The central argument for the claim of late authorship of Devarim has multiple and serious flaws. And since this argument is the basis for the dating of the other documents, the historical claims of the documentary hypothesis as a whole are without foundation.
The prevalent view in academic circles, has been that the major part of the Book of Devarim was written in the 7th century B.C.E., as part of the battle waged by Chizkiyahu and Yoshiyahu for centralized ritual worship. This assertion is based mainly on the argument that Devarim is the only Book of the Torah which speaks of the selection of a single location for Divine service, and rejects worship outside of this location.
This led to the hypothesis that the Book in question was composed during this period, as a means of reinforcing the struggle for the designation of a single location for Divine worship, and as part of the war on idolatry around Jerusalem and in general. The argument runs that the verse in Shemot, which appears to encourage sacrificial worship in all places, must have predated the book of Devarim, and that it was only at a later stage of history that the idea of centralization of worship in a single location arose, necessitating the composition of a book which would make that argument.
A series of questions and proofs are brought against this theory, leading to the conclusion that the central argument for the claim of late authorship of Devarim has multiple and serious flaws. And since this argument is the basis for the dating of the other documents, the historical claims of the documentary hypothesis as a whole are without foundation.
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Edited by the HaTanakh Site team