Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T00:35:03.464Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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
Get access

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×