Law in the Ninth Century: Jehoshaphat’s ‘Judicial Reform’

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
BERNARD S. JACKSON
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Law Courts

The Chronicler attributes to Jehoshaphat of Judah (874–850 BCE) the appointment of royal judges in all the fortified cities of his kingdom, and the establishment of a central court in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 19.5–11). This chapter examines the issue of anachronism from the standpoint of the history of biblical law, and asks whether the Chronicler paints a picture coherent with law as it is likely to have functioned in the ninth century. The problem, however, does not commence in the ninth century. Almost universally, 2 Chron. 19.4–11 is taken to be a ‘judicial reform’, which assumes the existence of a preceding judicial system. Unlike some parts of the ancient Near East, ancient Israel was weakly institutionalized. Regular law courts and applying written rules (and thus assuming the presence of literate personnel) backed by state enforcement was a matter for the future.

Of Fields and Forced Labor

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-152
Author(s):  
Carolyn J. Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Economic Control ◽  
History Of

Biblical narratives about ostensibly “local” barter (Abraham’s purchase of the cave at Machpelah), protection of battle spoils (Achan’s theft and subsequent execution), and commodification of labor and bodies (Ruth gleaning for hours and offering herself to Boaz) reveal much about ideologies of economic control operative in ancient Israel. The materialist analysis of Roland Boer provides a richly detailed study of Israelite agrarian and tributary practices, offering a salutary corrective to naïve views of Israelite economic relations. Highlighting labor as the most ruthlessly exploited resource in the ancient Near East, Boer examines the class-specific benefits and sustained violence of economic formations from kinship-household relations to militarized extraction. Boer’s erudite study will compel readers to look afresh at the subjugation of the poor and plundering of the powerless as constitutive features of diverse economic practices throughout the history of ancient Israel.

Die Sogenannte Joaschinschrift – Echt Oder Falsch?

2005 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Geological Investigation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Good Accordance ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe inscription consists of a sandstone plate, in the size of 24 times 30 cm and about 8 cm thick. The plate is broken at the upper edge and has, as it now is at hand, fifteen lines of Hebrew text. The text of the inscription is throughout written without internal matres lectionis, in good accordance with the custom of the ninth century B.C. A palaeographic comparison shows that the alphabet of the inscription is not copied from any other inscription, but the forms of the letters show an inclination to somewhat older forms. According to the original geological investigation, the stone with its inscription is genuine, but many scholars in the field of Hebrew epigraphic are sceptical. If the inscription is a fake, we also must ask, who made it and why was it made. If it is genuine, we stand before a completely singular document, which in the future will be very important for the study of the Bible and history of Ancient Israel.

Litigation

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
Eryl Wynn Davies
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Near East ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Trial Procedure ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Way

The chapter examines the Old Testament evidence concerning the nature of the trial procedure in ancient Israel. Although the evidence is limited in comparison with the abundance of material available in the ancient Near East, the laws in the Pentateuch and the narratives in the Old Testament do provide indirect evidence for the way in which the judicial system operated in Israel and Judah. The elders played a prominent role in trials at a local level, and it is probable that the main qualification for eldership was possession of landed property. Appeal against arbitrary decisions by the local assemblies could be made directly to the king, though, in practice, this responsibility was probably delegated to his officials. In cases where there were no witnesses present the matter could be directed to God for a verdict by means of a “trial by ordeal.”

Placing Ancient Israel in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor H. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The focus of this chapter is on the methods employed in examining the history writing (historiography) of the biblical writers and editors, and of the task associated with writing a history of ancient Israel. In every instance an effort is made to place ancient Israel into its social, political, and economic context as part of the world of the ancient Near East. Also included is the current library of extrabiblical sources available to scholars that throw light on the history of ancient Israel. Attention is then given to the role of historical geography as it relates to a study of the history of the countries of the Levant, as well as an introduction to the values and limitations of archaeology.

Setting the Scene: A Brief Outline of Histories of Israel

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. ROGERSON
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Near East ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of

This chapter presents a brief outline of the history of ancient Israel, starting with Humphrey Prideaux's The Old and New Testament connected, in the History of the Jews, and neighbouring nations; from the declensions of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the time of Christ. The book's purpose, as the word ‘Connection’ indicates, was to set Old Testament history in the context of the history of the ancient Near East. Other similar works include Johann Gottfried Herder's Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit of 1784–1791, an interesting feature of which was a ‘secular’ account of the reason for the downfall of Judah in the sixth century; Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette's Beiträge; Heinrich Ewald's History of Israel, which argued that the Pentateuch and Joshua had reached their final form by way of at least six redactional processes; and Julius Wellhausen's Israelitische und Jüdische Geschichte of 1894 and Israelitisch-jüdische Religion of 1905; Albrecht Alt's Der Gott der Väter; and the writings of Martin Noth.

The History of Bronze and Iron Age Israel

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor H. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of

This volume provides a basic introduction to the historical, archaeological, and contextual aspects of ancient Israel during its formative period in the Bronze and Iron Age. It integrates extrabiblical sources from regions throughout the ancient Near East with the data found in the biblical narratives in order to explore the development of ancient Israelite identity, cultural traditions, and their interaction with the other major cultures of the ancient Near East. Given the nature of available information on this early culture, it is necessary to take into account the methods designed to examine the transmission of cultural memories and foundation stories in shaping a people’s concept of themselves. Because we do have more data available from neighboring regions, attention is expanded beyond the biblical narratives to include what we know about the physical realities of geopolitics and super-power politics, the international and interregional movement of peoples, and the evolutionary process from inchoate to complex states. In addition, attention is also given to what archaeological excavations can contribute to the reconstruction of the history of ancient Israel and its cultures. In particular, aspects of everyday life both in the village culture and in urban settings are examined as a key to the development of social, legal, and religious traditions and practices.

Order from Chaos: Comparing Approaches to Violence in Anthropology, Assyriology, and the Study of the Hebrew Bible

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-175
Author(s):  
T. M. Lemos
Keyword(s):  
Structural Violence ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Scholarship ◽  
Near Eastern Studies

This article compares the history of scholarship on violence in anthropology in the past one hundred years to major approaches to studying violence in the ancient Near East and ancient Near Eastern sources, including ancient Israel and Israelite literature. The article demonstrates that anthropology and ancient Near Eastern studies have diverged widely in their approaches to violence. In the past two to three decades, the concept of structural violence and new materialist approaches have dominated the study of violence in anthropology, while in Assyriology and the study of ancient Israel/Israelite literature, studies of violence have repeatedly turned to an order and chaos framework. The article ends by suggesting that scholars of ancient West Asia incorporate new materialist approaches more concertedly in studies of violence and either rethink or jettison the simplistic order/chaos dyad.

scholarly journals Breach of Treaties in the Ancient Near East

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-56
Author(s):  
Gábor Sulyok
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Relative Abundance ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Persistent Problem ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThe history of the breach of treaties can be traced back to the ancient Near East. The relative abundance and diversity of contemporary sources attest that the breaking of treaty obligations must have been a rather persistent problem, and that such occurrences were regarded as events of utmost importance throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The present study strives to demonstrate how peoples of old may have perceived and reacted to the breach of treaties on the basis of selected writings—the Legend of Etana, the Indictment of Madduwatta, the Indictment of Mita, the plague prayers of Mursili and the Old Testament—that provide, beyond the exposition of actual or alleged facts, a deeper insight into the psychological and procedural aspects of the subject.

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