David P. Wright
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195304756
- eISBN:
- 9780199866830
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304756.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Most scholars believe that the numerous similarities between the Covenant Code (Exodus 20:23–23:19) and Mesopotamian law collections, especially the Laws of Hammurabi, which date to around 1750 BCE, ...
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Most scholars believe that the numerous similarities between the Covenant Code (Exodus 20:23–23:19) and Mesopotamian law collections, especially the Laws of Hammurabi, which date to around 1750 BCE, are due to oral tradition that extended from the second to the first millennium. This book offers a new understanding of the Covenant Code, arguing that it depends directly and primarily upon the Laws of Hammurabi and that the use of this source text occurred during the Neo-Assyrian period, sometime between 740–640 BCE, when Mesopotamia exerted strong and continuous political and cultural influence over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and a time when the Laws of Hammurabi were actively copied in Mesopotamia as a literary-canonical text. The study offers significant new evidence demonstrating that a model of literary dependence is the only viable explanation for the work. It further examines the compositional logic used in transforming the source text to produce the Covenant Code, thus providing a commentary to the biblical composition from the new theoretical perspective. This analysis shows that the Covenant Code is primarily a creative academic work by scribes rather than a repository of laws practiced by Israelites or Judeans over the course of their history. The Covenant Code, too, is an ideological work, which transformed a paradigmatic and prestigious legal text of Israel's and Judah's imperial overlords into a statement symbolically countering foreign hegemony. The study goes further to study the relationship of the Covenant Code to the narrative of the book of Exodus and explores how this may relate to the development of the Pentateuch as a whole.Less
Most scholars believe that the numerous similarities between the Covenant Code (Exodus 20:23–23:19) and Mesopotamian law collections, especially the Laws of Hammurabi, which date to around 1750 BCE, are due to oral tradition that extended from the second to the first millennium. This book offers a new understanding of the Covenant Code, arguing that it depends directly and primarily upon the Laws of Hammurabi and that the use of this source text occurred during the Neo-Assyrian period, sometime between 740–640 BCE, when Mesopotamia exerted strong and continuous political and cultural influence over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and a time when the Laws of Hammurabi were actively copied in Mesopotamia as a literary-canonical text. The study offers significant new evidence demonstrating that a model of literary dependence is the only viable explanation for the work. It further examines the compositional logic used in transforming the source text to produce the Covenant Code, thus providing a commentary to the biblical composition from the new theoretical perspective. This analysis shows that the Covenant Code is primarily a creative academic work by scribes rather than a repository of laws practiced by Israelites or Judeans over the course of their history. The Covenant Code, too, is an ideological work, which transformed a paradigmatic and prestigious legal text of Israel's and Judah's imperial overlords into a statement symbolically countering foreign hegemony. The study goes further to study the relationship of the Covenant Code to the narrative of the book of Exodus and explores how this may relate to the development of the Pentateuch as a whole.
David P. Wright
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195304756
- eISBN:
- 9780199866830
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304756.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter discusses the inadequacy of other theories for explaining the similarities between the Covenant Code and the Laws of Hammurabi, including coincidence, the use of common scribal ...
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This chapter discusses the inadequacy of other theories for explaining the similarities between the Covenant Code and the Laws of Hammurabi, including coincidence, the use of common scribal techniques, oral tradition, oral transmission of Hammurabi's text, and the use of an unknown mediating Northwest Semitic/Canaanite text. The chapter outlines in detail the evidence for placing the composition of the Covenant Code in the Neo-Assyrian period, between 740–640 BCE and the opportunity for the use of Hammurabi's Laws. It also discusses the wide attestation of the Laws of Hammurabi as a canonical-scribal text in the Neo-Assyrian period. It discusses the Covenant Code's occasional use of laws from other cuneiform law collections and the attestation of these other collections.Less
This chapter discusses the inadequacy of other theories for explaining the similarities between the Covenant Code and the Laws of Hammurabi, including coincidence, the use of common scribal techniques, oral tradition, oral transmission of Hammurabi's text, and the use of an unknown mediating Northwest Semitic/Canaanite text. The chapter outlines in detail the evidence for placing the composition of the Covenant Code in the Neo-Assyrian period, between 740–640 BCE and the opportunity for the use of Hammurabi's Laws. It also discusses the wide attestation of the Laws of Hammurabi as a canonical-scribal text in the Neo-Assyrian period. It discusses the Covenant Code's occasional use of laws from other cuneiform law collections and the attestation of these other collections.
Aryeh Neier
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691135151
- eISBN:
- 9781400841875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691135151.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter discusses how a number of efforts were made to promote human rights internationally over a period of almost two centuries, from the start of the antislavery movement in Britain. However, ...
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This chapter discusses how a number of efforts were made to promote human rights internationally over a period of almost two centuries, from the start of the antislavery movement in Britain. However, it is possible to cite ancient roots for the principles of human rights. Hammurabi's Code, the Bible, Plato, and Aristotle must be considered among the sources for the concept of justice. The roots of thinking about rights can also be traced to non-Western sources, such as Mencius and Asoka. In the more than three centuries that followed the struggle for rights in England by John Milton, the Levellers, and other dissenters, there were episodic attempts to secure rights relevant to such grave issues as slavery, religious persecution, the subordination of women, forced labor, racial segregation, and the suppression of dissent.Less
This chapter discusses how a number of efforts were made to promote human rights internationally over a period of almost two centuries, from the start of the antislavery movement in Britain. However, it is possible to cite ancient roots for the principles of human rights. Hammurabi's Code, the Bible, Plato, and Aristotle must be considered among the sources for the concept of justice. The roots of thinking about rights can also be traced to non-Western sources, such as Mencius and Asoka. In the more than three centuries that followed the struggle for rights in England by John Milton, the Levellers, and other dissenters, there were episodic attempts to secure rights relevant to such grave issues as slavery, religious persecution, the subordination of women, forced labor, racial segregation, and the suppression of dissent.
John Van Seters
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195153156
- eISBN:
- 9780199834785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195153154.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter deals with civil laws of the casuistic type most common in Near Eastern codes and one of these, having to do with the Hebrew slave (Exod 21:2–11), occurs also in both Deuteronomy and the ...
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This chapter deals with civil laws of the casuistic type most common in Near Eastern codes and one of these, having to do with the Hebrew slave (Exod 21:2–11), occurs also in both Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code and is therefore key to the relative dating of these laws. Some of the casuistic laws are closely paralleled in the Hammurabi Code, such as injury to a pregnant woman or the law of the goring ox, but others are supplemented by material from Deuteronomy or extensions of a Deuteronomic law, as in the law regarding the violation of the unmarried virgin. Still other laws of the apodictic type (participial prohibitions) are more Hebraic in form and must be viewed within the context of similar laws in the Holiness Code and Ezekiel. The use of lex talionis within the Covenant Code shows evidence of borrowing from both the Hebrew and Babylonian laws, thus suggesting that throughout the civil laws, there is a constant interweaving of the Babylonian and Hebrew legal traditions.Less
This chapter deals with civil laws of the casuistic type most common in Near Eastern codes and one of these, having to do with the Hebrew slave (Exod 21:2–11), occurs also in both Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code and is therefore key to the relative dating of these laws. Some of the casuistic laws are closely paralleled in the Hammurabi Code, such as injury to a pregnant woman or the law of the goring ox, but others are supplemented by material from Deuteronomy or extensions of a Deuteronomic law, as in the law regarding the violation of the unmarried virgin. Still other laws of the apodictic type (participial prohibitions) are more Hebraic in form and must be viewed within the context of similar laws in the Holiness Code and Ezekiel. The use of lex talionis within the Covenant Code shows evidence of borrowing from both the Hebrew and Babylonian laws, thus suggesting that throughout the civil laws, there is a constant interweaving of the Babylonian and Hebrew legal traditions.
James Barr
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198263760
- eISBN:
- 9780191600395
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198263767.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Follows the same trail back into the Hebrew Bible itself and examines the evidences of something like natural theology in the Psalms 104, 19, 119, in the Wisdom literature, the Prophets and the Law ...
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Follows the same trail back into the Hebrew Bible itself and examines the evidences of something like natural theology in the Psalms 104, 19, 119, in the Wisdom literature, the Prophets and the Law itself.Less
Follows the same trail back into the Hebrew Bible itself and examines the evidences of something like natural theology in the Psalms 104, 19, 119, in the Wisdom literature, the Prophets and the Law itself.
Dominique Charpin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226101583
- eISBN:
- 9780226101590
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226101590.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
Ancient Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now western Iraq and eastern Syria, is considered to be the cradle of civilization—home of the Babylonian ...
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Ancient Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now western Iraq and eastern Syria, is considered to be the cradle of civilization—home of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, as well as the great Code of Hammurabi. The Code was only part of a rich juridical culture from 2200–1600 bce that saw the invention of writing and the development of its relationship to law, among other remarkable firsts. Though ancient history offers inexhaustible riches, this book focuses here on the legal systems of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia and offers considerable insight into how writing and the law evolved together to forge the principles of authority, precedent, and documentation that dominate us to this day. As legal codes throughout the region evolved through advances in cuneiform writing, kings and governments were able to stabilize their control over distant realms and impose a common language—which gave rise to complex social systems overseen by magistrates, judges, and scribes that eventually became the vast empires of history books.Less
Ancient Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now western Iraq and eastern Syria, is considered to be the cradle of civilization—home of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, as well as the great Code of Hammurabi. The Code was only part of a rich juridical culture from 2200–1600 bce that saw the invention of writing and the development of its relationship to law, among other remarkable firsts. Though ancient history offers inexhaustible riches, this book focuses here on the legal systems of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia and offers considerable insight into how writing and the law evolved together to forge the principles of authority, precedent, and documentation that dominate us to this day. As legal codes throughout the region evolved through advances in cuneiform writing, kings and governments were able to stabilize their control over distant realms and impose a common language—which gave rise to complex social systems overseen by magistrates, judges, and scribes that eventually became the vast empires of history books.
Jonathan Burnside
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199759217
- eISBN:
- 9780199827084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759217.003.0009
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This chapter argues that the biblical laws of theft and burglary are excellent illustrations of the need to read biblical law narratively and not semantically. The biblical laws of theft take an ...
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This chapter argues that the biblical laws of theft and burglary are excellent illustrations of the need to read biblical law narratively and not semantically. The biblical laws of theft take an objective approach to the question of “who is a thief” by applying objective tests of hot possession and lukewarm possession. These tests are shown to apply both in biblical law and biblical narratives (e.g., the Jacob story and the Joseph cycle). There is a risk that objective tests could lead to individual acts of injustice (as in the Joseph narratives), although the possibility of admitting evidence that would acquit the innocent should not be discounted (cf. the Laws of Hammurabi). Elsewhere in the Bible, the biblical laws of theft are used to expose King David's offences against Uriah the Hittite (which involve murder and adultery). Their use in this context emphasizes the creativity and didacticism of biblical law.Less
This chapter argues that the biblical laws of theft and burglary are excellent illustrations of the need to read biblical law narratively and not semantically. The biblical laws of theft take an objective approach to the question of “who is a thief” by applying objective tests of hot possession and lukewarm possession. These tests are shown to apply both in biblical law and biblical narratives (e.g., the Jacob story and the Joseph cycle). There is a risk that objective tests could lead to individual acts of injustice (as in the Joseph narratives), although the possibility of admitting evidence that would acquit the innocent should not be discounted (cf. the Laws of Hammurabi). Elsewhere in the Bible, the biblical laws of theft are used to expose King David's offences against Uriah the Hittite (which involve murder and adultery). Their use in this context emphasizes the creativity and didacticism of biblical law.
Marc Van De Mieroop
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157184
- eISBN:
- 9781400874118
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157184.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter focuses on the genre of law codes in ancient Mesopotamia. Hammurabi authored—or more likely commissioned—one of the earliest surviving law codes in world history. Hammurabi’s code is ...
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This chapter focuses on the genre of law codes in ancient Mesopotamia. Hammurabi authored—or more likely commissioned—one of the earliest surviving law codes in world history. Hammurabi’s code is part of a small corpus of ancient Near East writings about law that was founded on the principles contained in lexical and omen lists. The law codes of the ancient Near East show how aspects of Babylonian epistemology could be imitated by others even if they did not employ the Babylonian writing system that lay at its core. The chapter first considers the historical context of the law codes before discussing the format of these laws. The composition of law codes flourished in Babylonia in the late third and early second millennia, when four kings commissioned them: Ur-Namma and Lipit-Eshtar in the Sumerian language, Dadusha and Hammurabi in Akkadian.Less
This chapter focuses on the genre of law codes in ancient Mesopotamia. Hammurabi authored—or more likely commissioned—one of the earliest surviving law codes in world history. Hammurabi’s code is part of a small corpus of ancient Near East writings about law that was founded on the principles contained in lexical and omen lists. The law codes of the ancient Near East show how aspects of Babylonian epistemology could be imitated by others even if they did not employ the Babylonian writing system that lay at its core. The chapter first considers the historical context of the law codes before discussing the format of these laws. The composition of law codes flourished in Babylonia in the late third and early second millennia, when four kings commissioned them: Ur-Namma and Lipit-Eshtar in the Sumerian language, Dadusha and Hammurabi in Akkadian.
G. E. R. Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199567874
- eISBN:
- 9780191721649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567874.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
Some systems of law are represented as divinely sanctioned, others are recognised as made by humans. The administration of justice is often in the hands of a learned elite, trained for the purpose, ...
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Some systems of law are represented as divinely sanctioned, others are recognised as made by humans. The administration of justice is often in the hands of a learned elite, trained for the purpose, but sometimes (as in ancient Greece) the responsibility lies with ordinary citizens. Taking examples from early law codes (Hammurabi), anthropological reports (the Lozi), China, Greece, and Islam, this chapter discusses the variety in systems of law, what they cover, their relationship to morality, their provenance, source of legitimacy and claims to objectivity, and under what circumstances (if any) they are subject to change and innovation.Less
Some systems of law are represented as divinely sanctioned, others are recognised as made by humans. The administration of justice is often in the hands of a learned elite, trained for the purpose, but sometimes (as in ancient Greece) the responsibility lies with ordinary citizens. Taking examples from early law codes (Hammurabi), anthropological reports (the Lozi), China, Greece, and Islam, this chapter discusses the variety in systems of law, what they cover, their relationship to morality, their provenance, source of legitimacy and claims to objectivity, and under what circumstances (if any) they are subject to change and innovation.
David M. Carr
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199742608
- eISBN:
- 9780199918737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199742608.003.0017
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter examines several other potential examples of early pre-exilic material embedded in the Hebrew Bible, even if not specifically associated with David (e.g. royal psalms) or Solomon (e.g. ...
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This chapter examines several other potential examples of early pre-exilic material embedded in the Hebrew Bible, even if not specifically associated with David (e.g. royal psalms) or Solomon (e.g. Proverbs and Song of Songs). Particular attention is given to the non-P Primeval History, which features extensive and unambivalent parallels to non-biblical materials (especially Atrahasis). In addition, the covenant code (Exod 20:22-23:33) features similar non-ambivalent links to the Code of Hammurabi and other Mesopotamian legal traditions which might situate it toward the outset of Judean and Israelite textuality. Finally, the chapter proposes that a number of other traditions with apparent connections to the early Israelite North, such as the Jacob, Joseph and Moses stories, may represent early Israelite textualizations of older oral traditions without clear parallels in other Ancient Near Eastern cultures.Less
This chapter examines several other potential examples of early pre-exilic material embedded in the Hebrew Bible, even if not specifically associated with David (e.g. royal psalms) or Solomon (e.g. Proverbs and Song of Songs). Particular attention is given to the non-P Primeval History, which features extensive and unambivalent parallels to non-biblical materials (especially Atrahasis). In addition, the covenant code (Exod 20:22-23:33) features similar non-ambivalent links to the Code of Hammurabi and other Mesopotamian legal traditions which might situate it toward the outset of Judean and Israelite textuality. Finally, the chapter proposes that a number of other traditions with apparent connections to the early Israelite North, such as the Jacob, Joseph and Moses stories, may represent early Israelite textualizations of older oral traditions without clear parallels in other Ancient Near Eastern cultures.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226101583
- eISBN:
- 9780226101590
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226101590.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter examines the Code of Hammurabi in relation to international law. It addresses three themes: the reception of foreign messengers, the law of war and the conclusion of treaties. The ...
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This chapter examines the Code of Hammurabi in relation to international law. It addresses three themes: the reception of foreign messengers, the law of war and the conclusion of treaties. The analysis reveals two paradoxes. The first is that only four letters of Hammurabi to Zimri-Lim was found in the very rich correspondence found in the archives of the chancellery of Mari. The second is that Hammurabi's personality is much better known than Zimri-Lim's in the Mari archives.Less
This chapter examines the Code of Hammurabi in relation to international law. It addresses three themes: the reception of foreign messengers, the law of war and the conclusion of treaties. The analysis reveals two paradoxes. The first is that only four letters of Hammurabi to Zimri-Lim was found in the very rich correspondence found in the archives of the chancellery of Mari. The second is that Hammurabi's personality is much better known than Zimri-Lim's in the Mari archives.
Pamela Barmash
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197525401
- eISBN:
- 9780197525432
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197525401.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The Laws of Hammurabi is one of the earliest law codes, dating from the eighteenth century BCE Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). It is the culmination of a tradition in which scribes would demonstrate ...
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The Laws of Hammurabi is one of the earliest law codes, dating from the eighteenth century BCE Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). It is the culmination of a tradition in which scribes would demonstrate their legal flair by composing statutes on a repertoire of traditional cases, articulating what they deemed just and fair. The book describes how the scribe of the Laws of Hammurabi advanced beyond earlier scribes in composing statutes that manifest systematization and implicit legal principles. The scribe inserted the statutes into the structure of a royal inscription, skillfully reshaping the genre. This approach allowed the king to use the law code to demonstrate that Hammurabi had fulfilled the mandate to guarantee justice enjoined upon him by the gods, affirming his authority as king. This tradition of scribal improvisation on a set of traditional cases continued outside of Mesopotamia, influencing biblical law and the law of the Hittite Empire and perhaps shaping Greek and Roman law. The Laws of Hammurabi is also a witness to the start of another stream of intellectual tradition. It became a classic text and the subject of formal commentaries, marking a Copernican revolution in intellectual culture.Less
The Laws of Hammurabi is one of the earliest law codes, dating from the eighteenth century BCE Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). It is the culmination of a tradition in which scribes would demonstrate their legal flair by composing statutes on a repertoire of traditional cases, articulating what they deemed just and fair. The book describes how the scribe of the Laws of Hammurabi advanced beyond earlier scribes in composing statutes that manifest systematization and implicit legal principles. The scribe inserted the statutes into the structure of a royal inscription, skillfully reshaping the genre. This approach allowed the king to use the law code to demonstrate that Hammurabi had fulfilled the mandate to guarantee justice enjoined upon him by the gods, affirming his authority as king. This tradition of scribal improvisation on a set of traditional cases continued outside of Mesopotamia, influencing biblical law and the law of the Hittite Empire and perhaps shaping Greek and Roman law. The Laws of Hammurabi is also a witness to the start of another stream of intellectual tradition. It became a classic text and the subject of formal commentaries, marking a Copernican revolution in intellectual culture.
Sara J. Milstein
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190911805
- eISBN:
- 9780190911836
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190911805.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Outside of the Bible, all of the known Near Eastern law collections were produced in the third to second millennia BCE, in cuneiform on clay tablets, and in major cities in Mesopotamia and in the ...
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Outside of the Bible, all of the known Near Eastern law collections were produced in the third to second millennia BCE, in cuneiform on clay tablets, and in major cities in Mesopotamia and in the Hittite Empire. None of the five major sites in Syria to have yielded cuneiform tablets has borne even a fragment of a law collection, despite the fact that several have yielded ample legal documentation. Excavations at Nuzi have turned up numerous legal documents, but again, no law collection. Even Egypt has not yielded a collection of laws. As such, the biblical blocks that scholars regularly identify as law collections would represent the only “western,” non-cuneiform expressions of the genre in the ancient Near East, produced by societies not known for their political clout, and separated in time from the “other” collections by centuries.
Making a Case challenges the long-held notion that Israelite and Judahite scribes either made use of older law collections or set out to produce law collections in the Near Eastern sense of the genre. Rather, Milstein suggests that what we call “biblical law” is closer in form and function to a different and oft-neglected Mesopotamian genre: legal-pedagogical texts. In the course of their education, Mesopotamian scribes copied a variety of legal-oriented school texts: sample contracts, fictional cases, sequences of non-canonical law, and legal phrasebooks. When “biblical law” is viewed in the context of these legal-pedagogical texts, its practical roots in legal exercises begin to emerge.Less
Outside of the Bible, all of the known Near Eastern law collections were produced in the third to second millennia BCE, in cuneiform on clay tablets, and in major cities in Mesopotamia and in the Hittite Empire. None of the five major sites in Syria to have yielded cuneiform tablets has borne even a fragment of a law collection, despite the fact that several have yielded ample legal documentation. Excavations at Nuzi have turned up numerous legal documents, but again, no law collection. Even Egypt has not yielded a collection of laws. As such, the biblical blocks that scholars regularly identify as law collections would represent the only “western,” non-cuneiform expressions of the genre in the ancient Near East, produced by societies not known for their political clout, and separated in time from the “other” collections by centuries.
Making a Case challenges the long-held notion that Israelite and Judahite scribes either made use of older law collections or set out to produce law collections in the Near Eastern sense of the genre. Rather, Milstein suggests that what we call “biblical law” is closer in form and function to a different and oft-neglected Mesopotamian genre: legal-pedagogical texts. In the course of their education, Mesopotamian scribes copied a variety of legal-oriented school texts: sample contracts, fictional cases, sequences of non-canonical law, and legal phrasebooks. When “biblical law” is viewed in the context of these legal-pedagogical texts, its practical roots in legal exercises begin to emerge.
Ramsen Shamon
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- February 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190673161
- eISBN:
- 9780190673192
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190673161.003.0023
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine
This chapter results from the author’s experience growing up in the Assyrian diaspora where he learned to love and appreciate his ancient heritage. He interviews Assyrians living in the United ...
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This chapter results from the author’s experience growing up in the Assyrian diaspora where he learned to love and appreciate his ancient heritage. He interviews Assyrians living in the United States, Europe, and Iraq. They discuss the relevance of their cultural heritage in response to questions focusing on canonical monuments, such as the Assyrian lamassu the Code of Hammurabi, as well as the destruction of artifacts and monuments by ISIS. Among the interviewees, there is great pride in their ancient heritage, which they understand to have universal significance, and museums around the world are revealed to serve as important points of connection between today’s Assyrians and their material heritage.Less
This chapter results from the author’s experience growing up in the Assyrian diaspora where he learned to love and appreciate his ancient heritage. He interviews Assyrians living in the United States, Europe, and Iraq. They discuss the relevance of their cultural heritage in response to questions focusing on canonical monuments, such as the Assyrian lamassu the Code of Hammurabi, as well as the destruction of artifacts and monuments by ISIS. Among the interviewees, there is great pride in their ancient heritage, which they understand to have universal significance, and museums around the world are revealed to serve as important points of connection between today’s Assyrians and their material heritage.
Joshua A. Berman
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190658809
- eISBN:
- 9780190675295
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190658809.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Religion in the Ancient World
This book proposes a new approach to the Pentateuch’s narrative and legal inconsistencies that scholars have taken as signs of fragmentation and competing agendas. Recent studies of the scribal ...
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This book proposes a new approach to the Pentateuch’s narrative and legal inconsistencies that scholars have taken as signs of fragmentation and competing agendas. Recent studies of the scribal culture of the ancient Near East reveal that the models of textual growth hypothesized by biblicists often find no basis in the empirical evidence of these neighboring cultures. It reveals precursors for a variety of Pentateuchal inconsistencies in the narrative literature of the ancient Near East, deliberately deployed by a single agent. It explores the inconsistencies between the Pentateuch’s law corpora and arguing the view that these collections conflict with one another rests on an anachronistic understanding of ancient Near Eastern and biblical law as statutory law. It maintains that the historical critical approach to the Pentateuch has relied upon scholarly intuition concerning the inconsistencies found in the text. The recent pivot to empirical models constitutes a major challenge to traditional historical-critical method, mandating a review of its premises. The book includes a critical intellectual history of the theories of textual growth in biblical studies tracing how critics were influenced first by the fascination with science in the eighteenth century and then by Romanticism and Historicism in the nineteenth. These movements unwittingly led the field to adopt a range of commitments and interests that impede the proper execution of historical critical method in the study of the Pentateuch. It concludes by advocating a return to the hermeneutics of Spinoza and adopting a methodologically modest agenda.Less
This book proposes a new approach to the Pentateuch’s narrative and legal inconsistencies that scholars have taken as signs of fragmentation and competing agendas. Recent studies of the scribal culture of the ancient Near East reveal that the models of textual growth hypothesized by biblicists often find no basis in the empirical evidence of these neighboring cultures. It reveals precursors for a variety of Pentateuchal inconsistencies in the narrative literature of the ancient Near East, deliberately deployed by a single agent. It explores the inconsistencies between the Pentateuch’s law corpora and arguing the view that these collections conflict with one another rests on an anachronistic understanding of ancient Near Eastern and biblical law as statutory law. It maintains that the historical critical approach to the Pentateuch has relied upon scholarly intuition concerning the inconsistencies found in the text. The recent pivot to empirical models constitutes a major challenge to traditional historical-critical method, mandating a review of its premises. The book includes a critical intellectual history of the theories of textual growth in biblical studies tracing how critics were influenced first by the fascination with science in the eighteenth century and then by Romanticism and Historicism in the nineteenth. These movements unwittingly led the field to adopt a range of commitments and interests that impede the proper execution of historical critical method in the study of the Pentateuch. It concludes by advocating a return to the hermeneutics of Spinoza and adopting a methodologically modest agenda.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226101583
- eISBN:
- 9780226101590
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226101590.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This introduction discusses the theme of this volume which is about the writing, codes of laws and kingship in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period. This volume examines the question of ...
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This introduction discusses the theme of this volume which is about the writing, codes of laws and kingship in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period. This volume examines the question of literacy in ancient Mesopotamia and discusses the status of the legal texts found in the archives. It investigates the role of sovereign as promulgator of the codes of laws and describes diplomatic life in the age of the Code of Hammurabi.Less
This introduction discusses the theme of this volume which is about the writing, codes of laws and kingship in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period. This volume examines the question of literacy in ancient Mesopotamia and discusses the status of the legal texts found in the archives. It investigates the role of sovereign as promulgator of the codes of laws and describes diplomatic life in the age of the Code of Hammurabi.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226101583
- eISBN:
- 9780226101590
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226101590.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter analyzes the modalities of the composition of the Code of Hammurabi and the manner it was used in Babylonia during its author's time and after. It suggests that this code clearly belongs ...
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This chapter analyzes the modalities of the composition of the Code of Hammurabi and the manner it was used in Babylonia during its author's time and after. It suggests that this code clearly belongs to a religious ideology of the exercise of kingship as indicated in the beginning of the prologue. This chapter also investigates how the code of law was formed and identifies the purposes it served.Less
This chapter analyzes the modalities of the composition of the Code of Hammurabi and the manner it was used in Babylonia during its author's time and after. It suggests that this code clearly belongs to a religious ideology of the exercise of kingship as indicated in the beginning of the prologue. This chapter also investigates how the code of law was formed and identifies the purposes it served.
Pamela Barmash
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197525401
- eISBN:
- 9780197525432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197525401.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The fame of the ancient Babylonian king Hammurabi is due to the collection of laws written under his patronage. The Laws of Hammurabi was recopied for more than a thousand years after it was ...
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The fame of the ancient Babylonian king Hammurabi is due to the collection of laws written under his patronage. The Laws of Hammurabi was recopied for more than a thousand years after it was promulgated, and when the text of the Laws of Hammurabi was lost to history, the style and content exemplified in it left traces on the laws of other cultures. In December 1901–January 1902, during an excavation of Susa in present-day Iran, French archaeologists discovered the Laws of Hammurabi, inspiring great publicity and interest. It is crucial evidence for the history of law and for understanding the human experience in general.Less
The fame of the ancient Babylonian king Hammurabi is due to the collection of laws written under his patronage. The Laws of Hammurabi was recopied for more than a thousand years after it was promulgated, and when the text of the Laws of Hammurabi was lost to history, the style and content exemplified in it left traces on the laws of other cultures. In December 1901–January 1902, during an excavation of Susa in present-day Iran, French archaeologists discovered the Laws of Hammurabi, inspiring great publicity and interest. It is crucial evidence for the history of law and for understanding the human experience in general.
Calum Carmichael
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300153774
- eISBN:
- 9780300153781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300153774.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter discusses the importance of biblical law on the suspected adulteress. It explains the reasons why the law relating to sexual adulteress has received so much attention. First, the topic ...
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This chapter discusses the importance of biblical law on the suspected adulteress. It explains the reasons why the law relating to sexual adulteress has received so much attention. First, the topic of sexual wrongdoing is always likely to attract interest. Second, with no witness to testify, trials will always involve self-incrimination, which is detrimental from a legal perspective. Third, there has been little or no light shed on what prompts a lawgiver to present the law in the first place. Fourth, from the point of view of comparative law, we find a rule in Hammurabi Code wherein a wife is accused by a husband but there is a lack of evidence, so therefore she has to swear an oath to clear herself.Less
This chapter discusses the importance of biblical law on the suspected adulteress. It explains the reasons why the law relating to sexual adulteress has received so much attention. First, the topic of sexual wrongdoing is always likely to attract interest. Second, with no witness to testify, trials will always involve self-incrimination, which is detrimental from a legal perspective. Third, there has been little or no light shed on what prompts a lawgiver to present the law in the first place. Fourth, from the point of view of comparative law, we find a rule in Hammurabi Code wherein a wife is accused by a husband but there is a lack of evidence, so therefore she has to swear an oath to clear herself.
Jean Bottéro
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748613878
- eISBN:
- 9780748653584
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748613878.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
An explanation of the impressive and fascinating work of which Gilgamesh is the hero is worthwhile for more than one reason. From the last part of the third millennium, a profound change took place ...
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An explanation of the impressive and fascinating work of which Gilgamesh is the hero is worthwhile for more than one reason. From the last part of the third millennium, a profound change took place in Mesopotamia, the indirect consequence of the final elimination of the Sumerian section of the population, which was absorbed and swallowed by the Semitic component. The Sumerians' cultural pre-dominance was succeeded by the rise to prominence of the Semites, Akkadians. From then on the sole possessors of their ancient patrimony, they were at that time reinforced by a fresh wave of their brethren – immigrants in their turn – whose most famous son, Hammurabi, created a large, enduring and prosperous kingdom centred on the city of Babylon. From that period, some ten scattered fragments, in Akkadian, relating to Gilgamesh, were found. In texture, tone and range they are very different from the Sumerian legends.Less
An explanation of the impressive and fascinating work of which Gilgamesh is the hero is worthwhile for more than one reason. From the last part of the third millennium, a profound change took place in Mesopotamia, the indirect consequence of the final elimination of the Sumerian section of the population, which was absorbed and swallowed by the Semitic component. The Sumerians' cultural pre-dominance was succeeded by the rise to prominence of the Semites, Akkadians. From then on the sole possessors of their ancient patrimony, they were at that time reinforced by a fresh wave of their brethren – immigrants in their turn – whose most famous son, Hammurabi, created a large, enduring and prosperous kingdom centred on the city of Babylon. From that period, some ten scattered fragments, in Akkadian, relating to Gilgamesh, were found. In texture, tone and range they are very different from the Sumerian legends.
