A third survey of the period beginning with the sojourn in Egypt and
concluding with the conquest of the east-Jordan land is found in the
introduction to the book of Deuteronomy. It is the prologue to the laws
that follow, appropriately and effectively placed in the mouth of the
pioneer prophet Moses. A comparison quickly demonstrates that it is in
reality a brief summary of the older histories, and especially of the
early Ephraimite prophetic. Like the Gospel of Matthew, its aim is not
merely to present historical facts, but to illustrate and establish a
thesis. The thesis is that Jehovah has personally led his people, and
that when they have been faithful to him they have prospered, but
when they have disobeyed calamity has overtaken, them. The message is
distinctly prophetic; and to distinguish this third history, which was
probably written near the close of the seventh century before Christ,
from the earlier, it may be designated as the late prophetic or
_Deuteronomic history_ (technically represented by D).

[Sidenote: _Comparison of the Old with the New Testament histories_]

These three prophetic histories correspond strikingly to the three
synoptic Gospels: Mark, Luke and Matthew. The essential differences in
their literary history are that they come, not from a single limited
group of writers and a brief quarter century, but represent the work
of many hands and at least two hundred and fifty years of literary
activity. Two, at least, of these histories, are no longer extant in
their original form, but only as they have been quoted verbatim by
later historians and closely amalgamated. Similarly, as is well
known, Tatian, the pupil of Justin Martyr, in the middle of the second
Christian century, did for the four Gospels precisely what an Old
Testament editor did for the two early prophetic histories,--he combined
them into one composite, continuous narrative. By joining passages