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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] oral law
  • Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:31:56 -0500

Dear Lisbeth ,


I'd like to call your attention to my article in Persia and Torah (SBL
2001)and all the references cited there which argue that these lists of
"laws" did not function then as our law codes function today. In other
words, they were not true laws, in our sense. Rather, they were lists
designed to illustrate a just society. There is no evidence that judges used
these lists to make judicial decisions.


HH: There is truth in this to some extent, since God Himself was to guide the judges in difficult cases. Yet, it seems clear that these laws were intended to guide the life of the society as more than a model. They provided the actual mode of operation for the society, the most basic legal framework from which the relevant details could be filled in. There was to be no work on the Sabbath, and the society operated according to that law. The Sabbath law apparently had not existed before God instituted it in Exodus 16, so it grew directly out of divine legislation.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard









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