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8. Biblical Law: Codes and Collections
- Jewish Publication Society
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8 Biblical Law Codes and Collections Primary Reading: Exodus 19–24. The Nature of Biblical Law Law should be the easiest genre to “read” and understand. We do not have an everyday acquaintance with prophecy, and historical texts play only a minor role in the contemporary United States, but we all encounter laws on a daily basis. Legal battles are often the subject of news headlines. We deal with laws when we are served with tickets for parking or traffic violations, when we buy houses or rent apartments, when we write our wills. Because law is a basic part of our lives, most Americans have some familiarity with the legal system and its underpinnings. This familiarity, which on the surface makes biblical law easier to understand than other genres, is more of an impediment than a help. Though biblical law looks much like our own laws, in terms of its underpinnings and function it is fundamentally different. The most significant difference between modern law and biblical law is its imputed author: Exodus claims that the origin of its laws is divine. The Decalogue (the “Ten Commandments”)1 is presented as unmediated revelation by God to all Israel; it is introduced by “God spoke all these words, saying . . .” (20:1). The laws that follow the Decalogue in 20:202–23:19 are presented as God’s revelation to Moses that Moses is supposed to relay to Israel, “The LORD said to Moses: Thus shall you say to the Israelites . . .” (20:19). Thus, all of the laws incorporated in chapters 19–24 are presented as divine law. The structure of this portion of Exodus emphasizes that the laws it incorporates are God’s laws by opening with a description of the revelation (chap. 19), which is followed by the Decalogue (20:1–14), which is followed by a descrip61 tion of the revelation (20:15–18), which is followed by a group of laws (20:19–23:33), which is followed by a final description of the revelation (chap. 24). This creates a double-decker sandwich, highlighting the significance of the law as divine revelation. Revelation (chap. 19) Decalogue (20:1–14) Revelation (20:15–18) Laws (20:19–23:33) Revelation (chap. 24) This structure corresponds to explicit statements about the divine origin of the law, which may seem like overkill. All of this may have been necessary, however , because this conception is one of the few in which the Bible was unique within its ancient Near Eastern context.3 Elsewhere, it was not the deity but the king who established law and propagated legal collections. For example, the prologue to the famous Laws of Hammurabi4 concludes: “When the god Marduk commanded me to provide just ways for the people of the land [in order to attain] appropriate behavior, I established truth and justice as the declaration of the land, I enhanced the well-being of the people. At that time: If a man accuses another man and charges him with homicide . . .”5 The same idea is reinforced in the epilogue that follows the laws: “These are the just decisions which Hammurabi, the able king, has established . . .”6 Still later, Hammurabi calls himself “king of justice, to whom the god Shimachu has granted [insight into] the truth. My pronouncements are choice . . .”7 Thus, in broadest strokes, the organization of Exodus 19–24 is similar to that of Hammurabi—they both have narrative material surrounding laws. However, in the law collection of Hammurabi, the surrounding material makes it clear that these laws originate from the human king, while God as King was understood to be the lawgiver in Israel.8 This explains why, in contrast to surrounding societies, the Bible portrays kings as playing a relatively minor role in the creation of law, and according to some, even in the administration of justice.9 The fact that the Bible understands God to be the lawgiver also explains an oddity of the biblical law collections: the way in which they combine (what we would call) religious law and (what we would call) secular law, including criminal law and torts. For example, the Decalogue says both “You shall have no other gods besides Me” (Exod. 20:3) and “You shall not steal” (20:13). The law collection that follows in Exodus contains laws about goring oxen (21:28–32) as well as pilgrimage festivals (23:14–17). Such “religious laws” and “secular laws” are often mixed together in adjacent verses (e.g., 23:1...