Why do people believe Moses felt it necessary to repeat the laws in Deuteronomy?

Answer 1

The laws are repeated because the Pentateuch had several different authors, each of whom wanted to stress his own point of view. So when, for example, we find the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus, we then find a slightly different version in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Although the authors are anonymous, we now know that Moses did not really write the books of law. An anonymous author, now known as the Deuteronomist wrote Deuteronomy. The Priestly source wrote the Book of Numbers. And so on.

For more information, please visit:

http://christianity.answers.com/bible/the-pentateuch-explained
http://christianity.answers.com/bible/the-book-of-deuteronomy

Answer 2

Moses repeated the laws in Deuteronomy to remind the Israelites of God's commandments before they entered the Promised Land. He wanted to ensure that they understood the importance of following these laws to maintain their covenant with God and to live a life of righteousness and obedience. Repetition helped reinforce the laws and served as a form of teaching and guidance for the Israelites.

Answer 3

Actually, if you take the trouble to readDeuteronomy and the rest of the Torah, you'll find that it doesn't repeat much. The lives of the patriarchs are not there; nor is the narrative of the Exodus, the building of the Tabernacle, or the many chapters concerning sacrifices. Conversely, Deuteronomy contains passages that do not occur in the other books of the Torah: most of the verses of ch.4, the Shema-paragraph, the chapter concerning blessing God for food, the passages concerning the false prophet and the idolatrous city, the paragraph concerning nullifying debts during the seventh year, the chapter which commands coming to the Temple during festivals, the chapter which discusses heeding the true prophets, the procedure concerning false testimony, the laws about waging war, the chapter which prohibits marrying Ammonites or Moabites, the rights of field-workers, the procedure of divorce and levirate marriage, the first-fruits, the altar at Grizim, future predictions (ch.29-32), the discussion of free-will, the death of Moses, and many smaller paragraphs and hundreds of individual verses not listed here.

Note that Moses didn't say anything which he wasn't commanded by God to say (Deuteronomy 1:3). Those passages that arerepeated are not repeated verbatim. The differently-worded repetitions add further detail and allude to things not covered the first time around.

While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially chopping up the narrative and attributing it to various authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim:

http://www.whoreallywrotethebible.com/excerpts/chapter4-1.php

http://www.pearlmancta.com/BiblicalcriticswrongRShlomoCohen.htm

And see also the wider picture:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible