"Anyone interested in the Deuteronomistic History will be grateful that this book (originally published in 2005) is now available in a much less expensive paperback edition. Romer provides the reader with a survey of scholarship on the Deuteronomistic History from before Martin Noth to the present and then explores a compromise between the two major theories of the composition of the Deuteronomistic History...Romer manifests a strange combination of skepticism and confidence about our ability to discern the composition of the Deuteronomistic History. Unlike more detailed works, he does not try to separate a single verse into a half-dozen different sources and redactional layers because ancient Near Eastern evidence suggests that ancient scribal practices were not as mechanical as source critics have sometimes imagined. Rather, the scribes adopted a free attitude to earlier texts. Therefore, "we cannot reconstruct exactly the older texts that have been re-edited in later times, even if some biblical scholars still think they can" (p.48). Romer's cautious skepticism here is a welcome relief." -David A. Bosworth, Hebrew Studies, November 2008

"...a lucid and reader-friendly overview of biblical scholarship and a fine contribution to it; as such, it will be of considerable interest to both lay and professional audiences." Religious Studies Review, September 2009

"This is a fresh approach to a problem hotly debated...an impressive new synthesis; it also contains an abundance of fresh ideas for the exegesis of numerous chapters and verses and deserves the attention of everyone doing research on Deuteronomy, Kings, or anything in between...whether one believes in the Deuteronomistic History or not, this is the best book one can read about it." - Ernst Axel Knauf, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, Review of Biblical Literature

"Recommended as the most sophisticated literary theory on the Deuteronomist(s) currently available." - International Review of Biblical Studies, 2007.

"Well-conceived and scoped and clearly presented ... Römer's vast erudition and his long engagement with the material enables him to select and present with clarity." - Journal of Hebrew Scriptures

"Our Lausanne colleague has proved his expertise in matters Deuteronomistic in many essays and several edited volumes. This larger synthesis of the development of 'Deuteronomistic' thought from the Assyrian through the neo-Babylonian to the Persian period is less radical than some of the contemporary approaches he also surveys. But it is all the more welcome, since I know of no comparable volume in English." - Graeme Auld

Blurb from reviewer