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4 - Biblical Law and Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2020

By
Calum Carmichael
Edited by
Calum Carmichael
Calum Carmichael
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

In the laws in the first five books of the Bible, each law is a response to a specific ethical or legal problem arising in a narrative incident recounted in Genesis through 2 Kings. The closest of links exist between law and literature. This argument differs significantly from the commonly held view that legal texts were inserted into narrative texts at different historical periods to reflect changing societal circumstances. Topics covered include the origin of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments); legal ideas of perennial interest such as individual and corporate responsibility, conflict of law with principle, and authoritative sanctioning of evil; sacred (ritual) law; the absence of certain rules; the role of the curse in controlling behavior; the contributions of Jesus and Paul to ethics and law.

Keywords

“eye for eye,” human rightsJesus and the lawmiraclesnew birthorigin of lawPaul and the lawsacred lawtaxesTen Commandments
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Literature , pp. 63 - 79
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

Bartor, Assnat, Reading Law as Narrative: A Study in the Casuistic Laws of the Pentateuch (Atlanta, GA, 2010).Google Scholar
Carmichael, Calum, The Spirit of Biblical Law (Athens, GA, 1996).Google Scholar
Carmichael, Calum, ed., Studies in Comparative Legal History, Collected Works of David Daube, vol. 2, New Testament Judaism, vol. 3, Biblical Law and Literature (Berkeley, CA, 2000, 2003).Google Scholar
Carmichael, Calum, ed., David Daube’s Gifford Lectures, vol. 1, Law and Wisdom in the Bible, vol. 2, The Deed and the Doer in the Bible (Conshohocken, PA, 2008, 2010).Google Scholar
Matthews, Victor H., Manners and Customs in the Bible (Peabody, MA, 1988).Google Scholar
Samji, Karim, The Qurʾān: A Form-Critical History (Berlin, 2018).Google Scholar
Sanders, E. P., The Law, and the Jewish People (Philadelphia, 1983).Google Scholar

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