved by many different springs, and must
act upon them all. He must address himself to the pas
sions; he must paint to the fancy, and touch the heart;
and hence, besides solid argument and clear method, all
the conciliating and interesting arts, both of composi-
tion and pronimciation, enter into the idea of eloquence*^
For, consider first. Whether any thing contributes more
to persuasion, than the opinion which we entertain of
the probity, disinterestedness, candour, and other good
moral qualities of the person who endeavours to per
suade? These give weight and force to everything which
he utters ; nay, they add a beauty to it; they dispose us
to listen with attention and pleasure ; and create a secret
partiality in favour of that side which he espouses.^9
The speaker must display virtue, knowledge, application and
industry ; must give attention to models; and must constantly
practice composing and speaking.
Blair thus summarizes his own theory of persuasion:
The sum of what has been said,is this: The end of popu
lar speaking is persuasion; and this must be founded on
conviction. Argument and reasoning must be the basis, if
we would be speakers of business, and not mere declaim-
ers. We should be engaged in earnest on the side which
we espouse; and utter, as much as possible, our own and
not counterfeited sentiments. The premeditation should
be of things, rather than of words. Clear order and
method should be studied : the manner and expression
warm and animated; though still, in the midst of that
vehemence, which may at times be suitable carried under
the proper restraints with regard to the audience, and
to the decorum of character,.ought to lay on every speak
er: the style free and easy; strong and descriptive,
rather than diffuse; and the delivery determined and
firm. To conclude this head, let every orator remember,
that the impression made by fine and artful speaking
is momentary; that made by argument and good sense, is
solid and lasting.^^
p. 162.
. p. 427.
^°Ibld.. pp. 229-230.
I E
Campbell
Campbell devotes ten chapters of Book I of his Philos
ophy of Rhetoric to a consideration of persuasion. In order
to influence the will and persuade to a certain conduct there
must be "an artful mixture of that which proposes to convince
El
the judgment, and that which interests the passions." His
conception of persuasion includes conviction, but conviction
is a separate process in the totality of persuasion. His
scheme demands an incorporation of the argumentative and the
pathetic. The rules of logic are an essential part of the
art, but reasoning is made effective by exciting the passions,
and the passions are enforced by the reason; persuasion be
comes a combination of the assent of the understanding and
22
the consent of the will. The speaker must know men in
general as endowed with understanding, imagination, memory,
and passions, each of which must be appealed to in order to
effect persuasion. The passions, with which Campbell classes
the cardinal virtues, serve as motives to action and give
impulse to the will. Moving the passions is conditioned on
probability, plausibility, importance, proximity of time,
connection of place, relation to persons concerned, and
2l
George Campbell, The Philosophy of Hhetoric {London:
William Baynes and Son, 18Ê3), p. 26,
■ p. 28.
13
interest in the conseguenoes. Passions cnee raised may be
kept alive and augmented by auxiliary passions, suoh as
justice, glory, public utility, etc.; unfavorable passions
may be calmed by annihilating the objects which raised them
or by exciting contrary passions. The speaker must also con
sider his audience as men in particular; _e., he must per
ceive the character of the given audience.
Campbell also gives attention to ethical appeal. The
speaker must consider himself as he is known to his hearers*
They must sympathise with him as a speaker; as he says: "Sym
pathy [of the hearers for the speakej is one main engine by
v/hich the orator operates on the passions." "Whatever . *
. . lessens sympathy, must also impair b e l i e f . Among the
conditions that lessen sympathy are low opinion of the speak
er’s intellect and bad opinion of his morals--of the two
Campbell considers the second the more serious. He recurs to
Cato’s definition of the orator in his evaluation of the true
orator :
In order to be a successful orator, one must be a good
man; for to be good is the only sure way of being es
teemed good, and to be esteemed good is previously neces
sary to one’s being heard with due attention and regard.
23lbid.. p. 118.
24-
Ibid., pp. 113-114.
^Ibid., p. 119.
14
Whatel.Y
Whately’s Elements of Rhetorio confines itself large
ly to argumentation, follows Aristotle in making logical
proof the primary need in persuasion, and bases much of his
discussion upon Campbell, whom he freely quotes. He follows
eighteenth century philosophy in placing reason and the will
in two separate compartments. In order to influence the
will, there must first be an appeal to the understanding.^^
Then two things are necessary: the object must appear desir
able, and the means suggested must be proved conducive to
attaining the object. Persuasion therefore adds to argument
such exhortation (note the pulpit attitude reflected in the
word) as shall excite men to adopt the suggested means for
reaching the end.
In exciting the passions--or active principles of our
nature— such as the body appetites, desires, affections,
self-love, conscience, etc., Whately finds several rules of
value: the appeal should be covert, so that the hearer may
not fortify himself against the feeling, or be chagrined at a
sense of his need of the feeling; the details of the appeal
must be sufficiently extensive to allow the imagination to
aid the intellect; indirect description of circumstances--as
^^Richard Whately, Elements of Rhetoric (Boston:
J. Munroe and Company, 185ST, P• 209.
15
of results— may be more effective than delineation of de
tails comparison excites emotion;^^ the feelings may be
diverted to some object which easily produces emotion and
then turned to the subject in q.uestion*
Whately also observes that the disposition of the
audience toward the hearer affects the reception of ideas.
This disposition is conditioned on the usual phases of ethical
appeal. His discussion of ethical appeal is in terms of the
varying taste and intelligence of the hearer. But after all,
he is preoccupied with logic and insists that the speaker’s
prime dependence for persuasion must rest upon logical appeal.
Some Recent Text-book Writers
Contemporary text-book writers in speech have re-eval-
uated many of these theories of persuasion, or at least ex
pressed them in more modern terms.
O’Heill and Weaver, in their Elements of Speech, main
tain that persuasion demands focussing the attention on the
stimulus long enough for it to employ the basic motives such
as fear, rage, love, and the physiological states; and the
usual list of impelling motives such as those given by Phil
lips in his Effective Sneaking: self-preservation, property,
P7
Ibid., p. 231.
, p. 232.
16
29
power, reputation, affections, sentiments, and tastes.
Influencing Behavior Through Speech, by Higgins, also
presents the attention theory as a factor in persuasion.
Fixed, forced attention is secured by concreteness (empathy--
the projection of the audience into the suggested situation--
is especially recommended), surprise, curiosity, suspense,
variety, etc. Belief is influenced by social pressure and
by what we believe to be to our best interest. We are
influenced more easily by close physical grouping, ritual or
rhythm, applause, narrative, common ideas. Suggestibility
is more potent than reasoning, but demands immediate action.
Selfish reward stimulates; moral reward justifies.
Winans’ doctrine of persuasion, as enunciated in his
Public Sneaking, is essentially the theory of attention: we
will to do whatever we concentrate our attention upon. He
says :
To persuade a man, then, seems to be nothing more or
less than to win his undivided attention to the desired
conduct, to make him think of that and stop thinking of
other courses, or of any inhibiting ideas. .... Per
suasion is the process of inducing others to give fair,
favorable, or undivided attention to propositions.*^^
In effecting such persuasion emotion plays an important role;
Arthur E. Phillips, Effective Speaking (Chicago:
The Hewton Co., 1926), pp. 48-62.
James Albert Winan
Century Co., 1916), p. 194.
James Albert Winans, Public Speaking (Hew York: The
17
we must allay the emotions that keep ohjectionsin mind, and
awaken emotions that win attention.
Brigance sums up his point of view on the psychology
of gaining acceptance in these comprehensive statements:
Ho matter what our purposes we must hold the attention
and arouse the interest of our listeners. Argument is
exceedingly important, for intelligent people will not
have their powers of reason insulted by a crude assault
upon their emotions. But our emotions are biologically
old and our powers of reason biologically new, and when
a conflict arises between them, we are prone to use our
powers of reason to justify our emotional conduct. Ad
vancing civilization is the history of the effort of
mankind to overcome this tendency. Therefore, to cope
with these forces, although you must use argument, you
must not use argument alone. You must, on the one hand,
be careful not to use arguments that will arouse adverse
emotions and;on the other, you must utilize all possible
favorable emotions and human wants to reinforce your
arguments. By adding motives to arguments, you will
supply the machinery of logic with steam for its driving
power .*^1
Among the text-book treatments of the specialized
field of argumentation, Foster’s outline of logical argument
is clear and workable. Defining proof as the reason for
assenting to the truth of a proposition and evidence as the
material of proof, he distinguishes two kinds of evidence:
evidence from authority and evidence that consists of reason
ing about facts. Arguments are inductive and deductive. The
argument from example includes generalization and analogy.
The argument from causal relations includes reasoning from
William Horwood Bri^anoe, The S-polcen Word (Hew York:
P. S. Crofts and Co., 1927), p. 182.
18
effect to cause, from cause to effect, and from effect to
effect. Refutation treats both facts and fallacies in the
reasoning process.
The "Social Psychologists"
Contributions to the theory of persuasion from the
field of "social psychology" are many. A few representative
points of view are herewith given.
Overstreet, in his Influencing Human Behavior, main
tains the following principle:
. . . . people will inevitably respond to the wants that
seem to them the most important. The problem of the
political progressive is to build up wants that are now
felt only indifferently into wants that are vivid and
clamorous.
The first duty of the persuader, then, is to arouse in the
hearer an eager want. This end he accomplishes largely by
picturization and empathy. The speaker should also secure an
effect of rhythmic movement in persuasive discourse. "Joy in
rhythm," Overstreet says, "is, for a number of unexplained
reasons, basic in life. Hence our pleasure in rhythmic
speech.
32
William Trufont Foster, Argumentât ion and Debate
{Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ^1917}, passim.
A. Overstreet, Influencing Human Behavior (Hew
York : The People’s Institute Publishing Company, ^1925), p. 3E
, p. 84,
19
Lippman, in his Public Opinion, maintains that our be
havior is largely governed by preconceived symbolic pictures
and by representative pictures made up of life experiences.
Stereotypes determine our acceptance of new ideas; to a great
degree our personal moral codes influence our behavior, which
is centered on a pattern of stereotypes.
Mary Follett, in her Creative Experience, presents the
theory of the "circular response" and the doctrine of "inte
grative behavior." In her opinion, the speaker must under
stand the total experience of the hearer and integrate that
with his new material. He must study his hearer’s personal
ity, environment, and desires if he would successfully in
fluence his behavior and social relations.
Pillsbury’s Psychology of Reasoning makes belief the
result of all past experience: we accept that which is con
sistent with what we have experienced. Belief grows and
changes with changes in our experience. Both belief and
action, which is the test of belief, depend on experience.
Allport, in his Social Psychology. conditions our
response to social stimuli largely on suggestion, which is
secured by concentration on one subject, monotony or rhythm,
gesture, fatigue, etc. He emphasizes the leader’s need of
such traits as size, prowess, rapid motility, gesture tone,
voice ring, face-to-face attitude, reserve means, intellect,
sociability, power to drive, etc.
20
Thomson’s Springs of Human Action says that "the de
sire to align one’s self on the side of the power not our
selves which makes for righteousness" "is the most worthy of
all religious motives. It is seemingly gaining force and
favor over the lower motives of fear and the drive of the
35
loaves and fishes." Thomson summarizes the religious
motives as follows;
(1) fear and awe; (2) the lure of rewards and punishments;
(3) sense of guilt and the desire for forgiveness; (4)
love of God ; (5) self-expression, self-abasement and
seIf-expansion; (6) conservation of values (desire for
personal immortality); (7) faith in the inherent good
ness of the world ; (8) sharing the life and power of
God--"stimulation through alliance and friendship with
the unseen"; (9) source of discipline and control (per
sonal and social); (lO) as an end in itself, enjoying
one’s religion.^®
A unique contribution to this study and a decidedly
pragmatic view is the book. Mainsprings of Men, by Whiting
Williams. Several years of "overalls" experiences during
which the author studied labor conditions at first hand
brought him a number of outstanding impressions, among them
the realization, as he puts it, of "The unbelievable impor
tance of the worker’s feelings and experiences rather than
his lo^ic or reason as a factor in all his viewpoints and
35
Mehran K. Thomson, The Springs of Human Action (Hew
York; D. Appleton and Company, 1927), p. 411.
. pp. 412-413.
21
attitudes." His exhaustive study of the feelings that dom
inate the views of the working man led him to conclude that
the mainspring of all human activity is "the wish for worth."
He writes :
The prime influence on all of us today is our wish fo
enjoy the feeling of our worth as persons among other
persons. This feeling can hardly exist without a corre=
spending recognition and respect on the part of others
This "wish for worth" must be regarded as a chief impelling
motive in persuasion.
Business Men
The art of persuasive speaking is essentially the art
of selling ideas. Since there can be no great difference be
tween selling ideas and selling shoes or soap, it follows
that the principles of commercial salesmanship and persuasive
speaking must be similar. It is therefore consistent that we
turn to the pragmatic field of modern business methods for
side-lights on the theory of persuasion. "The salesman, the
advertiser, the teacher, and the public speaker," says Hoff-
man, "have much in common."
Whiting Williams^ Mainsprings of Men (Hew York :
Si
38.
Charles Scribner’s Sons, ^1925], p. 3.
Ibid., p. 147.
39
William G. Hoffman, Public Speaking for Business Men
(Hew York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 193ÏT, p. 136.
22
According to Hoffman,
Argument affects all of us more or less, but it can hard
ly be called the determining factor of conduct. We are
swayed chiefly by desire, prejudice, emotion, suggestion,
imitation......... The pictures, images, that come to us
most vividly are likely to have the greatest influence.
The fact is, thinking is hard work even for the best-
trained minds.^■
All good salesmanship appeals first to the heart. It
makes us want things and then clinches the order with the
easy business of shov/ing that the desire is not incon
sistent with intelligence.
As means of moving men in business relationships, Hoffman
suggests example, repetition, affirmation, and insinuation.
Suggestion operates according to recency, frequency, and
vividness of the stimulus. Confidence is gained by the use
of authority, and by the sincere, modest, well-noised person
ality of the business man. Attention is gained by common
action, suspense, ceremony, variety, imagination, etc. Sug
gestion, which is especially valuable when it follows sound
logic, is effected by analogy, quotation from authority,
slogans, and certain dramatic elements (such as conflict,
concern with the situation, and reference to audience exper
ience . )
Dale Carnegie, in his book. Public Speaking and
Influencing Men in Business. devotes at least three chapters
. p. 136.
41
Ibid.. pp. 138-139.
42
Ibid., Chap. V.
23
to phases of persuasion. Chapter XIII, "How to be Impres
sive and Convincing," gives eight practical suggestions the
use of which will enable the speaker "to prevent opposing
ideas from arising to render them [his new ideas] null and
void.They are;
1. Convince yourself before you attempt to convince
others........
2. Show how the thing you want people to believe is
very similar to something they already believe. ....
3. Restate your ideas........
When restating figures, illustrate them........
4. Use general illustrations, ....
5. Use specific instances, cite concrete cases........
6. Use the principle of cumulation. ....
7. Use graphic comparisons........
8. Back up your statements with unprejudiced authority.
. . . .44
Chapter XV, "How to Get Action," gives four persuasive methods
First, get interested tâttéhtiîon.
Second, win attention by deserving it, by your sincer
ity , by being properly introduced, by being qualified to
speak on your subject, by telling the things that your
experience has taught you.
Third, state your facts, educate your audience regard
ing the merits of your proposal, answer their objections.
43
Dale Carnegie, Public Speaking and Influencing Men
in Business (Hew York: W. W. Horton & Company, Inc., 01926),
p. 408.
. pp. 408-409.
24
Fourth, appeal to the motives that make men act: the
desire for gain, self-protection, pride, pleasures,
sentiments, affections, and religious ideals, such as
justice, mercy, forgiveness, love.^o
shall close this phase of the discussion with a
contribution from the special field of the advertiser, who,
according to Overstreet, "is a pioneer in psychological tech
n i q u e . "40 Poffenberger’s Psychology in Advertising shows
that the advertiser must know the wants to be supplied, both
natural and acquired; the advertisement then must supply the
excitant of those reactions that shall satisfy the desires.
"Whether one appeals," says Poffenberger, "to natural de
sires, to habits, or to reason, the commodity that one is
selling is satisfaction of a desire.Of his inventory of
human desires--desire for drink, desire for food, sex, rest
and comfort, escape from danger, self-assertion and self-
submission, conformity and difference, parental desire,
play, sociability, desire to explore the new or retrace the
familiar, cleanliness, beauty, economy, hospitality— he
places first in strength these three : appetite, sex, healthy
With Jastrow he concludes that belief is a matter of feeling
rather than of reason, that truth is not a primary factor in
. p, 474.
46
H. A. Overstreet, pp. cit., p. 34.
47
Albert T. Poffenberger, Psychology in Advertising
(Hew York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1932), p. 49.
25
belief, that belief is a fabric of personal experience, that
belief demands conformity to authority, and that belief de-
pends on our desire to believe.
Such are a few of the contributions to the theory of
persuasion from the field of modern business. Together with
the contributions from the field of social psychology and
from the range of contemporary text-books in public speaking
they go to show that persuasion is largely dependent upon
successful appeal to the emotions, rather than upon logical
reasoning, although reasoning has its place in the process.
With this more modern interpretation of the principles
enunciated by the classical rhetoricians from Aristotle to
Whately before us, we are now ready to undertake our study of
Deuteronomy as persuasive eloquence.
. p. 540.
CHAPTER II
DEUTEROHOMY: HISTORY, CONTENT, AND INFIUENCE
Chronological Comt>arison with Creek Oratory
The priority of certain events of history is always
interesting and frequently significant. This is also true
of productions of literature. A unique interest attaches to
the study of Deuteronomy from the fact that the orations of
this book antedate the high-water mark of Creek oratory by
three centuries, and the first authentic appearance of ora
tory in the classical world by nearly two centuries. It is
the purpose of this section to give a brief resume of the be
ginnings of oratory, as those beginnings are usually located
in the Creek world time of Demosthenes, in order to bring in-
to focus the fact that the Deuteronomic specimens of Hebrew
oratory have a special claim to the attention of the student
of persuasive speech from the point of view of their chrono
logical priority.
Sears begins his History of Oratory with a general
chapter on "Traces of Oratory in Early Literature."^ In
this chapter he notes the evidences of oratory among the
early Greeks as attested by the numerous harangues of the
^Quod vide.
07
Iliad, the speeches placed in the mouths of characters by the
historians Herodotus and Xenophon, the heroic speeches record
ed by Thucydides (notable among them the speeches purporting
to be those of Themistodes and Pericles), and the public
discourses in Greek tragedy, which finally became the chief
business of the play. His actual treatment of the history of
oratory begins with the Age of Pericles, which, according to
Botsford, "contributed to civilization a treasure of elo
quence."^ And yet the oratory of this period is largely that
put into the mouths of historic characters by the historians,
who merely caught the spirit and general trend of the ora
tor’s message instead of preserving his exact words. Thus,
Thucydides includes in his history the "Funeral Oration" of
Pericles (490-409 B. 0.),^ delivered over those who fell in
the first year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B. C.), although
we have no record of the exact words Pericles used on that
4
occasion.
For the beginnings of the study of the science of
oratory we must go to the island of Sicily and turn back to
the fifth century B. 0. Early in this century Syracuse was a
^George Willis Botsford, Hellenic History (Hew York:
The Macmillan Company, 1920), p. 055.
0. B. Gaspari, "Pericles." Encyclopaedia Britan
nica . 11th edition, XXI, 145.
^George Willis Botsford, up. cit., p. 293.
28
despotism, but a despotism with a feeling for the humanities.
Thrasybulos, last of the Gelonian dynasty, was expelled in
466 B. C, and the Syracusan democracy established.^ It was
at this time that the need of the citizen’s personal develop
ment in the art of public discourse arose, and consequently
the rhetorical study of oratory began. Many citizens had suf
fered the confiscation and redistribution of their property
by the tyrant Thrasybulos, and demanded their rights in the
courts. Others appeared to contest their claims. There were
no lawyers, as we know them now. As Mahaffy expresses the
condition.
It was a time when revolutions in the state and conse
quent changes of property, arising from confiscations and
exiles, often reversed by a turn of the wheel of fortune,
made it vital for every plaintiff or defendant to be able
to prove his case to a jury by persuasion.0
This need led Go rax to teach the art of forensiic oratory to
the ordinary citizen, thus founding rhetorio as an art; in
teaching the principles of this art he wrote or Art
of Rhetoric— the earliest theoretical Greek book, not merely
on Rhetoric, but in any branch of art."*^ The origin of the
treatise was practical: it was born of a purpose. The
^Richard Claverhouse Jebb, The Attic Orators from
Antiphon to Isaeos (London: Macmillan, 1893), I,cxvii, cxviii
John Rentland Mahaffy, What Have the Greek Done for
Modern Civilization? (Hew York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1910),
p. 67.
7
Richard Claverhouse Jebb, op. cit. , I, cxxvi.
29
fragmentary records of the oratory of this period attest a
sudden development of forensic oratory in Syracuse.
The history of oratory now passes to Greece. Although
the origins were Doric, the developments continued in Attica,
where arose "a school of famous pleaders, from Antiphon to
Demosthenes, who paid the closest attention to the form of
their speeches, and so perfected the oratory of the bar for
all time. Jebb names ten Greek orators of this school, as
Quintilian attests: Antiphon, Audokides, Lysias, Isokrates,
Isaeos, Lykurgoa, Aeschines, Demosthenes, and Deinarchos^
(the spellings are those employed by Jebb).
Antiphon, as early as 480 B. C., prepared pleas to be
given by litigants; his strong point in argument was the top
ic of General Probability (first employed by Corax), which
became a favorite weapon of the Greek rhetoricians.^^ His
compositions, "dignified in diction, bold but not florid in
imagery," carried with them "a weight and grandeur of
11
thought." Gorgias, of Sicilian birth, opened a school in
Athens late in the fifth century, and gave his chief atten-
12
tion to diction, rhythm, and oral style. Lysias (died
^John Pentland Mahaffy, qp. cit., p. 68.
9
Richard Claverhouse Jebb, cp. cit., I, Ixv.
^^Lorenzo Sears, pp. cit.. p. 40.
. p. 41.
. oit.
30
c.. 380 B. C.)^^ wrote, for delivery in the law courts, speech
es especially suited to the character of the speaker ; his
style was clear and plain, hut versatile.It was in Isoc
rates, however, that rhetoric came to its full maturity.
Botsford says of him:
It was his achievement to mould the oration into a formal
work of art, comparable to a Pindaric ode or to a piece
of sculpture. With a delicate taste for literary form
he gave the most minute and prolonged attention to the
elaboration of a nicely adjusted periodology, and to the
exquisite choice and arrangement of words with a view
to euphony and rhythm.
Chiefly through the school which he set up in Athens, Isoc
rates moulded public opinion and "influenced all the higher
walks of life throughout the length and breadth of Helias.
He was the first Greek to define rhetoric as the "art of per
suasion."^*^
All these orators were essentially stilted and formal
in their methods. The majority of them gave their chief
attention to the form of their speeches. On the other hand
was the eloquence of display, led by Gorgias. But each was
occupied chiefly with the treatment of the subject in such a
^^George Willis Botsford, pp. cit., p. 432.
^^Lorenzo Sears, qp. oit., pp. 42-44.
15
George Willis Botsford, op. cit., p. 433.
, p. 434.
Lorenzo Sears, pp. pit. , p. 47.
31
way as to produce persuasion for the moment or to gain admir
ation for the moment. In neither school was it the intention
to instruct or improve the hearer
Isaeus (his extant productions range from 390 to 353
19
B. C.) marks a distinct advance in the art of oratory among
the Greeks. He was the teacher of Demosthenes. Sears says
that he gathered the best of Lysias and handed it on to his
pupil. He further describes the manner of Lysias:
.... in Isaeus we find a man morally persuasive and
logically powerful, versatile in arrangement, elaborate
and systematic in proof, apt in law, and keen in logic,
having and keeping a close grip upon his opponent, with
a twist and a trip at last, like a wrestler that throws
his adversary. Isaeus stands forth as the earliest
master of forensic conflict
It was during the early part of the fourth century—
at the close of Greece’s first great period of intellectual
Pi
activity — that Aristotle arose and, discontented with the
shallow emotional appeals which were being employed by the
speakers of the day, proceeded to systematize his theory of
rhetoric by studying proof from the point of viev; of the
philosopher and the psychologist. The result was his Rhetoric
It was not, however, till later in the fourth century,
John Pentland Mahaffy, on. cit.. p. 69.
19
George Willis Botsford, up. cit., p. 437.
20
Lorenzo Sears, _qn. eft., p. 57.
IMd. . pp. 78-90.
3 2
that there arose a group of deliberative speakers definitely
20
interested in discussing affairs. And even they owed their
excellence to the best schools of forensics preceding them.
Lycurgus--religious, patriotic, zealous, impressive— took the
rostrum to call his countrymen back to the rectitude and
03
patriotism of the past. Hyperides--despising the past,
social in his attitudes, adorned in diction, pathetic in ap
peal— stood second only to Demosthenes.^^ Aeschines--clever
in speech, of finished diction, theatrical in training, but
lacking in moral stamina--opposed the peer of the age, Demos-
thenes
o ÇL
For it was Demosthenes (384-320 B. C.) who, almost
by universal consent, achieved the greatest results in ora
tory. "Only his political opponents," remarks Bury, "would
deny that Demosthenes was the most eloquent of orators and
the most patriotic of citizens. Jebb calls "De Corona"
"the masterpiece of the old world’s oratory, perhaps. . . .
John Pentland Mahaffy, op. cit., pp. 69-70.
03
Lorenzo Sears, op. oit., pp. 64-66.
04
Ibid., pp. 66-67.
. pp. 67-68.
26
Richard Claverhouse Jebb, "Demosthenes." Encyclo
paedia Britannica, 11th edition, VIII, 10-14.
07
John Bagnell Bury, A History of Greece (London: MaC'
millan and Co., limited, 1913), p. 736; cf. George Willis
Botsford, qp,. cit. . pp. 436-437.
33
08
the supreme achievement of human eloquence." And Mahaffy
says ;
The acme of all this branch of Greek literature is the
famous Corona of Demosthenes, which great lawyers and
political orators like Lord Brougham have declared to be
the very ne plus ultra of eloquence intended not only to
persuade, but also to persuade by all the arts of subtle
logic, of brilliant sophistry, of red hot argument.'^"
I f
On the Crown" was delivered in 330 B. G.
00
What provoked this fire of eloquence? Greek liberty
was at stake. Philip of îüacedon threatened. Hellenic pat
riotism was almost dead. Demosthenes, fired by a sense of
national morality, tried to fan the meager spark into full
flame. True, he failed, but his attempts produced the finest
fruit of all the world’s eloquence.
Thus, in brief resume, we have brought the history of
oratory from its shadowy beginnings in Greece during the
Homeric period down to the latter part of the fourth centux^y
B. G. We found its first authentic instances during the Age
of Pericles (fifth century). Was there no display of the
ora.torical gift outside the classical Greek world before this
time? Sears makes the following pertinent comment:
In any attempt to discover the origins of eloquence it
should not be assumed that there were no "speaking men"
28
Richard Claverhouse Jebb, The Attic Orators from
Antiphon to Isaeos (London: Macmillan, 1893), II, 416-417.
John Pentland Mahaffy, qp^. cit. , pp. 83-84.
^^Richard Claverhouse Jebb, "Demosthenes." Encyclopae
dia Britannica, 11th edition, VIII, 15.
34
before the middle of the fifth century B. C. That facul
ty which more than reason itself, distinguishes man from
beast could not have remained unemployed during the
existence of empires which were old when Greece was young.
The earliest documentary evidence we possess brings to
view first the poet and then the prophet, speaking before
kings and people of the welfare and the woe to a nation
which was to be carried into captivity by one of the
oldest powers of which there is any written or monumental
record. The prophecy of Isaiah is an example of what
human speech had attained to six generations before the
age of Pericles. Passing over contemporaries and succes
sors during this period, and turning backward for indica
tions of eloquence, it is not impossible to find them here
and there in the historical documents of the Hebrews.
The particular record of human speech produced before
the classic beginnings of Greek oratory in the fifth century,
treated in this thesis is one of the records included "in the
historical documents of the Hebrews." The cycle of orations
known as the Book of Deuteronomy was brought to light through
oral reading of the document in 622 B. C. during the reign of
King Josiah of the kingdom of Judah.
Focussing the facts of oratorical history presented in
this section upon the date of the revelation of Deuteronomy,
we may make these significant comparisons in point of time:
1. Deuteronomy appeared over 000 years before Pericles
gave his "Funeral Oration" (411 B. G.}.
31
Lorenzo Sears, qp. cit., pp. 27-08.
30
James Alexander Paterson, "Deuteronomy." Encyclo
paedia Britannica, 11th edition, VIII, 118.
33
George Willis Botsford, pp. cit., p. 093.
35
2. Deuteronomy appeared nearly 050 years before the
death of Lysias (q. 380 B. C.j.^4
3. And, finally, Deuteronomy appeared nearly 300 years
before Demosthenes spoke "On the Crown" (330 B. C.).^^
Renan pointedly asserts: "In the time of Josiah Greece had
36
not yet developed a quarter of its genius." Thus it appears
that the chronplogioal priority of the oratory of Deuteronomy
lends to the book a unique significance in the history of
oratory.
That the discovery of these orations and their public
reading in the year 620 B. C. produced some of the most as
tonishing results in history and establish the cycle of ora
tory as a remarkable expression of persuasive eloquence are
topics next to be considered in this chapter.
The Immediate Historical Backgrounds of Deuteronomy
If it is true, as McNeile observes, that "the master
pieces of literature have generally appeared in times of
34
Ibid. , p. 430*
OCR
John Pentland Mahaffy, Greek Life and Thought
(London: Macmillan and Co., 1887), pp. 1-2.
Ernest Renan, History of the People of Israel from
the Times of Hezekiah till the Return from Babylon (D'oston ;
Roberts Brothers, 189lT, p. 006.
36
37
tension and stress," we should seek to find the national
crisis in Hebrew history that gave birth to the appearance of
the Book of Deuteronomy. This section presents briefly the
backgrounds of Hebrew history that furnish the setting for
this discovery.
Of the corrupt kings of Israel and Judah perhaps none
surpassed Manasseh, who came to the throne in 697 B. G. and
reigned more than fifty years. His very name became a by-word
"If a noble name had to be replaced by an odious one," says
38
Stanley, "that of Manasseh was substituted." Since the
time of Solomon, polytheism had been steadily gaining over
the monotheistic faith. Gradually the practice of the hea
then rites of the surrounding nations was being mingled with
the worship of Jehovah and was gaining ascendancy over that
worship. So close was Manasseh’s affinity with Egypt--a
country whose very name was anathema to a true Israelite—
that he named his own son Amon, after an Egyptian deity. Sor
cery, augury, necromancy flourished. The sacred furnaces of
Tophet were rebuilt on a larger and grander scale, and pious
Hebrews offered their own children in sacrifice to bloody
37
A, H. McHeile, Deuteronomy, its Place in Revelation
(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1912), p. 33.
^^Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Lectures on the History of
the Jewish Church (Hew York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1889),
II, 423.
37
heathen gods. The heavenly bodies became the objects of wor
ship , and incense altars were erected on roofs and in gardens
"Moleoh" became a common oath. The cult of Astarte flour
ished: street furnaces for baking cakes to the "queen of
love" were built, and the houses of sodomites and prosti
tutes were opened near the temple as a part of her worship.
Even human sacrifices became common. The rural high places
were restored and altars to the heavenly bodies and a statue
of Astarte were erected in the very temple courts. The altar
that had stood in front of the temple was desecrated, and
the sacred ark removed from the Holy of Holies. The whole
nation was cowed by this iniquitous King Manasseh; objectors
39
to his regime were persecuted, tortured, and massacred. It
must have been a mighty sigh of relief that went up from the
hearts of Israel when Manasseh "slept with his fathers."
But no immediate relief was in sight. Amon came to
the throne in 642 B. C. and not only duplicated his father’s
iniquity: "this same Amon trespassed more and more. So
vile was the stench that arose from his reign that in two
years’ time his own servants, the nobles, rose up against
him and assassinated him, thus paving the way for reform.
. pp. 420-423.
II Chron. 32 ;23 (in Richard G. Moulton, The Modem
Reader’s Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1919T,
p. 442)7
08
This ohange of public feeling placed Josiah on the
throne; by popular vote he was elected to his office at the
age of eight. Immediately he fell under the influence of
the reformers, and better days were in sight for Judah. Mow
it happened that at this time a circle of remarkable people
resided in and around the temple and palace precincts in
Jerusalem. Possibly they had been driven there by the in
tense persecutions of the last few decades, but at any rate
the circle remained practically unbroken till the fall of
the monarchy. Among these people were Shaphan, the secre
tary; Hilkiah, the high priest; Huldah, the prophetess; and
Shallum, the husband of Huldah. Jeremiah was also a member
of the coterie. In the company of this devout group Josiah
41
grew up.
In Josiah^s twelfth year a Scythian invasion was
feared. The horde of marauding Scythians advanced as far as
Sgypt, where it was bribed to turn back. Judah was not in
vaded, but the anticipated calamity had the effect of awaken
ing the nation. Meanwhile, Zephaniah was attacking the na
tion's sins as exemplified in the licentiousness and cruelty
of Baal-worship and sun-worship ; Jeremiah was prophesying and
counseling speedy refoimation; Mahum was assuring Judah that
Jehovah would yet cast down Assyria— the time was ripe for
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, up. cit.. pp. 427-431.
09
42
reformation.
And reformation proceeded in a very strange way.
Josiah began to purge the land of idolatry and inaugurated
a general repair of the temple under the immediate direction
of Hilkiah, the high priest, who had been prominent all along
in the movement for reform. During the work of renovation--
in the year 622 B. C — the workmen found buried beneath
the rubbish, probably in one of the inner chambers of the
temple, the Book of the Law, consisting partly, if not entire
ly, of Deuteronomy. {The story is graphically told in II
Chronicles 34 and 35, and in II Kings 32 and 33.) Hilkiah
immediately carried the scroll to Shaphan, the secretary,
who in turn carried the document to King Josiah, before whom
he read its contents. Its reception was a complete surprise;
its message a revelation and a challenge. The king was greatly
stirred: ''he rent his clothes. Desiring help in inter
preting the book, he had it submitted to Huldah, the prophetess,
who^ as G-enung puts it, "confirmed its words of warning
and censure, thus giving, as it were, the prophetic im
primatur , and adding a reassuring prediction personal to
42
Charles Foster Kent, A History of the Hebrew People
(Hew York; C. Scribner's Sons, i¥lO), pp. 172-183.
43
James Alexander Paterson, loc. cit.
^^11 Chron. 34:19 (in Richard G. Moulton, _op. cit.,
p. 443).
4 0
4-5
to the king himself."
Josiah immediately called an assembly of all the peo
ple of Jerusalem, both official and laity, and read to them
the contents of the book. Stanley's description of the scene
is graphic;
But for the moment it was not the Prophet, but the King,
who took his stand on the newly-discovered law....... By
him it was recited aloud from end to end tn an immense
concourse assembled in the court of the Temple, in which
every order of the State, Priests and Prophets, no less
than nobles and peasants, heard the new revelation from
the lips of the Royal Reformer, as he stood erect, lean
ing against the pillar, at the entrance of the inner
court, beside the sacred laver, himself the new Law
giver of his people.
In the mouth of Josiah a written scroll became a living word;
literature presented in the form of oratory became vital
spoken discourse.
The effect was spontaneous. The people solemnly rati
fied the requirements of the book, standing to the covenant,
and King Josiah himself confirmed the transaction by a per
sonal covenant with Jehovah. There followed a reform such
as nations seldom see. Genung describes the immediate results
of the reform thus:
Then followed a strenuous and unsparing crusade against
the idolatrous high places of which the land was full,
John Franklin Genung, A Guidebook to the Biblical
Literature (Boston: Ginn and Company, ^1916, 1919), p. 220
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, pp. eft., p. 429.
41
the heathen rites and customs that had accumulated since
Âhaz, and the occult sorceries and superstitions which
everywhere had so alloyed the people's faith. This done,
a Passover season was observed in the central sanctuary,
Jerusalem,— a festival season such as had not been known
since the time of the Judges.47
Of the details of this reformation and its far-reach
ing influence the next section treats. It is sufficient now
to observe that the instrument which precipitated the reform,
which had been gradually brewing since its instigation in
the days of Isaiah and King Hezekiah, was the book found in
the tempie.^^
Whether this was the discovery of an authentic copy of
a book compiled by Moses (according to the traditional
49
view), whether it was a bringing to light of a book which
had been secreted in the temple some time between the time of
50
Hezekiah and that of Josiah, whether it was composed in
John Franklin Genung, _pp. eft., p. 221.
. p. 221.
49
James Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament (Hew
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907), pp. 283-284; John
William Me Garvey, The Authorship of the Book of Deuteronomy
(Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Co.1 ^902), pp. 195-199
(iJote: The general neglect of the Scriptures in the age be
fore the Reformation and the effect on Luther's mind and
work of the discovery of a complete Bible at Erfurt, as a
comparative phenomenon, is ably discussed by James Orr in his
Problem of the Old Testament, p. 266 (_q. v.} . The fact of
the oblivion of Charlemagne's code is also of interest (see
James Orr, ap. cit., p. 514).
50
Friedrich Bleek and Adolph Kamphausen, opt. cit. , p.
3 3 3 .
4^ C t >
51
the days of Jeremiah and according to his ideas, whether
it was a "pious fraud" produced by zealous reformers some
time during the reign of Manasseh^^ or even as late as the
early years of Josiah (quot homines tot sententiae}, is be
side the point for the purposes of this study. Around
these questions have centered the storms of modern Old
Testament criticism. Whatever may be the contemporary atti
tude toward the book, we can be sure that, as Genung
states :
. . . . it derived its tremendous influence and author
ity from the implicit-belief that it was the original
book of the law (II Kings E2:8), the essential covenant
(32:2) and constitution of Israelite faith. It purported
to contain the actual words of the nation's traditional
founder and lawgiver Moses, and beyond these by only
one remove^the awesome words of Jehovah whose being
had become"lremote.
As such the Book of Deuteronomy "is genuinely and authentic
ally Mosaic. It is entirely consistent with the various
schools of criticism to employ the name of Moses as that of
the orator of the Deuteronomic cycle, and this practice is
Sljjpnest Renan, pp. cit. . p. 193.
52
S. H, Driver, ^ Introduction to the Literature of
the Old Testament (Hew York: G. Scribner's Sons, 1900),
pp. 82-89.
53
John Franklin Genung, pp. cit.. p. 222; pf. Charles
Foster Kent, The Kings and Prophets of Israel and Judah (Hew
York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1909), p. 217,
54
John Franklin Genung, pp. cit., p. 224.
43
uniformly followed in our treatment of the subject.^^
The Influence of Deuteronomy
The influences of oratory are two^fold: immediate and
ultimate. Although it is sometimes difficult to trace the
immediate results of an orator's message, in the case of the
oratory of Deuteronomy there can be little doubt. For, al-
ticugh the immediate tangible influence may have been short
lived , it was nevertheless tremendous in its time. The oral
reading of Deuteronomy produced a revolution in Hebrew re
ligious observances, "the most sudden reformation movement
56
in all history." There was a national vow; a pass over
greater than that celebrated in the days of King Hezekiah
was solemnized; all signs of pagan worship were obliterated ;
houses of license and heathen sanctuaries fell; high places
were cut down and chariots to the sun destroyed; the priests
of the shrines were slaughtered alive on their own altars,
and the bones of the dead dug up and thrown on the sites of
57
their altars. It was almost a frenzy of religious
55
Mote: William George Jordan in his Biblical Criti
cism and Modern Thought {Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1909},
pp. 136-137, has a challenging comment on the historicity of
Moses.
Richard G. Moulton, pp. cit., p. 1367.
57
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, pp. cit., pp. 427-431.
44
reformation. Dr. Moulton avers: "It is not an exaggeration
to say that no work of literature which has ever appeared
has produced a greater sensation than the Book of Deuteron-
58
Q BZ.. ." A crisis in Hebrew history was met and, for a time,
the nation was saved from the destruction which threatened
to overwhelm it. Such was the immediate result of the prop- .
agation of the ideals presented in the four orations of
Deuteronomy.
Likewise, of the ultimate influence’ of Deuteronomy
upon the Hebrew commonwealth we have ample evidence. Its
acceptance marked a revolution in the Jewish constitution.
59
A single written code dominated Judah, and within a century
60
Judaism succeeded the prophetic office. Jerusalem became
the center of worship, with no heathen rites at hand to
contaminate the purity of its system. The influence of the
professional priest class laid a foundation for the hierarchy
and a separate Jewish organization whicÊf^rvive the dis
solution of the nation and hold the Jews ecclesiastically
intact.The Jewish religion was saved by raising the
58
Richard G. Moulton, pp. cit., p. 1366.
59
Andrew Harper, The Book of Deuteronomy (Hew York :
A. G. Armstrong and Son, 190Ï), p. 37.
60
Garleton Hoyes, pp. cit., pp. 323-324.
^^J. H. Gardiner, The Bible as English Literature
(Hew York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927), p. 21.
45
worship of Jehovah above that of other deities; it was
divorced from the state, and survived the downfall of the
62
nation, Baldwin thus emphasizes the far-reaching effect
of the idea of monotheism;
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" was the
first command of the decalogue; and "Hear, 0 Israel, the
Lord our God is one Lord" remained the basic article
of the creed of Israel through all succeeding years.
Ho other people of that age believed this. There was
not a civil constitution then in being that was not.
based upon the assumed truth of polytheism. Israel
alone was to justify its election from among the nations
by its identification with the worship of the one great
Creator.
Of like importance with this national effect upon
the Hebrew constitution was the influence of Deuteronomy
upon the later writers of the Hebrew sacred books and hence
upon modern civilization. Of this influence Wood says:
Ho book of preexilic literature had so great an influence
on those who came after as this book. Both its style and
its ideas are so striking that their influences can easi
ly be traced, and one finds it in Jeremiah, the later
editors of the Hexateuch, the entire series of histories
in Judges, Samuel and Kings, while Jesus sums up the
law in words from this book. Underneath its code of
laws lay the thought of the love of God for Israel, and
thus it became the basis for the highest religious con
ceptions which Judaism and Christianity were afterward
to attain.°4
Driver comments further on this extended influence:
ftp
Charles Foster Kent, pp. cit.. p. 183.
Edward Chauncey Baldwin, op. cit. , pp. 106-107.
^^Irving Francis Wood and Elihu Grant, The Bible as
Literature {Hew York: Abingdon Press, 1914), p. 126.
46
The influence of Deuteronomy is very perceptible in the
literature of the Old Testament. Upon its promulgation,
it speedily became the book which both gave the religious
ideals of the age, and moulded the phraseology in which
it was expressed. The style of Deuteronomy, when once
it had been found, lent itself readily to adoption; and
thus a school of writers, imbued with its spirit, quick
ly arose, who have stamped their work upon many parts of
the Old Testament.
The effect upon the private life of the Hebrews was
by no means transient. Deuteronomy became the keystone of
Hebrew religious devotion. According to Moulton, "It
[Peuteronomyj henceforward became the chief religious lit
erature of the people of Jehovah. Every true Israelite
66
recited one of its chapters as his daily devotion."
When Jesus of Nazareth appeared as the climax in the
irregular succession of Hebrew teachers, Deuteronomy became
in his mouth the foremost book of the law of Jehovah. The
67
story of his temptation recorded in Matthew 4;1-11 repre
sents him as meeting the three-fold temptation of the devil
with three quotations from Deuteronomy : 8:3; 6:16; 6:13.^®
And when a lawyer of the Pharisees asked Jesus to state the
great commandment of the Hebrew law, it was the central
5. R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on Deuteronomy (Hew York : Charles Scribner's SonsT 1895),
p. xci.
Aft
Richard G, Moulton, up. cit. . p. 1367.
67
Ibid.. pp. 1253-1254.
. pp. 157, 166.
47
sentence of Deuteronomy (6:5; 10:12; 30:6)^^ that he cited
as "the great and first commandment."*^^
Paul also derived a high point in his philosophy
from the last oration of Deuteronomy. From chapter 30:12-
71
14 he chose a phrase to elucidate the distinctive Chris
tian concept of "righteousness by faith" found in Romans
10:6-8"^^
The influence of Deuteronomy thus seen in the teach
ings of the first prophets of Christianity continues a
prime factor in the basic teachings of Christianity and
Mohammedanism. Prof. Cornill summarizes the lasting effect
of the popularization and public ratification of the Book of
Deuteronomy as follows:
Their results have been simply immeasurable. By them
Israel, nay, the whole world, has been directed into
new courses. We are today still under the influence of
beliefs which were then promulgated for the first time,
under«the sway of forces which then first came into
life.
According to Baldwin, such principles of modern thought as
. pp. 166, 170, 187.
. 22:35-38 (in Richard G. Moulton, op. cit.,
p. 1276).
71
Richard G. Moulton, pp. cit. , p. 187.
72
Ibid.. p. 1188.
73
Carl Heinrich Cornill, The Prophets of Israel
(Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, 190^, p. 82.
48
the following may he ascribed to their early expression
and promulgation in the orations of Deuteronomy :
1. Statehood rests on a sense of religious obliga
tion and a belief in the unity of God.
2. Law is sanctioned by human conscience.
3. Obedience to law is not, after all, obligatory,
but a matter of moral choice.
4. Love for God and man are essential as a proper
7 4 .
foundation for successful statecraft.
Prof* Cornill sums up the ultimate effect of the Deuter
onomic cycle of orations on the world's religious thought :
The opposition of secular and sacred, of laity and cler
gy, of State and Church, the conception of a holy writ
and of a divine inspiration, can be traced back in its
last roots to the Deuteronomy of the year 621 [there is
slight variance in authority for the date of Josiah's
refornij , together with the whole history of revealed
religion down to the present time, including not only
Judaism but also Christianity and Islam, who have
simply borrowed their ideas from J u d a i s m .75
Milman, in his History of the Jews, regarding Moses
as the author of the ideas of Deuteronomy, characterizes
him as a man,
.... who, considered merely in an historical light,
without any reference to his divine inspiration, has
exercised a more extensive and permanent influence
over the destinies of his own nation and mankind at
74
Edward Chauncey Baldwin, pp. cit., pp. 110-111.
7 5
Carl Heinrich Cornill, pp. opt., pp. 89-90.
49
large, than any other^indiviaual recorded in the
annals of the world.
Such are some of the influences— immediate and ulti
mate— of the public reading of Deuteronomy in 62E B, G. be
fore the rulers and common people of Judah. What kind of
subject matter produced such lasting results? The follow
ing section presents a brief epitome of the structure and
content of the four orations.
8trueture and Contant of the Orations of Deuteronomy
"Deuteronomy." says Moulton," .... is a collec
tion of the Orations and Songs of Moses, constituting his
Farewell to the People of Israel.Orr succinctly analyz
es the content of the book as follows;
The Book of Deuteronomy, in its main part, consists, it
is well known, after a slight introduction, and with
some connective notes, of three hortatory discourses
purporting to have been delivered by Moses in the
Arabah of Moab, shortly before his death (chaps.
i:6-iv:40; v-xxviii; xxix:S-xxx). To these discourses
are appended an account of certain closing transactions
of Moses (chap. xxxi), the Song and Blessing of Moses
(chaps, xxxii, xxxiii), and a narrative of Moses' death
on Mount Hebo (chaps, xxxii:48-52; xxxiv). The largest
of the discourses (chaps, v-xxviii) embraces a rehearsal
(chaps, xii ff.), in the form of popular address, of the
principal laws given by God to Moses at Horeb, as these
7ft
Henry Hart Milman, The History of the Jews, from
the Earliest Period down to Modern Times (Hew York; W, J.
Widdleton, 18741?)), 1, 258.
77
Richard G. Moulton, pp,. cit. , p. 1369.
50
were to be observed by the people in their new settle
ment in Canaan. ^
With this analysis of the book most commentators are
in substantial agreement. However, Moulton in the literary
setting of his Modern Reader's Bible deviates in one partic
ular. Instead of finding in the ancient document three ora
tions, he divides the second oration as arranged by most
critics into separate speeches, separated by the lengthy
79
Book of the Covenant, thus making a cycle of four orations.
This study accepts the arrangement and general interpreta
tion of The Modern Reader's Bible.
It is not the province of this study to consider the
matter contained in the Book of the Covenant, or in the
poetry found at the close of Deuteronomy commonly called
"The Song of Moses" and "The Last Words of Moses." Such
consideration is regarded as extraneous to our purpose,
which is restricted to an analysis of the persuasive ele
ments in the oratory of Deuteronomy. Attention is there
fore given only to the content of the four speeches whose
form is prima facie that of spoken rhetoric, or oratory.
All other subject matter in the Biblical Book of Deuteron
omy is excluded from the study.
78
James Orr, pjp. cit. , p. 248.
79
Note : The arguments for this arrangement are stated
in Richard G. Moulton, pip. cit.. pp. 1549-1552.
51
For our purposes, then, the oratory of Deutex^onomy
includes a succession of four orations purporting to have
come from the mouth of Moses and "wrought into the dramatic
catastrophe of a life."^^ Moses is about to leave his
people. It is his farewell. Deuteronomy is the story of a
single moment of history. The subject matter of these
orations presented in the form of abstracts with brief
introductory and connective explanations will conclude the
content of this chapter.
First Oration
"Moses' Announcement of His Deposition"
Chap, 1:6 - 4:40®^
The text of Deuteronomy indicates that the first
oration is delivered to the children of Israel on the eastern
side of the Jordan River just before they are to cross into
the Promised Land. This oration is Moses' personal
^^Richard 0. Moulton, pp. cit., p. 1371.
^^Note: More detailed abstracts and paraphrases of
the orations of Deuteronomy may be found in Richard G.
Moulton, pp. cit.. pp. 1370-1373; Richard G. Moulton, The
Literary btudy of the Bible. pp. 269-282; and Ferdinand S,
Sehenck, op. cit., pp. 27-42. (Schenck gives the story of
Deuteronomy in the popular form of a letter purporting to
be "A Letter from the Son of Haphtali to His Brother in
Egypt.")
®^Riehard G. Moulton, The Modern Reader's Bible.
pp. 159-164.
53
announcement of his deposition from the office of leader.
It is divided into two distinct sections: the first present
ing an historic survey of the authority wielded by Moses;
the second, an extended exhortation to the children of Israel
to keep the law when he has gone and cannot uphold its sacred
precepts before them.
The historic survey begins with a description of how
Moses led the people at the command of Jehovah from Mt.
Horeb, where the law and constitution of the Hebrew people
were given them, on toward the Promised Land. The first
movement of the nation revealed such a growth in population
that Moses was unable longer to supervise the details of
organization in person; his authority was revealed in the
appointment of subordinates. Under such organization the
nation passed through the wilderness and safely reached
Kadesh-Barnea, on the outskirts of Canaan. Here, however,
when commanded to advance upon the foe and to dispossess
the Canaanites, the people rebelled against the authority of
Moses and began their wandering in the wilderness until the
rebellious generation should die. Moses himself was in
volved in Jehovah's wrath: ,"The Lord was angry with me,"
he says, "for your sakes." He will not be allowed to enter
the Promised Land. Moses reviews the thirty-eight years of
wandering in the desert, but shows that even during this
period Jehovah watched over them. A new period opened when
53
the nation crossed the brook Zered: the fear of this mili
tant people fell upon all nearby tribes. Moses' authority
was evident in his directing Israel which nation to exter
minate and which to spare. Consequently his personal hopes
of entering the Promised Land revived ; he begged Jehovah to
let him go into the goodly land; but the plea was denied and
the former announcement of his deposition from leadership
confirmed: Moses will not pass over Jordan.
At this point Moses turns from simple historic survey
to fervent exhortation. Since his work is ended, the words
he has commanded are not to be altered. It remains only
for Israel to obey the law. Such obedience will mean their
supremacy among the nations. To emphasize their duty to
keep the law, Moses recalls the miraculous circumstances of
its giving and the fact that Jehovah did not appear in a
form--they only heard a voice. They must therefore take
heed never to make the form of any thing to bow down to and
not to worship any creature or thing in heaven or earth save
Jehovah only. Jehovah has made a covenant with Israel, his
own inheritance: he will protect them above all nations;
but he is a jealous god— Moses himself had felt the divine
jealousy— and if Israel sins, he will destroy them from
among the nations of the earth. However, Moses does not
close with this statement of Jehovah's judgment; the per
oration of the oration introduces a note of mercy:
54
Jehovah's love for his people predominates.
Thus the first oration presents the general author
ity of Moses and a general view of the law: it constitutes
a sort of introduction to the series. The second oration
is more specific in its nature.
Second Oration
"The Delivery of the Covenant to the Levites and Elders"
Chap. 5:1 - 11:22®®
The scene of the first oration is repeated for the
second, but this time the oration is connected with a public
ceremony: the Book of the Covenant is to be formally con
veyed into the hands of the leaders of the people. It is a
day of installation. Moses appears, surrounded by the
Levites and Elders, with the newly-written Covenant held in
his hands. As in the first oration, he begins with the
scene on Mt. Horeb and describes the _giving of the law. He
recites the commandments one by one as Jehovah's voice gave
them, and recalls how frightened the people were and how they
begged Moses to stand before Jehovah in their place, earnest
ly pledging their obedience to all Jehovah's commands.
It is Moses' task to present these commandments--now
®®IMa. , pp. 164-171.
55
gathered into one code to the people and to urge their
ohedienee. But they are fearful of Jehovah's law; so Moses
begins with the sacred Name and places side by side their
love for that Name and their love of the law, which is ever
present among them.
From this point the order of ideas in the oration is
not so much a logical thought progression as it is a some
what faintly marked swing of ideas from future to past.
Moses depicts the material prosperity which shall be theirs
in the days to come, and begs Israel not to forget Jehovah
in time of prosperity, but rather to teach their children
that Jehovah, who delivered Israel from Egypt, is the author
of the commandments, the keeping of which insures the pros
perity of the nation.
Further, Moses exhorts Israel in future times of
conquest to make no alliance with other nations, but ever
to recognize by the terms of the Covenant that they are a
peculiar people; all that pertains to idolatry shall be a
devoted thing. At this point Moses swings to the events
of the wilderness experience and shov/s Jehovah's continued
guidance, to emphasize the idea that wealth has not come
by their making, but power to get wealth is itself the gift
of Jehovah.
The orator again turns to the future and portrays the
fall of powerful tribes before their advance. But, he
56
admonishes, Israel must beware of thinking that victory is
the result of national righteousness ; let them remember
their many rebellions against Jehovah and realize that Je
hovah has required of them only loving obedience. Again
surveying the future, Moses describes the Promised Land
under the special care of Providence for its nurture—
Egypt depended on human labor for its increase ; Canaan de
pends upon God's rain from heaven. Therefore Israel must
know that disobedience to Jehovah's requirements will mean
material failure until the nation perishes from the land.
Moses thus returns to his fundamental point: national pros
perity depends upon obedience to Jehovah's law; disobedience
means national ruin. He gives several concrete suggestions
for making the law a part of their lives and holds.up
promise of great rewand for faithfulness, even to the con
quest of nations greater than Israel.
Moses concludes by mentioning the ceremonial of the
blessing and the curse, which becomes the subject of the
third oration. The Book of the Covenant is then formally
handed over to the Levites and Elders to be read before the
people as the basis of a national treaty with Jehovah.
57
Third Oration
"At the Rehearsal of the Blessing and the Curse"
Chap. 28^^
The third oration apparently belongs to the same day
as the second oration. After the formal delivery of the
Book of the Covenant, arrangements seem to be in progress for
the rehearsal of a great ceremonial--that of the.Blessing and
the Curse. An ordinance fixes this ceremony as an institution
to be established in the promised land, but before Israel's en
trance into Canaan, it is thought best to have a rehearsal of
the ceremony. Accordingly, the twelve tribes are divided
into two groups stationed upon opposite slopes in a spot re
sembling the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim of the land of
Canaan, one group to represent the Curse, the other to rep
resent the Blessing. The rehearsal begins, the Levites chant
ing the Curses in full ritual form, the people answering Amen.
But it is only a rehearsal— there is no similar chanting of
the Blessings. Instead, Moses takes the matter into his own
hands, and presents the Blessings In the form of oratorical
discourse instead of Levitioal ritual, and then repeats the
ground of the Curses in the oratory of denunciation. It is the
latter material that constitutes the substance of the third
oration.
Moses bases material prosperity entirely upon
. pp. 183-186.
58
obedience to the commandments of Jehovah. If the people
keep Jehovah's laws, they will be blessed above all other
nations on earth; they will be prosperous in business and
agriculture, in family life and national economy, in all
that can raise them to a place of international recognition
as the most favored of nations.
But--and here the oration rises to the heights of
terrific denunciation, three times passionately denouncing
the results of disobedience— if the people of Israel do not
obey the laws of Jehovah, innumerable curses will come upon
them: curses of market and farm, the decay of family life
and the failure of national economy, bodily sickness and
mental terror, famine and war and conquest at the hand of an
enemy, until finally Israel shall be humbled and carried
captive to a strange land--the people that might have been
the head of all nations had she obeyed Jehovah becoming the
tail of nations and an astonishment and a by-word through
out the earth.
A second stream of denunciation contrasts serving
Jehovah "with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance
of all things" with serving the enemy "in hunger, and in
thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things"— all
because Israel did not obey Jehovah's law— until in the
siege laid by the mystic enemy the most terrific sufferings
the mind can conceive are graphically portrayed.
59
The third stream of denuneiation reverts to the
"glorious and fearful Name," and paints a picture of the
fading of the joys of promise into plagues and sicknesses
and exile, with indescribable mental anguish, until finally
the people which was intended to be the saved of all the
earth should return into the land of its bondage, voluntar
ily selling themselves as slaves to those from whom they had
been delivered with a climax which should became the height
of ignominy— the markets would be so glutted that no one
would buy them. There is no further climax--the oration
in its entirety is in the nature of a peroration.
Fourth Oration
"The Covenant in the Land of Moab"
Chap. 29:2 - 31:8®®
The fourth oration seems to follow immediately after
the thii‘ d. As in the first oration, Moses again begins with
an historic survey, but this time it is very brief. In it
he merely calls the people's attention to the fact that the
long journey through the wilderness with all its trials had
come to a successful close only because of the tender care
of Jehovah. The speaker then seems to review the various
classes of oeople in his audience and turns to them as indi-
85
Ibid.pp. 186-188.
60
viduals, rather than addressing the whole orowd. Thus he
makes the point that distinguishes this oration from the three
preceding: he turns from national religion to personal reli
gion, taking, as Dr. Moulton says "the greatest stride that
„86
can be taken in religious development." And as he observes
the various classes before him, he fears that there may be
some man or woman, or some family or tribe, who shall think
to cover his own sin in the national righteousness. Such a
one, Moses declares, Jehovah will single out and upon him
bring all the curses of the Covenant; such a tribe or family,
he says, will become a hissing and an astonishment to all
other people.
But judgment is tempered with mercy. If when the
blessings and the curses portrayed in the orations have
come upon them, the people of Israel repent and return to
Jehovah, he will turn their captivity, and put the curses
upon their enemies. Israel should be assured that the gra
cious word of life is in their very heart, if they will but
listen to its call. In his final appeal, Moses calls heaven
and earth to witness as he sets Before them life and death,
the blessing and the curse, and urges them to obey Jehovah,
thus choosing life and happiness.
With a few words of personal farewell, in which he
p. 1372.
61
repeats Jehovah's mandate that he shall not go over Jordan;
and of encouragement, in which he commends the people into
the hands of Joshua, his successor, Moses closes the address,
retires from his office, and the orations of Moses are con
cluded •
CHAPTER III
ANALYSIS OF THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION IN DEUTERONOMY
Freese briefly defines Aristotle'a three kinds of
proof in these words:
The first depends upon the moral character of the
speaker, the second upon putting the hearer into a cer
tain frame of mind, the third upon the speech itself,
insofar as it proves or seems to prove.^
The first, which requires the speaker to be a student of
character and the virtues, is called ethical proof; the
second, whi oh demands that the speaker know the emotions
and the manner of producing them, is called emotional proof ;
the third, which demands logical reasoning, is termed logi
cal proof. It must be evident that any attempt to analyze
the elements of persuasion in a given speech or series of
speeches according to such a water-tight classification
must be artificial and merely for the sake of convenience,
for the three are usually interrelated in actual use and
cannot readily be separated. An orator's attempt to make
himself seem credible may involve his establishing his own
character— there is a fusion of the logical and the ethical
methods. Or, the very arguments proposed by the speaker
may arouse the emotions of his hearers— there is a blending
^John Henry Freese, Aristotle (New York : G. P. Put
nam's Sons, 1926), p. 17. r
68
of the logical and. the emotional methods. However, for the
purpose of analysis we shall adopt this classic distinction
and treat the elements of persuasion in the oratory of
Deuteronomy under the three divisions of ethical, emotional,
and logical appeal.
Ethical Appeal
Ethical proof operates toward persuasion by inspir
ing in the audience confidence in the character of the
speaker or in the person whose character he upholds, or
both. Positive ethical proof aims to inspire confidence
by dwelling on the virtues, intellectual ability, achieve
ments, etc., of the speaker or the person discussed ; nega
tive ethical appeal aims to destroy the opponent ^ s charac
ter and thus indirectly to establish the character of the
speaker or his proposal. Both of these are found in the
oratory of Deuteronomy, although the presence of negative
ethical appeal is very slight. It is this ethical appeal that
goes far in transmuting the legal document of Deuteronomy into
a vital force. Says Genung:
In hearing its words we listen not to a hard decree
or statute but to the living voice of a man. By its
persuasive charm the Hebrew law, from being a thing
austere, arbitrary, remote, as ages of deposit in
guilds and archives would make it, becomes a com
panionable element of common life, an accessible
friend in counsel. In a word, it is law charged
64
with personality.^
The ethical appeal of Deuteronomy is two-fold. Moses
commends himself to Israel, and recommends God to Israel.
In commending himself he employs five distinct means: (1)
a review of the facts of his successful leadership of Is
rael, (2) a claim to personal revelations from God, (3) an
assertion of devotion to Israel, (4) an appeal to his hear
ers’ powers of judgment, and (5) an expression of personal
courage.
(l) In reviewing the facts of his leadership Moses
tells how he had borne all the burdens of judgment and
counsel alone until the close of the encampment at Mt.
Horeb,^ how he then appointed judges to assist him while he
held the chief control and continued to give the major di-
4 R
rections, how he appointed the twelve spies, how he sent
6
an embassy to treat with King Sihon, how he distributed
territory to Machir, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the
E
John Franklin Genung, A Guidebook to the Biblical
Literature (Boston: Ginn and Company, 01916, 1919), p. EE4.
2
Peut. 1:9, Note: This and all following references
to Deuteronomy will be found in Richard G. Moulton, The
Modern Reader’s Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company,
1919)7 pp. 159-188.
^Deiit. 1:15-18.
®Deut. 1:23-25.
®Deut. 2:26-29.
65
7
Manassehites, and gave them cities, how he received the law
8
from the Lord — how he had led them for the forty years
9
of their wilderness wandering. It is apparent from the
mere recital of such acts of leadership that they were at
tended with great difficulty and were done not from selfish
motives but from a deep love for Israel. What Jebb writes
of Demosthenes’ "De Corona" can be said with equal truth of
the oratory of Moses: "The nobility of this great speech
declares itself not least in this, that the inevitable re
cital of personal services never once sinks into self-glori-
10
fication." This recital of personal achievement is con
fined chiefly to the historic survey of the first oration.
(E) The second means of ethical appeal is Moses’
claim to having personal revelations from God and the re
peated assertion of this claim. Moses speaks with an author-
ity born of the conviction that he is in direct personal
touch with God. Again and again he states the divine Im-
11
primatur: "the Lord said unto me," He claims to be God’s
’ ^Deut. 3:12-20.
8
Peut. 5:22; 9:10; 10:4.
^Deut. 29:5.
^Richard Glaverhouse Jebb, The Attic Orators from
to Isaeos (London: Macmillan, 1893), II, 414.
llpeat. 1:42; 2:1,2,9,17,31; 3:2,26; 4:10; 5:28;
10:1;11;“etc.
66
spokesman, speaking words which God commanded him to speak
to Israel: g,, "And the Lord commanded me at that time to
teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in
IS
the land whither ye go over to possess it." On at least
one occasion, Moses says, God actually dismissed the child
ren of Israel from Mis presence and appointed him as a sort
of go-between to relay the divine message to a people who
*12
in their fear were not able to hear it themselves. And
he does not hesitate to depict his personal conference in
the mount with the Lord, when there was, so he says, a
conversation on the repeated rebellions of Israel, in which
God protested his great love for Moses and his desire to
destroy Israel and make of Moses a great nation.^^ On this
occasion it was Moses who interceded for his people and
averted the divine wrath. The surety of these personal
revelations in Moses’ mind is also attested by his frequent
confusion of his own identity with that of the Lord, so
thoroughly has he assimilated his message. Several times
he seems to speak as God himself, omitting the introductory
phrase crediting the source of his appeal. The effect is
an unusual directness; g. ,
1 ?
Peut. 4:14; of. 2:4; 4:5; 5:30-31; 6:1; etc.
^^Peut. 5:5.
^■^Deut. 9:9-29.
67
And it shall oome to pass, if ye shall hearken diligent
ly unto my eommandments which I command you this day,
to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all
your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the
rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the
latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and
thy wine, and thine oil. And I will give grass in thy
fields for thy cattle, and thou shalt eat and be full.-*-^
His frequent use of the emphatic personal pronoun A
T-
for I, so often employed when deity speaks, lends added
force to his claim to personal revelations from God as a
means of ethical appeal
(3) The third means of ethical proof is the orator’s
frequent reference to his devotion to his people, a method
calculated to secure the good will of the audience. It is
ever as a loving father that he speaks. In the beginning
of the first ora,tion occurs this exclamation of regard for
them and their well-being: "The Lord, the God of your fath
ers, make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and
17
bless you, as he hath promised youI" Moses’ regard for
Israel was so great that he had interceded before God for
their lives, and on one occasion had even prayed for Aaron,
18
who had been the leader in the great desert defection.
He makes it very clear to Israel that God had denied him
1 5
Peut. 11:14-15; cf. 89:5-6.
^^Hote: The use of O J X is treated in Chap. IV,
pp. 116-118. ‘
17
Peut. 1:11.
^®Deut. 9:18-20
68
entrance into the good land, which they should enter, not
for his own sin, but for their salces. His punishment is a
sort of vicarious atonement which he is willing to undertake
because he loves Israel. Three times in the first oration
he repeats the striking words: "the Lord was angry with me
19
for your sakes."
(4) Moses’ fourth method of ethical appeal is the
appeal to the judgment of his hearers to weigh candidly the
two courses that he puts before them, with the implication
that they will of course choose the right way. This appeal
20
closes the second oration, but is expressed more strongly
in the peroration of the fourth :
See, I have set before thee this day life and good,
and death and evil; in that I command thee this day. to
love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep
his commandments and his statutes and his judgments,
that thou mayest live and multiply, and that the Lord
may bless thee in the land whither thou go est in to
possess it. But if thine heart turn away, and thou wilt
not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other
gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that
ye shall surely perish ; ye shall not prolong your days
upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go in
to possess it, I call heaven and earth to witness
against you this day, that I have set before thee life
and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose
life, that thou mayest live. ....
Although Moses reserves this specific method of ^peal for
^^Deut. 1:37; 3:26; 4:21.
20
Peut. 11:26-28.
21
P e u t. 3 0 : 1 5 - 2 0 .
69
of
the close^the second and the fourth orations, he exhibits
throughout the cycle of addresses a willingness to leave
his case in the hands of his audience. The use of the word
^for heart seems to be a distinct contribution to this
'* pp
effect.
(5) The last method of ethical appeal employed by the
orator is his frequent expression of hope and courage, by
which he communicates the same confidence to his hearers;
this reaches its climax in the farewell to Israel and in the
charge to his successor, Joshua, at the end of the fourth
oration :
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be af
frighted at them : for the Lord thy God, he it is that
doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee (to Israel] .
Be strong and of a good courage; for thou shalt go
with this people into the land which the Lord hath
sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt
cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he it is that
doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not
fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear hot, neither be
dismayed [to Joshua].
Such enthusiasm is contagious.
Although we have observed some evidences of ethical
appeal based on Moses’ personality in the fourth oration,
this means of proof is employed chiefly in the first and
pp
Note: The use of is treated in Chap. IV, p. 115.
D e u t. 3 1 : 6 - 8 .
70
second of the cycle. There is no negative ethical appeal of
this type.
The forcefulness of the appeal of Moses’ personality
is emphasized by a quotation from Josephus’ Antiquities,
written as late as the last century preceding the Christian
era:
But this man [ Moses] was admirable for his virtue,
and powerful in making men give credit to what he de
livered ; not only during the time of his natural life,
but even there is still no one of the Hebrews, who
does not act even now, as if Mo ses were present, and
ready to punish him, if he should do anything that is
indecent. . . . Whence we are not to wonder at what
was then done : while to this very day the writings
left by Moses have so great a force, that even those
that hate us do confess, that he who established this
settlement was God: and that it was by the means of
Moses, and of his virtue.
Moses employs ethical appeal by the recommendation
of the character of God in three ways: (1) a statement of
traits of character, (2) a review of God’s goodness to Is
rael, and (3) a statement of the goodness yet to be shown
to Israel.
(l) The characterization of God makes him a spiritual
pp- 20 gy
being,'^^ a loving father, the creator and owner of
Josephus, The Genuine V/orks of Flavius Josephus ^
(London: W. Bowyer, 1787T, III, xv, 3.
^^Deut. 4:15.
Peut. 1:31; 4:37; 7:7-13.
4 : 3 2 .
71
28 29
all, the only god, and the source of the power to get
wealth. He is compassionate,^^ and disciplines his child-
32
ren only for their own good. He is merciful and forgiv
ing,*^'^ justpowerful,and covenant-keeping, remember
ing not only his oath made to Abraham and his chosen people,
but even his covenant with foreign nations.
(2) Moses* review of God’s goodness to Israel recalls
37
the deliverance from Egypt, his fighting for them in the
38
destruction of King Sihon and King Og, his constant pro
vision for their physical needs during the forty years of
wandering,his multiplying of their progenyand his
10:14.
^^Deut. 4:35,39
®°Deut. 8:18.
^^Deut. 4:29.
®^Deut. 8:2-5.
^^Deut. 30:1-3.
^'^Deut. 10I'17-18.
®^Deut. 11:2-7.
Deut. 6:10; 29:10-13; 2:5.
Deut. 4:20,37; 6:22-23; 29:2-3.
Deut. 2:24,31 ff.; 3:1 ff.
Deut. 1:33; 2:7; 8:2-4, 14-16.
40
Deut. 1:10; 10:22.
72
honoring Israel by choosing them as his people and vouch
safing to them the privilege of hearing his voice.
(3) Moses’ prophecy of God’s continued goodness for
42
his people includes the gift of good land, the destruction
of the Canaanites before them,^^ the manifold blessings
44
guaranteed them if they obey his law.
There is a slight element of negative ethical appeal
in the characterization of God: he is often contrasted with
other gods, who are always mentioned in a disparaging tone.
They are merely made of wood and stone and decked with gold
and silver,and cannot hear or smell or see or taste.
4 - 7
They are "an abomination to the Lord thy God."
This phase of ethical appeal is likewise restricted
largely to the first two orations, although it tends to occur
throughout the cycle more widely than does the appeal of
Moses’ own character and career. The forceful appeal of the
character of such a national hero as Moses and of the
^^Deut. 4:33-38.
8:7-10; 11:24
43
Deut. 9:1-3; 11:23.
44
Deut. 28:1-14.
^^Deut. 4:28; 7:25; 29:17
^^Deut. 4:28.
^"^Deut. 7:25.
73
character of God in contrast to the gods of the nations at
the time of Josiah is apparent*
Emotional Appeal
According to Driver, the primary aim of the Book of
Deuteronomy is "to create an effectual moral stimulus for
AQ
realizing the ideals" propounded in it. The emotional
appeal of the oratory is calculated to subserve the attain
ment of this purpose. Of this moral purpose and the motives
employed in enforcing it. Driver writes:
Throughout, the author’s aim is parenetic: he does
not merely collect, or report, a series of laws, he
"expounds" them. . . . , i,. _e.,he develops them with
reference to the moral purposes which they subserve,
and the motives by which the Israelite should feel
prompted to obey them,^^
There are two basic emotional appeals in Deuteronomy :
(1) a patriotic appeal to the national dignity of the Hebrew
commonwealth, and (2) an appeal to the nation’s sense of
gratitude and obedience to God for his love to them. These
two cardinal appeals are reenforced with a variety of
motives. Of these appeals and enforcing motives. Driver
S. R, Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on Deuteronomy (Hew York : Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1895),
p. xxvii.
49^
S. R. Driver, k n Introduction to the Literature of
the Old Testament (Hew York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1900)7
p. 71.
74
further says ;
It f DeuteronomyJ was an emphatic reaffirmation of the
funaamental principles which Moses had long ago insist
ed on, loyalty to Jehovah and repudiation of all false
gods: it was an endeavor to realize in practice the
ideals of the prophets, especially of Hosea and Isaiah,
to transform the Judah demoralized by Manasseh into the
"holy nation" pictured in Isaiah’s vision, and to
awaken in it that devotion to God, and love for man,
which Hosea had declared to be the first of human
duties. In setting forth these truths the author ex
hausts all his eloquence: in impressive and melodious
periods, he dilates upon the claims which Jehovah has
upon the Israelites’ allegiance, and seeks, by ever
appealing to the most generous and powerful motives, to
stir Israel’s heart to respond with undivided loyalty
and affection.
Of these two foundation appeals it is difficult to
decide which is the more emphatic, so thoroughly do both
penetrate the four discourses. Fowler, in his discussion
of the motives of Deuteronomy, recognizes the prominence of
the motive of national self-interest; he says:
Such generous motives [ a s God’s love, majesty, mercy,
etc.J are repeatedly urged in this great discourse, but
perhaps more prominent is the motive of national self-
interest. .... Deuteronomy makes its appeal to nation
al self-interest rather than individual motives.
Genung emphatically declares: "The basal appeal of it fDeu
teronomy] is to Israel’s self-respect and dignity as a
52
nation chosen of God to a high mission."
RA
Ibid.. p. 89.
51
Henry Thatcher Fowler, A Hi story of the Literature
of Ancient Israel from the Earliest Times to 155 B " , " _ C " . (New
York : The Macmillan Company] 1912S, pp. 180-181.
52
John Franklin Genung, cit. , p. 225.
75
In presenting this appeal Moses repeatedly urges the
idea that Israel is a chosen nation, favored of God, and
called to be exalted above the other nations of the earth.
Thus he appeals to the naLion’s "wish for worth" — to use
Whiting Williams’ pungent phrase--and to their satisfac
tion in the recognition of their worth by other nations.
He shows that other nations will recognize their power:
This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the
fear of thee upon the peoples that are under the whole
heaven, who shall hear the report of thee, a^d shall
tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.^*^
Other nations will recognize their superior wisdom (here he
presents a spectacle of a great nation, the cynosure of all
the earth):
.... for this [keeping the commandmentsJ is your
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peo
ples, which shall hear all these statutes, and say.
Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people. For what great nation is there, that hath a
god so nigh to them, as the Lord our God is whensoever
we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that
hath statutes and judgements so righteous as all this
law, which I set before you this day?^4
Other nations will recognize their family ties to God: "And
all the peoples of the earth shall see that thou art called
by the name of the Lord ; and they shall be afraid of thee.
Deut. E:25; of. 11:25.
4:6-8
^®Deut. E8:10.
76
They are peculiarly worthy in that God had actually chosen
them above all the other nations of the earth as his own
people, had spoken to them audibly, and had given them un
usually just and merciful laws for their guidance, Moses
appeals to the past for his defense of this idea;
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before
thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth,
and from the one end of heaven unto the other, whether
there hath been any such thing as this great thing is,
or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the
voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as
thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go
and take him a nation from the midst of another nation,
by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war,
and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and
by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your
God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? .... Out
of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might
instruct thee : and upon earth he made thee to see his
great fire ; and thou heardest his words out of the
midst of the fire. And because he loved thy fathers,
therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought
thee out with his presence, with his great power, out
of Egypt ; .... Know therefore this day, and lay it
to thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above
and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. And
thou shalt keep his statutes, and his commandments,
which I command thee this day, that it may go well with
thee.,^
Thus Moses makes it clear that, although they have abundant
reason to deem themselves unique among the nations, this
distinction lies not in their numbers, material possessions,
landed estates, or national righteousness, but rather in
their intimate relation to God and their obedience to the
law of which they are made the custodians. Genung calls
4 : 2 2 - 4 0 ; o f . 5 : 1 -2 1 ; %6.
77
57
this pride in their law "the groundwork of appeal" of
Deuteronomy.
Next to the appeal to patriotic dignity is the appeal
to the active principle of love to God. Genung summarizes
the Book of Deuteronomy as "a plea for a simple religion of
love to a God who is near and personal. . . . , and for a
wholesome law of life which justifies itself in common sense.
Driver calls "love to God, as the motive of
human action, . . . . the characteristic doctrine of Deu
teronomy. This motive is everywhere held up as the truest
principle of human conduct; it is the central idea of the
book; it is repeated in varying forms, but its fundamental
conception is the same: "Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our
God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy might.
Such love demands a renunciation of everything that
detracts from loyalty to God; as a recognition of gratitude
to God it demands obedience to his requirements. In a word,
Moses’ appeal is to the human sense of gratitude and
57
John Franklin Genung, pp. cit., p. EE6.
, p. S27.
S* R. Driver, pp. cit., p. 78.
. 6:4; of. 10:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 30:6, 16, 20.
78
obedience in the face of benefits conferred. Israel owes a
debt to God, and this debt demands payment; but it is a pay
ment of love and not of coercion. As Driver says.
The author wrote, it is evident, under a keen sense of
the perils of idolatry; and to guard Israel against
this by insisting on the debt of gratitude and obed
ience which it owes to its Sovereign Lord, is the funda
mental teaching of the book.
In the face of God’s love for Israel, shown in his continued
watchcare, and of the nature of his being and his infinite
'superiority to other deities, idolatry and superstition
simply cannot exist.
Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, summarizes the
working of this basic appeal as follows;
The thought of the love of Israel towards her God.
... is earnestly insisted on as the basis of faithful
service on the part of the creature to the Creator and
of the redeemed to the Deliverer......... Appeals made
to Israel to keep the commandments are, it is true,
often based on the recollection of God’s might and of
His terrible visitation; on motives of awe and fear ;
but the highest appeal is made to the consciousness of
Jehovah’s love, in that He had chosen Israel, not for
Israel’s greatness or goodness, but out of His own free
love. .... The love and affection of God towards
the NATION, as distinguished from his love towards indi
viduals . constitutes an especial feature in Deuteronomy.
. . . . Again, love as indicating the people’s affec
tion and devotion to Jehovah is again and again insisted
on as the true spring of all human action.62
These major emotional appeals are frequently enforced
R, Driver, pp. cit., p. 77.
62
James Hastings, editor, A Dictionary of the Bible
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901-1804), I, 598.
79
by appeals to a variety of lesser "drives," all of which
are but "urges" toward the goal of happiness, which Aris
totle considers the subject of all exhortation and dis-
63
suasion. Most prominent among these are the desire for
reward, and its opposite, the fear of punishment. Through
out the third oration Moses uses this direct appeal, as he
catalogues in concrete details the blessings that follow
obedience to the requirements of the law and the curses
that follow disobedience. "It was doubtless," says Genung,
"the vigorous sentences of warning and curse found near the
end of the book. . . . which had the first and sharpest ef
fect in causing the king’s dismay. . . . and waking to life
the torpid conscience of a people. The entire oration
is an illustration of the use of the motives of desire for
reward and fear of consequences, and hence will not be
quoted.
While appeals to lesser motives occur here and there
through the course of the Deuteronomic cycle, they are
found chiefly in the last two orations, which serve as a
sort of extended peroration to the series. Practically
every sentence of the third oration couches a minor motive
appeal. A reading of the entire speech is necessary
63
Vide supra, p. 4
John Franklin Genung, pp. cit., p. 2E2.
80
adequately to illustrate the extent of the "drives" covered.
In the initial catalogue of blessings alone there are the
following appeals: (l) "the wish for worth," (B) acquisi
tiveness, (5) parental desire, (4) desire for food, (5)
contentment and domestic ease, (6) escape from danger, (7)
. 6 5
victory over enemies.
The catalogue of curses of the third oration repeats
appeals to all of these human "drives" and adds others, all,
of course, presented from a negative point of view. Moses’
presentation of the lack of all desirable things makes all
the stronger this series of natural appeals. There is
extended emphasis on the desire for health^^ as a basic appeal,
67
on the desire for mental rest and ease, on the desire for
68 69
freedom, and on the acquisitive desire. The sex desire
70
is also introduced, and family love is prominent as an
71
appeal.
The fourth oration repeats several of these appeals
. 28:1-14.
^^Deut. 28:21-22, 27, 35, 59-61.
^’ ^Deut. 28:32, 65-67.
28:36, 48-51, 64,68.
^^Deut. 28:38-44.
Deut. 28:30.
71
D eut. 2 8 :3 2 .
81
and emphasizes the "wish for worth" in a new way. Moses
here paints a picture of future generations looking hack
upon Israel’s career and pointing to her miserable condition
72
as a result of her failure to keep God’s commandments.
It is a plea to escape the ignominy of becoming a lesson in
national failure to future generations. This final oration
adds another turn to this appeal; it is the desire for self-
assertion over one’s enemies, the desire to see evil brought
upon one’s foes. Moses declares that if Israel, having
turned from the Lord, shall again turn to him,". . . . the
Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies,
T t t - j
and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee."
It is significant to note that the two basic motive
appeals of Moses’ discourse can together be taken as aspects
of "the desire to align one’s self on the side of the power
not ourselves which makes for righteousness," which Thomson
considers "the most worthy of all religious motives." To
express the conclusions of the foregoing paragraphs in
Thomson’s terms, it is evident that Moses appeals to the
following religious motives: "fear and awe," "the lure of
rewards and punishments," "sense of guilt and the desire
for forgiveness," "self-expression, self-abasement, and
’’ ^Deut. 29:22-29; of. 28:37.
'^^Deut. 30:7.
8E
self-expansion," "conservation of values," and "sharing
74-
the life and power of God." '
It should be observed in passing that preceding the
reading of the third oration, the audience that listened
to the recital of Deuteronomy, by a process of empathy, had
been resolved into a psychological crowd. Chapter 27 of the
book represents the gathering of the Israelites just before
entering Canaan, into groups for the rehearsal of the
Blessings and the Curses. These groups were rendered highly
suggestible by close contact, by simultaneous ritualistic
repetition of the word Amen after each curse, by confidence
in their leader, and by the flood of vivid images pouring
from the mouth of their leader. With such a picture before
them, the audience of Josiah’s time was emotionally equipped
to receive the matter of Moses’ third oration with well-
prepared hearts. The fusing of the hearers into a psycholo
gical crowd had largely deprived individuals of the power
of cool reason and rendered them emotionally responsive to
the primal "drives" of human nature. Allp^rt says, "The
fact is clear that in crowd phenomena the fundamental
drives of protection, hunger, and sex are the supreme
7 4 -
Mehran K. Thomson, The Springs of Human Action
(New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1927T7 P- 411.
83
controlling forces
The two fundamental emotional appeals of the Deu-
teronomio cycle— national self-respect and gratitude to
God— are used especially in the first two orations, although
their presence is detected all through the group. On the
other hand, although there is a distribution of the lesser
motives throughout the cycle, emphasis on the natural
human "drives" is concentrated in the third and fourth
orations.
Logical Anneal
Jebb, in his discussion of Aristotle’s methods, has
this to say of the relative importance of logical appeal :
Aristotle opens his treatise with the observation that,
whereas there are three instruments of rhetorical per-
suasion--the ethical, the pathetic and the logical--
his predecessors have paid far the most attention to
the second and have almost totally neglected the third,
though this third is incomparably the most important,—
indeed, the only one of the three which is truly scien
tific. The logical proof is the very body,tr^^a, of
rhetorical persuasion,— everything else, appeal to feel
ing, attractive portrayal of character, and so forth,
is, from thp scientific point of view, only irPocrOnt^n t
appendage*’°
In spite of Aristotle’s dictum, we are compelled to
conclude that the persuasion of the four orations of
75
Floyd Henry Allport, Social Psychology (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, *^1924) ,p. 293.
76
Richard Glaverhouse Jebb, The Attic Orators from
Antiphon to Isaeos, (London: Macmillan,"1893), I, Ixxix.
84
Deuteronomy is effected with very little mere appeal to the
intellect and absolutely no formal logic* However, in the
Deuteronomic oratory we do see exemplification of Aristotle’s
belief that suggestive examples may be more forceful than
true inductions and probable consequences more striking
than exact syllogisms.
There is in the oratory of Deuteronomy but one argu
ment, and that is an extended argument of causal relation
ship. Moses builds his appeals upon a framework of the
argument from cause to effect. He makes national prosperity
dependent upon obedience, and national failure dependent up
on disobedience. Genung characterizes the principles of the
book as "molded to the terms of spiritual cause and effect.
Gardiner says of this relationship :
The great writer who wrote the original Deuteronomy,
besides concentrating the worship at Jerusalem, formu
lated in the 7th century B. C. the doctrine of the de
pendence of the outward fortunes of Israel on its
faithfulness to the covenant with Jehovah.
Fowler says that the doctrine that
.... the national prosperity and especially the pos
session of the land were contingent upon faithfulness
to Jehovah. . . . became as dominant in the literature
of Israel as the doctrine of evolution is in the
thought of today.
7 7
John Franklin Genung, pjq. cit. , p. 2E4.
*^®J, H. Gardiner, The Bible as English Literature
(Hew York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927], p. 27,
"^^Henry Thatcher Fowler, op. cit. , p. 181.
85
Moses states this causal argument specifically at the
close of both the second and the fourth orations, where he
holds out the choice of blessing or curse as directly de
pendent on obedience or disobedience, respectively. The
argument as given in the fourth oration reads;
See, I have set before thee this day life and good,
and death and evil ; in that I command thee this day to
love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to
keep his commandments and his statutes and his judge
ments, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that
the Lord thy God may bless thee in the land whither
thou goest in to possess it. But if thine heart turn
away, and thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away,
and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto
you this day, that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not
prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest
over Jordan to go in to possess it. . . .
That idolatry, disobedience, and failure to remember
the covenant with God are the cause of national failure and
ultimate destruction is stated in such typical passages as
the following;
• • • . then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which
brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God ; and
him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by his name. Ye
shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people
which are round about you; for the Lord thy God in the
midst of thee is a jealous god; lest the agner of the
Lord be kindled against thee, and he destroy thee from
off the face of the earth.81
Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived,
and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship
®°®eut. 20:15-20; of. 11:26-28.
^^Deut. 6:12-15.
86
them; and the anger of the Lord be kindled against you,
and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and
that the land yield not her fruit; and ye perish quickly
from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.
On the other hand, that obedience to God’s command
ments and recognition of him as the only true God are the
cause of national prosperity and ultimate triumph among the
nations is insisted on even more frequently than the con
verse just illustrated. Typical examples of this assertion
of causal relationship are :
And thou shalt keep his statutes, and his commandments
which I command thee this day, that it may go well with
thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou
mayest prolong thy days upon the land, which the Lord
thy God giveth thee, forever.
Ye shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God
hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may
be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in
the land which ye shall possess.
For if ye shall diligently keep all this commandment,
which I command you, to do it; to love the Lord your
God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
then will the Lord drive out all these nations from
before you, and ye shall possess nations greater and
mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the sole
of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilder
ness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates,
even unto the hinder sea shall be your border. There
shall no man be able to stand before you: the Lord your
God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon
all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath
®^Deut. 11:16-17; of. 4:25-28; 8:10-20; etc,
Deut. 4:40.
®^Deut. 5:33.
87
OR
spoken unto you.
The entire content of the third oration is an ex
tended expression of this causal relationship: the first
part of the oration specifically gives a catalogue of nation
al and domestic blessings as the direct effect of obedience
to God’s law,^^ while the long latter portion of the oration
gives a catalogue of unspeakable curses as the direct effect
87
of disobedience to God’s law and of idolatry.
Moses further emphasizes the argument by saying that
when national calamity overtakes Israel, the generations of
Hebrews yet to come, the stranger from abroad, and all
nations will recognize that the cause of the curse was the
disobedience of Israel, their disregard for the covenant
with God, and their idolatry:
.... even all the nations shall say. Wherefore hath
the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the
heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because
they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their
fathers, which he made with them when he brought them
forth out of the land of Egypt; and went and served
other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew
not, and whom he had not given unto them: therefore
the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to
bring upon it all the curse that is written in this
book: and the Lord rooted them out of their land in
anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and
85
° Deut. 11:22-25; qf. 5:29; 6:2-3, 24-25; 7:12-25;
8:1; 11:8-9, 13-15; 30:1-10; etc.
^Seut. 28:1-14.
87
D eut. 2 8 :1 5 -6 8 .
86
cast them into another land, as at this day.^^
îhls argument from cause to effect is supported by
numerous examples. The historic retrospects of the first
89
two orations abound in such examples taken from the
national history of Israel, Particular instances of the
90
effect of disobedience are the sin of Baal-Peor, the
91
temptation at Massah, the rebellion of Pathan and
Q p
Abiram, and the fact that many of the fathers had been
93
excluded from the land of Canaan. Particularly forceful
must have been Moses^ thrice-given example of his own
exclusion from the good land, the result of his own sin
when he lost his temper at the waters of Meribah and there
by broke Cod ^ s commandment.
This method of reasoning was perhaps very appealing
to the audience of losiah’s time for two reasons: (1) it
^^Peut. 29:24-28.
89
Peut. 1:6-3:29 and 9:7-10:11; of. 8:1-20.
^^Deut. 4:3; of. gum. 25:1-5 (in Richard C. Moulton,
op. Git., pp. 145-146T.
^^Peut. 6:16; c_f. Sx. 17:1-8 (in Richard C. Moulton,
op. Pit. . pp. 69-^70).
92
Peut. 11:6; cf. Num. 16:1-35 (in Richard C. Moulton,
op. Git., pp. 135-1367T
^^Peut. 1:34-36; 2:14-16.
^^Deut. 1:37; 3:26; 4:21;
ard C. Moulton, pp^. cit. , p. 139).
^^Deut. 1:37; 3:26; 4:21; of. Num. 20:7-12 (in Rich-
89
was given as from the mouth of one whom they eonsid.erect an
authority (this topic has been adequately treated under the
discussion of ethical appeal]and (E) the political,
religious, and social conditions prevailing in the land
were already becoming a fulfillment of the curses prophesied
as the result of disobedience.^^ License and crime abounded
on every hand, the national economy was fast declining, and
the encroachments of nations seeking to make war and sub
jugate Judah were on the very horizon. What Moses predicted
as the result of disobedience to Cod's laws and of idolatry,
the people of JosiahJs time could readily trace back to the
underlying cause. And meanwhile irreverence, idolatry, de
fiance of the laws of Cod, which Moses postulated as the
cause of national disaster, mounted higher through all the
kingdom.
To the generation of Josiah^s time, looking forward,
the argument employed was one of cause to effect; but to the
same generation, considering the present in the light of the
past, it became also an argument from effect to cause. It
was therefore a call to amendment of ways, to national re
form. Perhaps it was the two-fold intention of the argument
that made the logical appeal of the oratory of Deuteronomy
95
Vide surra, pp. 62-73.
^^Vide surra, pp. 25-39.
90
so forceful and thus, reenforced by the ethical and emo
tional appeals already analyzed, provided the stimulus for
the great reform begun in Jerusalem in 622 B. G.
Some Devices for Reenforcing Anneal
The ethical, emotional, and logical appeal of these
orations is strengthened by the use of several devices, such
as (l) figures of speech, (2) vivid imagery, (3) concrete
and specific diction, (4) empathy, (5) rhythm, and (6) rep
etition.
(1) The figures of speech occurring in the cycle of
orations tend to be compact. Doubtless they often had the
effect of stereotypes in the minds of the auditors. When
Moses depicts the tender care of G-od for his people he de-
97
scribes him as bearing Israel Vas a man doth bear his son,"
but to the enemies of Israel in the way, he is "a devouring
98
fire." The Amorites are pictured as chasing Israel in
99
flight "as bees do." When Moses recalls the deliverance
of Israel from Egypt, he portrays them as delivered from
"the house of bondage,from "the iron furnace.
(2] and (3) The imagery employed is frequently vivid
97 100
Peut. 1:31. -^^^Deut. 6:12.
. 9 : 3 . . 4 : 2 0 .
99
Deut. 1:44
91
and often strikingly concrete. When Moses recalls the
experiences in the wilderness, it is "a great and terrible
102
wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions,"
Of God^s providential care over Israel during the wilderness
journey, he says, "thy raiment waxed not old upon thee,
neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.Of the
giving of the law on Mt. Horeb he says, "the mountain burned
with fire unto the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud,
and thick darkness, When he recognizes the stranger in
the camp he sweeps the gamut of menial occupations with the
exact phrase "from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer
of thy water.The bigoted person who continues sinning
under the vain delusion that his sin will be covered by the
general righteousness is "a root that beareth gall and bit
terness .
When Moses describes "the good land that is beyond
Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon,he makes it
"a land flowing with milk and honey ; a land of "great
and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full
of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns
^^^Deut. 8:15. ^^^Deut. 29:18.
^^^Deut. 8:4. ^^^Deut. 3:25.
^^'^Deut. 4:11. ^^^Deut. 6:3, etc.
^^^Deut. 29:11.
92
hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive trees,
which thou plantedst not;"^^^ "a land of brooks of water, of
fountains and depths, springing forth in valleys and hills;
a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trocs and
pomegranates; a land of oil olives and honey; a land where
in thou Shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not
lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out
110
of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." The other side of
the picture he paints with equally graphic strokes. He
pictures the future estate of the land, if Israel refuses
to walk in obedience to God, in this succession of images:
"the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burn
ing, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth
therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and
The effect of such striking imagery and concrete and
specific diction is most noticeable in the aggregate in the
third oration, where Moses holds out as a reward for
righteousness or as a punishment for sin an array of direct
material consequences in all their details.
The promises of reward for righteousness include
^^*^Deut. 6:11-12.
110
Peut. 8:7-9.
29:33.
93
blessings upon "the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy
ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy
kine, and the young of thy flock;upon "thy basket and
113
thy kneading trough;" upon the coming in and going out
of the devout Israelite, "The Lord shall cause thine
enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thee:
they shall come out against thee one way, and shall flee be
fore thee seven ways,"^^^ "The Lord shall open unto thee
his good treasury the heaven to give the rain of thy land
in its season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and
thou shalt lend unto many nations and thou shalt not borrow.
And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail;
and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath ;
if thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy
God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do
them; and shalt not turn aside from any of the words which
I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left,
to go after other gods to serve them.
On the other hand, the results of disobedience are
^^^Deut. 28:4.
^^^Deut. 28:5.
^^^Deut. 28:6.
^^^Peut. 28:7.
^^^Peut. 28:12-13.
94
presented in even more striking imagery and in far greater
detail of concrete and specific utterance. There are the
analogous curses upon "The fruit of thy body, and the fruit
of thy ground, the increase of thy kine, and the young of
thy flock; upon "thy basket and thy kneading trough;
upon coming in and going out. But the wealth of detailed
imagery is extended. There are pictures of consumption,
fever, inflammation, fiery heat, the sword, blasting, and
120
mildew. The heaven is brass; the earth, iron; the rain,
l2l
powder and dust. A tremendous category of diseases will
overcome the disobedient: the boil, the emerods, the scur-
122
vy, the itch, madness, blindness, astonishment of heart.
Wives and children will be ruthlessly taken away before
their very eyes, and their personal possessions seized with
122
violence. There will be planting of much seed with
little harvest; vineyards will be planted, but the worms
124
will eat the grapes; olive trees will east their fruit.
The disobedient nation will finally be besieged by a mysti
cal nation, coming "as the eagle flieth," which shall put
28:18. . 28:23-24.
28:17. 28:27-29,35.
119
Beut. 28:19. Beut. 28:30-34.
B eut. 2 8 :2 2 . ^^'^Beut. 2 8 :3 8 -4 0 .
95
125
"a yoke of iron" upon its neck and cause it to endure the
most frightful tortures ; parents are pictured eating their
own children in the terror of the siege; slaves are shown
barely enduring their captivity with "trembling heart, and
126
failing of eyes, and pining of soul ;" until finally the
very climax of degradation and ignominy is such a glutting
of the slave markets with cheap human merchandise that
127
there is no longer a market for their miserable bodies.
Of the imagery employed in this section of the third ora
tion Milman writes:
The sublimity of his denunciations surpasses anything
in the oratory or the poetry of the whole world. Na
ture is exhausted in furnishing terrific images; noth
ing, excepting the real horrors of the Jewish history--
the misery of their sieges, the cruelty, the contempt,
the oppressions, the persecutions, which, for ages,
this scattered and despised and detested nation have
endured— can approach the tremendous malediction which
warned them against the violation of their Law.
Such are, by way of example, the imagery and the diction
employed by the orator of Deuteronomy.
Some observations on the general advantage of the
concrete nature of the Hebrew vocabulary are treated in
28:48.
Peut. 28:65.
^^’ ^Beut. 28:68.
128
Henry Hart Milman, The History of the Jews from
the Earliest Period down to Modern Times THew York: W. J.
Widdleton, 1874T?TT, I, 256.
96
Chapter IV.
(4) It is by such concrete means that he makes vivid
his appeal and projects the hearer into the situation he
describes, thus rendering easier the reception of his mes
sage. Whether it is a future estate of blessing or of
curse he is equally successful in producing this condition
of empathy. The hearer feels himself actually enjoying the
good land as a result of obedience to the law of God, of,
contrariwise, suffering the curses of disobedience. This
use of empathy may be further illustrated by the following
more extended examples:
When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land
whither thou goest to possess it, and shall east out
many nations before thee, the Hittite, and the Girga-
shite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the
Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven
nations greater and mightier than thou; and when the
Lord thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and
thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy
them: neither shalt thou make marriages with them;
thy daughter thou shalt not give his son, nor his
daughter shalt thou take unto thy son......... But thus
shall he deal with them: ye shall break down their al- ,
tars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down
their Asherim, and burn their images with fire.^^0
How easy to picture oneself conquering the tribes of Pales
tine and destroying the signs of idolatry as Moses antici
pates such details of conquest. Here is another picture, a
129
'Seut. 7:1-6.
Vide infra, pp. 113-115.
130.
97
contrasted picture of domestic felicity:
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your
heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a
sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets
between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your
children, talking of them, when thou sittest in thine
house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when
thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou
shalt wi'ite them upon the doorposts of thine house,
and upon thy gates: that your days may be multiplied,
and the days of your children, upon the land which
the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the
days of the heavens above the earth.
How easy to visualize oneself carrying out the provisions of
the law in daily experience as Moses paints such arpicture
of simple domestic life to come.
The entire third oration is a study in empathy. Its
closing lines will suffice to conclude the illustrations of
this phase of reenforced emotional appeal. In these graphic
images Moses seeks to project his hearers into the terrible
situation which shall be theirs if they do not obey the law
which he enjoins upon them:
If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this
law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear,
this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God : then
the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues
of thyseed, even great plagues, and of long continuance,
and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. And he
will bring upon thee again all the diseases of Egypt,
which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto
thee. Also every sickness and every plague, which is
not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord
bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall
be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of
131:
D eut. 1 1 :1 8 -2 1 .
98
heaven for multitude; because thou didst not hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God. And it shall come
to pass, that as the~~L'o'î^' ‘ ~rëTôiced over you to do you
good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice
over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you;
and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou
goest in to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter
thee among all peoples, from the one end of the earth
even unto the other end of the earth; and there thou
shalt serve other gods, which thou hast not known,
thou nor thy fathers, even wood and stone. And among
these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall
be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but the Lord shall
give thee there a trembling heart, and failing " o " f eyes,
and pining of soul: and thy life shall hang in doubt
before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and
shalt have none assurance of thy life: in the morning
thou shalt say, Would God it were evenI and at even
thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the
fear of thine heart which thou shalt fear, and for the
sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. And the Lord
shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the
way whereof I said unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more
again: and there ye shall sell yourselves unto your
enemies for bondmen and for bondwomen: and no man shall
buy you.L32
(5) It is apparent that a vigorous rhythm especially
marked in the last citation runs throughout these illustra
tions and lends further emotional tone to the content.
However, since this is a matter of unique Hebraic interest,
the subject of rhythm as a factor in emotional persuasion
in Deuteronomy is given separate treatment in Chapter IV.
(6) Repetition, an active factor in enforcing appeal,
is a commonplace in Deuteronomy. Wood and Grant say that
isapeut. 28:58-68.
infra, pp.101-112.
99
the style of the oratory is "so repetitious that certain
words and phrases are known as Deuteronomic. Hastings^
Dictionary of the Bible gives an extended list of such lo
cutions, and Driver, in his Introduction to the Litera
ture of the Old Testament, lists fDrty-one expressions
which are repeated over and over in Deuteronomy. Such
expressions as the following are common and significant in
establishing appeal: "to love," with God as the object;
"other gods^"a holy people"; "which I am commanding thee
this day"; "with all your heart and soul," "the land
whither thou goest in to possess it"; "a mighty hand and a
stretched out arm"; "that it may be well with thee"; "a
137
peculiar people," By the repeated use of these and many
other locutions Moses does much to emphasize his leading
ideas. They must have come to have the force of cliches,
or stereotypes, to the audience of Josiah^s time.
By such means— figures of speech, vivid imagery, con
crete and specific diction, empathy, rhythm, and repetition,
Moses seeks to reenforce the major appeals of Deuteronomy.
Irving Francis Wood and Elihu Grant, The Bible as
Literature (New York: Abingdon Press, 1914), p. 123.
James Hastings, pp. cit.. I, 599.
1 36
S. R. Driver, pp. cit., pp. 99-102.
1 37
Note : These expressions are so abundant in the
text that no references are given.
CHAPTER IV
THE UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION OF HEBREW RHETORIC TO THE
PERSUASIVE APPEAL OF DETTTERONOMY
This chapter treats several phases of rhetorical
structure and diction that conduce toward the persuasive ef
fect of the oratory of Deuteronomy. These topics are
grouped here not because they are distinct from the ethical
and emotional methods of appeal treated in the immediately
preceding sections, but rather, because, being particularly
characteristic of Hebrew rhetoric and diction, they make a
unique contribution from Hebraic sources to the study of
ethical, emotional, and logical appeal. Three main points
will be considered: (l) the rhythm of the Hebrew oratory as
shown in Deuteronomy, (E) the general analytical nature of
the Hebrew language, and (3) the concreteness of the Hebrew
vocabulary. To these will be added ((4) and (5)) the use of
two particular words and (6) the use of an idiomatic Hebrew
grammatical construction, as factors in reenforcing appeal.
In this study recourse to the original Hebrew,
although it has been made and is desirable, is not essential.
The nature of the Hebrew language is such as to render its
translation into English peculiarly felicitous and trust
worthy. The best modern translations are a substantial and
101
accurate reproduction of the style and diction of the
original Hebrew. As Green says, in his History of the Eng
lish People : "the language of the Hebrew, the idiom of the
Hellenistic Greek, lent themselves with a curious felicity
to the purposes of translation.On this point Cook, in
his Bible and English Prose Style, quotes a portion of
William Tyndale^s preface to his Obedience of a Christian
Man, as follows:
. . . . the properties of the Hebrew tongue agreeth a
thousand times more with the English than with the Latin.
The manner of speaking is both one, so that in a thous
and places thou needest not but to translate it into
the English word for word, when thou must seek a compass
in Latin, and yet thou shalt have much work to translate
it well-favoredly, so that it have the same grace and
sweetness, sense and pure understanding with it in the
Latin as it hath in the Hebrew. A thousand parts bet
ter may it.be translated into the English than into
the Latin.^
Rhythm
The best prose is rhythmic. But rhythm is a special
characteristic of oratory and, as has been shown in the
resume of the elements of persuasion, a factor in the per
suasive process. There is something about the rhythmic flow
of language that invites and compels attention, pleases the
John Richard Green, History of the English People
(London: Macmillan and Co., 1879), III, 11.
2
Albert S. Cook, The Bible and English Prose Style
(Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1892f, pp. xl-xli.
102
imagination, and hence, from an emotional point of view,
conduces toward persuasion. There is a sensuous element
in rhythm.
In order to understand the sensuous element in the
rhythm of the Deuteronomic oratory, we must observe the
relationship between prose and poetry in Hebrew literature
in general. In this literature the line between poetry and
elevated prose is less sharply drawn than in Western
languages, and the prophets and orators of the Hebrew con
tinually speak in a marked rhythm and frequently rise into
what seems almost a poetic strain. According to Driver,
Poetry is distinguished from prose partly by the
character of the thoughts of which it is the exponent,—
which in Hebrew poetry, as a rule, either express or
spring out of an emotion,--partly by its diction (the
choice ^nd order of words), but especially by its
rhythm.^
The rhythm of most Western poetry has a definite
meter of accent and rime, the metrical segments being indi
cated by division into lines or verses. But in the ancient
Hebrew poetry the rhythm is a rhythm of thought, with no
meter in the strict sense of the word and rime merely an
accident if indeed at all occurrent. This thought rhythm
is indicated by division of the poem into lines of approxi
mately the same length, and these lines are combined in
2
■S. R. Driver, ^ Introduction to the Literature of
the Old Testament (Hevi/ York: G. Scribner’s Sons, 1900) , p.361
103
groups of two, three, or four to constitute verses, the
verses usually marking more distinct pauses in thought
progress than the separate lines indicate. The fundamental
form of the Hebrew verse is the couplet of two lines, either
of which (rarely both) may be reenforced by a third line ;
and the distinguishing feature of this verse form is the
parallelism of thought and structure in the sequent lines
comprising it.
Robert Lowth, who first perceived the significance
in Hebrew poetry of this parallelism of clauses, gives this
basic definition of parallelism:
The correspondence of one verse, or line, with another,
I call -parallelism. When a proposition is delivered,
and a second is subjoined to it, or drawn under it,
equivalent, or contrasted with it--these I call par
allel lines; and the words or phrases, answering one to
another in the corresponding lines, parallel terms
Lowth distinguishes three principal varieties:
,1. Synonymous parallelism, "when the same sentiment
is repeated in different, but equivalent terms ; _e. £.,
The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;
The world, and they that dwell therein.^
Robert Lowth, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the
Hebrews (London: S. Chadwick & Co., 184^r7™p. 209 Tfoot-
noteT.
, p. 210.
Ps. 24:1 (In Richard G. Moulton, The Modern Read
er ’ s Bible (New York : The Macmillan Company, 1919), p. 763.
1 0 4
2. Antithetic parallelism, "when a thing is illus-
7
trated by its contrary being opposed to it," _e. ,
A wise son maketh a glad father:
But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.^
3. Synthetic parallelism, "in which the sentences
answer to each other, not by the iteration of the same
image or sentiment, or the opposition of their contraries,
but merely by the form of construction."^ A comparison, a
reason, a motive, or a result often constitutes one of the
pair of lines in this form of parallelism. E. £.,
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is
10
Than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
The third of these forms is especially frequent in
the prophets, and likewise in Deuteronomy. On the general
use of parallelism in the prophets, Driver observes:
The prophets, though their diction is usually an
elevated prose, manifest a strong tendency to enforce
and emphasize their thought by casting it, more or
less completely, into the form of parallel clauses.
Opening the Book of Deuteronomy at almost any page shows
that parallelism is a fundamental method of expression in
7
Robert Lowth, up. cit., p. 215.
^Prov. 10:1 (in Richard G. Moulton, op. cit., p. 915).
^Robert Lowth, op. eft., p. 216.
lOprov. 15:17 {in Richard G. Moulton, qp. cit.. p. 925)
E. Driver, qp. qit., pp. 365-366.
1 0 5
the mouth of Moses, A few instances follow:
The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are
great and fenced up to heaven; and moreover we have
seen the sons of the Anakim there
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you,
neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the
commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.i^
Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of
thine heart, dost thou go in to possess their land:
but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy
God doth drive them out from before thee, and that
he may establish the word which the Lord sware unto
thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt
thou be in the field.
The stranger that is in the midst of thee shall mount
up above thee higher and higher; and thou shalt come
down lower and lower. He shall lend to thee, and
thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and
thou shalt be the tail
The sensuous element in such rhythm is apparent.
"The verses," says Cook, "fall into a march time; their
movement is disciplinary, first of the emotions, and through
17
them of life and conduct." Their movement is regular, so
that the ear knows what to expect; and natural, because the
emphatic syllable of a word often coincides with the natural
stress of the rhythm and both with the pulse of the thought
itself,--and because the length of the clauses coincides
^^Deut. 1:28. ^^Deut. 28:3.
^Seut. 4:2. ^^Deut. 28:43-44.
^^Deut. 9:5. ^'^Albert S. Cook, pp. cit.,
p. xix.
106
with the expiration of the breath. To quote Dean Stanley,
"The rapid stroke as of alternate wings," "the heaving
and sinking as of the troubled heart," which have been
beautifully described as the essence of the parallel
structure of Hebrew verses, are exactly suited for the
endless play of human feeling, and for the understand
ing of every age and n a t i o n .
Compliance with the principle of parallelism in Deuteronomy
thus accounts for some of the emotional appeal of the ora
tory.
But there is another phase of rhythmic structure
in Deuteronomy to be noted. Hastings’ Dictionary of the
Bible recognizes a succession of free flowing periods:
The style of Deuteronomy is remarkable for its
command of rich and effective periods, in which the
sentences are framed with great oratorical skill.
They are rhythmical without being tedious; and cop
ious without being shallow and rhetorical.iG
Driver shows that this style of oratory was one of
the means employed by Moses to influence his audience:
In Deuteronomy, a new style of flowing and impres
sive oratory was introduced into Hebrew literature by
means of which the author strove to move and influence
his readers. Hence (quite apart from the matter of
his discourse) he differs from the writers of most
classical narrative, by developing his thought into
long and rolling periods, which have the effect of
bearing the reader with them, and holding him en
thralled by their oratorical power. The beauty and
effectiveness of Deuteronomy are indeed chiefly due
to the skill with which the author amplifies his
^^Ibid.. p. xix.
James Hastings, editor, A,Dictionary of the Bible
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901-1904), I, 599.
10?
thoughts, and casts them into well-balanced clauses,
varied individually in expression and form, but all
bound together by a sustained rhythmic flow.^0
Frequently Moses adds clause to clause (a^ruv^c/eTcus) ,
expanding with a certain measured dignity ; q. g., it is not
enough to say: "I call heaven and earth to witness against
you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off
the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it;" Moses
must add a similar thought : ". • . . ye shall not prolong
your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. It
is not enough to say: "Ye shall observe to do therefore as
the Lord your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn
aside to the right hand or to the left." Moses must add:
"Ye shall walk in all the way v/hich the Lord your God hath
commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well
with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land
BB
which ye shall possess." It is not enough to say: "The
Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to
be smitten before thee ;" Moses must repeat and expand his
idea: ". . . . they shall come out against thee one way,
and shall flee before thee seven ways." Other notable
instances of this rhetorical tendency are found in
20
S. R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commen
tary on Deuteronomy (New York : Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1895), pp. Ixxxvi-lxxxvii.
4:26. ^^Deut. 5:32-33. ^^Deut. 28:7.
108
ohaps. 7:2,10,24,26; 9:7; 1:12; 28:24; eto.
Likewise, Moses binds together several unified
thoughts in a sustained rhythmical flow that holds the at
tention and keeps the emotional tone at a high pitch. In
the first oration he delineates the conception of God as
a spiritual being by a sweep of utterances unified by the
introductory word likeness in each clause:
Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves: for ye saw
no manner of form on the day that the Lord spake unto
you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; lest ye cor
rupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the
form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the
likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the heaven,
the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground,
the likeness of any fish that is in the water under
the earth : and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven,
and thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even
all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship
them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath
divided unto all the peoples under the whole heaven.
Certainly the five-fold repetition of the word likeness in
such a rhythmic period impresses the hearers with the folly
of making and worshipping idols, Another instance of the
same rhetorical plan is the repetition of the word land in
the sequence of chap. 8:7-9:
For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a
land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, spring
ing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and
barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates ; a land
of oil olives and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing
^^Deut. 4:15-19.
109
in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose
hills thou mayest dig "brass.
The repeated stroke of the word land in the midst of such
imagery impresses one with the reality of the goodly l.and.
Other instances of rhythmic periods are chaps. 4:32-36;
8:11-17; 11:2-7; and 28:49-50 (where the word nation ties
up the several parts of a rhythmic succession),
This tendency to produce extended rhythmic periods
with resultant emotional effect upon the hearer comes to
full fruition in the second and third orations, in each
of which there is an extended aggregation of free-flowing
periods, in the second oration, as is shown in the abstract
25
of that oration, Moses presents a pendulum swing in
thought between the future and the past. One moment he
presents a picture of the promised land, the next a glimpse
of the land from which they had been delivered; one moment,
a prophecy of their conquest of the nations, the next a
recollection of the miraculous way God had led them to get
wealth, and so on. There is no logical progression in the
order of thoughts in the oration, but rather a series of
contrasted pictures in rhythmic periods intending to im
press the hearer with the wonders of God’s leading in the
past and to challenge him to follow God in the future.
^^ITide supra, pp. 54-56
110
Moulton’s Gomment8 on the general effect of this
tendency are pertinent:
. . . . when the feeling rises— when Moses tells of all
the wpy the Lord has led the people in the wilderness,
or depicts the bright prosperity of life in the good
land, or contrasts with recurrent rebellions the
simple requirements of service and love--the musical
poise of sentences: lays hold on the reader........
And when the orator’s passion rises to a climax, we
have a breathless torrent of woes sustained to a length
without precedent in the literature of denunciation.^^
Thus it is in the third oration that the aggregation
of rhythmic periods comes to its climax. Beginning with a
succession of short curses expressed in comparatively simple
parallel structure, the orator piles up curse after curse
in successively heightened periods until the very rhythmic
impulses seem to exhaust themselves in the height of the
most intense denunciation. The very recurrence ^ extenso
of such wave-beats of emotion, to say nothing of the in
creasingly heightened imagery of the successive pictures,
and their extension in strength of impact, would produce a
feeling of terror in the heart of the hearer and impel him
to serve the God whose service would mean deliverance from
such woes.
It is perhaps difficult for us of the occidental
twentieth century to realize the emotional effect of the
oral reading of the oratory of Deuteronomy upon the
?6
Richard G. Moulton, qp. cit.. p. 1370.
I l l
auditors', unless we have heard the reading of the sacred
Hebrew writings by an accomplished rabbi in the Jewish
synagogue. The enthusiasm of such reading, the melody
of phrasing, the harmony of sounds, makes a distinct im
pression upon the hearer, although he may not understand
the meaning of the words intoned. And this modern inter
pretation is not at the will and caprice of the reader :
it was determined long ago by the Massoretes, who invented
various curious accent marks intended to preserve the
traditional inflections and phrasings of the original
Hebrew. The trained synagogue reader of the year 1933 A.
D. probably approximates the oral interpretation of the
reading of Deuteronomy in the year 6SE B. C. by King Josiah.
Of this striking and unique Hebrew method of indicating
vocal quality by mere signs, Smyth writes ;
I despair of arousing my readers’ enthusiasm about
these accents, mere grammar marks, as they have grown
to be to the English reader of Hebrew now, or, at
most, signs for recording the true chanting tones of
the Synagogue. Only the living voice— only, I think,
the Jewish voice can convey any idea of this beautiful
contrivance for recording the modulations and inflec
tions of the speaker’s tones. They almost placed upon
the paper the spoken words. They marked the sense and
logical connection. They represented pause, emotion,
whisper, tremulousness— everything that we imperfectly
try to denote by italics, and capitals, and dashes,
and punctuation marks. Get a . refined, educated Jew,
an enthusiastic man, capable of flashing eyes and
trembling excitement over his subject; let him read
for you a touching passage in the Prophets according
to those accents by which the Massoretes tried to
reproduce the original utterance, and you will— well
at least you will probably be very much dissatisfied
H E
with the reading of the First Lesson in church the
next Sunday.^"
Such rhythmic oral interpretation induces persuasion.
Analytical Nature of the Language
(S) In the discussion of rhythm we noted the tenden
cy of the Hebrew of Deuteronomy to pile up clause after
clause CL ( T u V de.rCAJS' , or without connectives This is
a general characteristic of the Hebrew tongue. The struc
ture is simple, not complex. There are relatively few con
junctions, and where one is used, the chief connective
seems to be "and." It is evident that such a structure
makes for clearness of comprehension and is especially fav
orable for auditory impression where a message must be
understood the instant it is heard. Since clearness lies
.at the basis of persuasion, this peculiar linguistic ten
dency must be considered an underlying factor in logical per
suasion. Cook quotes Renan’s Histoire Generale des Langues
Sémitiques in explanation of this point:
The Semitic languages, considered as a whole, are
languages essentially analytical. In place of'render
ing in its unity the complex element of discourse,
they prefer to dissect it, and express it term by term.
They are ignorant of establishing among the members of
a sentence that reciprocity which makes the period a
J, Paterson Smyth, The Old Documents and the New
Bible (New York: James Pott & Co., n. dZ), pp. 102-103.
^^Vide supra p. 107
113
body whose parts are eonnected in such a way that the
understanding of the one is impossible except through
the collective view of the whole......... îhe Hebrew
sentence is a masterpiece of logical analysis, and we
are surprised to find there at every step the explicit
turns, the Gallicisms, if I may venture to say so,
which seem the heritage of the most positive and re
flective tongues
The tendency needs no specific illustration: it pervades
the language, and hence the oratory of Deuteronomy.
Concreteness of the Vocabulary
(3) A sentence in the Talmud says: ^The Torah speaks
according to the language of the sons of men." This com
mon Hebrew idiom expresses the genius of the Hebrew vocabu
lary. It is a concrete vocabulary, and does not deal to any
great extent in abstractions. Renan*s Histoire Generate des
langues Sémitiques (quoted in Cook*s Bible and English Prose
Style) says :
Abstraction is unknown to them; metaphysics, impossible.
Language being the necessary mold of a people*! intel
lectual operations, an idiom almost destitute of syn
tax, without variety of construction, lacking the con
junctions which establish such delicate relations among
the members of thought, portraying every object by its
external qualities, ought to be eminently suitable to
the eloquent inspirations of seers and the delineation of
fugitive impressions, but should deny itself to all
philosophy, to all purely intellectual speculation.*^^
^^Albert S, Cook, pjq. cit. , p. Ixx.
^^A. Cohen, The Babylonian Talmud : Tractate Berakot
(Cambridge: University Press, 1921), 31b.
31
Albert S, Cook, _qp. cit. , p. Ixiv.
114
To clarify the proposition that the Hebrew is essen
tially a concrete vocabulary we continue the explanation
of Renan;
In running over the list of Semitic roots, we scarce
ly encounter a single one which does not offer a primary
material sense, applied, by transitions more or less
direct, to intellectual objects. Is it a feeling of
the soul which is to be expressed, recourse is had to
the organic movement which is usually its sign. Thus
anger is expressed in Hebrew in a multitude of ways,
all alike picturesque, and all derived from physiol-
logical circumstances. Now the metaphor is taken from
the rapid and animated breathing which accompanies
passion; now from heat, or from ebullition; now from
the action of breaking with a crash; now from shudder
ing. Dejection and despair are expressed in this
language by internal liquefaction, the dissolution of
the heart; fear, by the loosing of the reins. Pride is
depicted by the elevation of the head, a tall and erect
stature. Patience is a long breathing, impatience a
short. Desire is thirst or paleness. Pardon is ex
pressed by a host of metaphors borrowed from the idea
of covering, concealing, passing over a sin a coating
which blots it out. In the Book of Job, God sews up
sins in a bag, affixes his seal, then casts it behind
his back, and all this to signify forgetting. To
shake the head, look upon one another, let fall one * s
arms, are expressions which Hebrew much prefers to all
our psychological terms for the rendefmng of disdain,
indecision, and despondency. We may even say that such
psychological terms are almost wholly wanting in Hebrew,,
or at least that there is always added the portrayal
of the attendant physical circumstance#: "He grew angry,
and his countenance was inflamed. ... ; he opened his
mouth, and said," etc.
. . . . But what distinguishes the Semitic family
is that the original fusion of sensation and idea has
always been maintained, that neither of the two has
thrown the other into the shade, as has come to pass
in the Aryan languages; in short, that idealization has
never taken place with any thoroughness, so that in
every word we imagine we hear the echo of the primitive
sensations which determined the choice of those who
11 5
«%p
first bestowed the names.
Concreteness must ever be regarded as basic in making ideas
impressive. The concreteness of Hebrew diction is basic in
persuasion.
Discrimination in the Choice of Synonyms
(4) A factor in ethical appeal discussed above,
is the device of crediting the hearer with the ability to
give a fair hearing to the proposition presented, to weigh
its worth candidly and to draw his own conclusion. Moses
seems to employ this device in the frequent choice of one
of two synonyms available for the word heart, a word fre
quently used in his discourses. The Hebrew lexicons give
two words for heart: one, , "the ordinary term for the
anatomical organ, and by extension the seat of the feelings
and of vital strength;the other"the treasure
- r • •
place of wisdom and strength and interchangeable feelings."35
The second of these words implies that the person
has the ability to change his feelings and, as it were,
credits him with the prerogative of judgment. It is this
^^Ibid., pp. Ixvii-lxviii.
^^Vide supra' , pp. 63-73.
^'^Elieser Ben lehuda, Thesaurus Totius Hebraitatis et
Yeteris et Hecentioria (Berlin: Schoenberg, 1915) , Y, 2586.
35
I b i d " , D" ^ 5 9 7 .
11 6
word for which Moses shows a decided preference over the
simpler word in Deuteronomy, employing it forty-seven
times in the book, whereas occurs only four times; ac
cording to Driver*s c o u n t . There seems to be a decided
implication that Moses is willing to rest his ease in the
hands of his hearers, trusting to their hearts to change as
they make the right decision; g. ,
Know therefore this day, and lay it in thine heart,
that the Lord he is God in heaven above and upon the
earth beneath: there is none else. *
And thou shalt consider in thine heart, that, as a man
ohastpneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth
thee.*:)8
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and
the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with
all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou
mayest live.^9
(5) Another contribution to the ethical appeal of
Deuteronomy seems to lie in Moses* choice of the pronoun of
the first person singular. There are in Hebrew two forms
available for the pronoun X, which merely speaks for
itself and does not denote anything in particular concern
ing itself, and ^ D J ?( , which puts emphasis on itself to
T
the exclusion of all others. For example, if, in the
26
S. R. Driver, pp.. cit. , p. Ixxxvii.
^’ ^Peut. 4:39.
®®Deut. 8:5.
59
'^^Deut. 30:6.
11 7
expression "I am standing" ^ ^ were used, it would simply
denote that I am standing and not sitting or walking, with
no particular emphasis on 1; but if^03 X were used, it would
signify that 1 and no other am standing— the emphasis is on
the word It therefore seems that, in employing the
latter of these two forms fifty-six times in Deuteronomy and
showing a decided preference for the longer emphatic form
over the simple form,"^^ Moses meant to convey an impression
of earnest personal authority, even approaching the author
ity of deity itself. The word is used especially in con
nection with the giving of the law and the placing before
the people of a set of statutes and judgments for their
ratification. Typical instances are Peut. 4:1,8:
And now, 0 Israel, hearken unto the statutes and unto
the judgements which I teach you, for to do them. . .
. . And what great nation is there, that hath statutes
and judgements so righteous as all this law, which I
set before you this day?
(See also Peut. 4:40; 5:1,5; 6:6; 8 :1 ; 10:13; 1:13, 26, 32;
and 30:11.) The repeated use of such an intensive pronoun
impresses the hearer with the earnestness of the speaker
and agrees with the principle that the speaker must himself
feel the emotions that he wishes to convey to his hearers.
M. L, Malbin, Hacarmel (Hungary: M. Wider, 1900),
folio 31a (paraphrased from an oral translation made by
Rabbi Dr. S. M. Neches).
R. Driver, up. cit.. p. Ixxxvii.
118
It is significant to note that it is this emphatic form
which is used in the preamble to the decalogue, where Moses
represents Jehovah himself as speaking: "I am the Lord thy
God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage.
We are aware that Driver attributes Moses* prefer
ence for HU^ over and for^OJXover as "probably
T " *■ ’ " r * — ;
due to his sense of what harmonized best with the oratorical
rhythm of his discourse. In that case, such choice
would merely be an incidental, and almost negligible, contri
bution to the emotional appeal of rhythm. However, from
the above reasoning it seems clear that there is also a
deeper emotional and ethical appeal resident in the two
usages.
Use of the Idiom of the "Ethical Dative"
(6) A touch of mingled emotional and ethical appeal
is found in Moses* fondness for the unique Hebrew idiom
called the pathetic reflexive or ethical dative, which,
according to Driver, "may mark his sympathy with the peo
ple whom he is addressing.**"^^ Driver thus explains this
^^Deut. 5:6.
. R. Driver, pp. cit. . p. Ixxxvii.
'^'^Ibid. , p. Ixxxvii.
119
usage :
The reflexive ^ , throwing back the action denoted
by the verb upon the subject, and referring it, as it
were, to the pleasure or option of the agent, gives
more or less pathetic expression to the personal feel
ings --the satisfaction, or the interest, or the prompti
tude --with which the action in question is (or is to
be) accomplished. The idiom is most common with the
1st or End person (esp. in the imper.), but is found
also in the 3rd pers.^5
Instances are: 0 3 f l^Dl 1J 3
• / T
Od5 OPXl
T : * . * :
46 □'DOn Dbt
Several other instances of the idiom are Peut. E:3; S:35;
3:7; 5:27; 7:25; 9:12. Such an idiomatic construction, re
flecting the vast sympathy of Moses for his people and his
extreme solicitude in their wholesome reaction to his pleas,
seems to be a contribution toward both ethical and emotion
al app eal.
The elements discussed in this chapter seem to pro
vide a unique contribution of Hebrew rhetoric to the per
suasive appeal of the oratory of Deuteronomy.
^^8. R. Driver, op. cit.. pp. 10-11.
^^Deut. 1:7,40,13; vide Johannis Simon, Biblia
Hebraica Manualla (Halae: Sumtibus Orphanotrophei, 1767),
I, 266, 268, 266.
SUMMARY, WITH CONCLUSIONS
1. The four orations of the Book of Deuteronomy
present an important contribution to the history of per
suasive speech, for
a. They were read aloud in Jerusalem in the year 622
B‘ . C. and thus antedate Demosthenes by nearly 300 years.
b. The oral reading of the cycle produced an immedi
ate refoimation in the land of Judah which was one of the
most remarkable reforms in history.
c. The promulgation of the teachings of Deuteronomy
effected a revolution in Hebrew life and thought and set
in motion currents of thought that still persist in modern
civilization.
2. The Deuteronomio cycle of orations, although it
was conceived and delivered twenty-five hundred years ago
and before the classical study of the formal art of rhetoric
and although it was produced in an Hebraic environment re
mote from classical influences, nevertheless meets many of
the requirements of both classical and modern theories of
persuasion. The persuasion of the series proceeds as fol
lows :
a. The ethical appeal of the oratory of Deuteronomy,
which is chiefly positive, is produced in two ways: Moses
commends his own character and recommends the character of
121
his subject (God) to his hearers. The first he effects by
reviewing his successful leadership, claiming personal rev
elations from God, asserting loyalty to his people, appeal
ing to their sound judgment, and expressing personal cour
age; the second he effects by naming God * s characteristics,
reviewing his goodness, and prophesying his goodness yet to
come. Ethical appeal, although it occurs throughout the
cycle, is concentrated in the first and second orations,
which serve as a sort of introduction to the series.
b. The emotional appeal of the orations has two basic
aspects: a patriotic appeal to the nationa.1 dignity of Is
rael, and an appeal to the people*s sense of gratitude and
obedience to God for his goodness. These appeals are re
enforced by two fundamental motives: the desire for reward
and the fear of. punishment; and with these are linked many
of the lesser natural "drives." Emphasis is placed on
"the wish for worth." Emotional appeal, although it is dis
tributed throughout the orations, preponderates in the
third and fourth, which act as a sort of peroration to the
series.
c. The logical appeal of the cycle is slight. It
consists mainly of an extended argument from causal rela
tionship, both from cause to effect and from effect to
cause, reenforced by many examples from the history of the
Hebrew people. The argument is that obedience to God * s
122
eommandments brings national and domestic prosperity, while
disobedience brings calamity and ultimate ruin. The argu
ment is basic throughout the series, but is concentrated
in the third oration.
d. These appeals are reenforced by such devices of
rhetoric as figures of speech, vivid imagery, concrete
and specific diction, empathy, rhythm, and repetition.
The nature of the Hebrew language makes several unique con
tributions to the persuasive effect of Deuteronomy, such
as parallelism, analytical structure, concreteness of vo
cabulary, certain discriminations in the choice of syno
nyms , and idiom.
From these statements, we draw two conclusions:
1. The four orations of Deuteronomy should be recog
nized as constituting an important contribution to the
history of persuasive speech.
2. The speaker who desires to be a successful per
suader must recognize that men*s decisions and activities
are more dependent on ethical and emotional appeal than
upon mere appeal to the intellect; in other words, that
men will believe in the message of a man whom they consid
er worthy of belief and will follow his suggestions when
appeal is made to the many "drives" that impel human con
duct, although, for lasting effect, there must be a sound
1 2 3
logical basis such as that of causal relationship and evi
dent example.
The student who goes to Deuteronomy for mere intel
lectual reasoning will be disappointed, but he will learn
from a careful study of the methods of the orator of
Deuteronomy that men have hearts as well as heads and that
of the two their hearts are more easily reached.
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Core Title The elements of persuasion in the four orations of the "Book of Deuteronomy"

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