Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law: Revision, Interpolation, and Development (review)

Hebrew Studies 37 (1996) 153 Reviews Psalm 93, one of the so-called "accession" or "enthronement" psalms, extols Yahweh in the manner that most suggests Marduk. It is an important cosmogony for Clifford, for Psalm 93 connects Yahweh the king with the "victory over Sea that established the world" (p. 161) and with the assigning of destinies. Where Genesis appears to avoid a Mesopotamian concept of god as king (as it avoids depicting Yahweh as father of the universe or of humanity), Psalm 93 embraces it fully. Yet in neither case does Clifford engage the problematics of kingship and influence that these important cosmogonies suggest. Only in his treatment of Isaiah 40-55 does he deal extensively with the historical situation of the biblical text. To have done so, however, would have required a book-length study of its own. The book is marked by careless proofreading. Usually they are simple typographical errors (e.g., p. 126) or rather odd markings of diacriticals (Akkadian Ish! for example). On occasion they are more irritating, as when Enuma Elish is assigned to the late first millennium (p. 200) or the Canaanite craftsman is called Koshar wa-Hasis (p. 126) and "Enki of Nippur" appears in place of Enlil (p. 200). These are minor problems, though, in a book that is most useful as a survey of non-biblical and biblical accounts of creation and filled with important insights into the nature of ancient Near Eastern cosmogony. lohnMaier SUNY College at Brockport Brockport, NY 14420 THEORY AND METHOD IN BIBLICAL AND CUNEIFORM LAW: REVISION, INTERPOLATION, AND DEVELOPMENT. Bernard M. Levinson, ed. lS0TSup 181. Pp. 207. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994. $41.00. The present volume resulted from discussions that began in 1991 at Kansas City in a special session of the Biblical Law Group of the Society of Biblical Literature. The nine essays in the book revolve around one central question: Did biblical and cuneiform legal corpora undergo a process of development, literary revision, and interpolation? The first essay ("What is the Covenant CodeT'), by Raymond Westbrook, argues that a diachronic approach to biblical and cuneiform law is flawed in most cases because these corpora were part of a uniform Hebrew Studies 37 (1996) 154 Reviews "common law" that was extremely conservative in its legal principles and fonnulations. In the case of the Covenant Code, Westbrook concludes that any apparent inconsistencies should be attributed "to our ignorance concerning the social and cultural background to the laws, not necessarily to historical development" (p. 36). The rest of the essays are essentially a response to Westbrook. In the second essay ("The Case for Revision and Interpolation within the Biblical Legal Corpora"), Bernard Levinson analyzes Exod 21 :16 (law of "kidnapping") and other passages in order to show that Westbrook uses misguided techniques akin to rabbinic hannonization to maintain the coherence of biblical laws. Samuel Greengus ("Some Issues Relating to the Comparability of Laws") notes that Hittite laws explicitly acknowledge the substitution of monetary compensation for what had previously required capital punishment . Westbrook's argument that talio and compensation co-existed at all times is sometimes based on reconstructing "talionic reprisals where they are absent" (e.g., at Eshnunna) and does not explain the explicit acknowledgment of change in the Hittite code. Greengus argues that most laws were transmitted orally and functioned dynamically as judges applied rulings according to their own interests and understanding of their society's values. Martin Buss ("Legal Science and Legislation") examines Westbrook's description of Mesopotamian law codes as a species of "academic document ," which may imply that their authors merely described laws without any value judgments. Buss differentiates between "natural law," which is meant to be nonnative, and "positive" law, which is descriptive but not nonnative (and so perhaps akin to Westbrook's notion of an "academic document"). Natural law may not require any explicit citations when rendering legal decisions, but citations are expected in the case of positive law. The ancient codes, including those in Israel, were probably a type of natural law, but it is uncertain whether the Israelites made such sharp distinctions. In "Ancient Near Eastern Laws: Continuity and Pluralism" Sofie Lafont focuses on abortion laws in...