Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yon_saf AT bezeqint.net>]

Title: Re: Monotheism was: "admittedly syncretistic..

Dear Liz,

 

 

{LSF} Hasn't  Ray Westbrook discussed this? I don't think apodictic laws are that rare but maybe they are. If they are rare in the law codes and not rare in the Vassal Treaties, that's interesting. (To me, anyway, maybe everyone else knows this.)

 

[JDS] I haven't seen a single apodictic law in any of the ANE law codes. In the treaties, the apodictic formulation is not in laws but in treqaty stipulations: "With my friends you shall be friends"

 

 

 

As for the ANE codes, they serve to demonstrate the justness of the monarch (cf. the intro. and conclusion to CH). \legal-administrative documents from the same places and periods demonstrate that the actual legal practices were different.

 

[LSF] The same is here as well, only I suppose the monarch is YHWH.

 

[JDS] Where does it say that YHWH is giving thelaws/covenant because he is just?

 

 

 

[LSF] No murder isn't always punished by death, cf Exodus 21:20. No punishment is listed. How do you translate naqom yenaqem?

 

[JDS] He shall be avenged. Blood vengeance, meanng the death penalty. In other words, a slave is worthy of blood vengeance just as is a free man. That;s the punishment. Casuistic law always has a sanction.

 

Jonathan