Page - 36 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

36 | Mark K. George www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 33–44 a foreign subordinate power (the vassal).7 Deuteronomy’s literary form has this same literary form, so scholars understand Israel’s deity, YHWH, to be the dominant party and Israel to be the subservient one. Fixing and Stabilizing Sanders understands Deuteronomy to be an example of the mechanism by which communities are formed. It represents a community “called into ex- istence through the circulation of texts”, a result of texts’ ability to create political communities or political belonging.8 Sanders explains the communi- ty-forming abilities of Deuteronomy in terms of its rhetorical effects. The She- ma, “Hear, O Israel, …” (6:4), is a command directed to readers and listeners. He argues that this effect remains persuasive, as people still hear themselves being addressed by it.9 They understand themselves to be this Israel. I agree, because the rhetoric of the book is effective. But I think the technology of writing and its affordances are just as important, if not more so, in the pro- cess of creating a community called “Israel”.10 The circulation of written texts, mentioned by Sanders, is one such affor- dance. But in order for a text to be circulated, it must be written down. That process is what realizes another affordance, of fixing and stabilizing ideas and narratives.11 When knowledge and ideas are written, they are given a physical manifestation with a particular form, order, and vocabulary. When they write, writers make decisions about what they are writing and how to write it. They determine the way(s) they want ideas and knowledge to be expressed, in what order, with which words. Self-consciously or not, they make a commitment on these aspects, shaping knowledge and ideas in a particular way. This process differs from oral communication, in which ex- 7 For more on this form and its use in Deuteronomy, see Weinfeld 1992; Steymans 1995; Otto 2012, 2016; Lauinger 2013. 8 Sanders 2009, 10. 9 Sanders 2009, 1. 10 The Hebrew Bible offers different, competing notions of Israel as a community. Sanders’ claim speaks to only one such configuration or notion, as does my argument in this article. 11 I credit David Carr with the terminology of fixing and stabilizing, due to a personal communication with him in Denver, Colorado in May 2018. See his more considered thoughts on this aspect of writing in Carr 2011, especially chapter 5. Carr uses the terminology of standardization, not stabilization.