Title: Inventing God's law : how the covenant code of the Bible used and revised the laws of Hammurabi /
Authors: Wright, David P. 1953-
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Code of Hammurabi.; Bible. Extra-canonical parallels.; Law, Ancient Sources.; Law Middle East Sources.
Abstract: David Wright argues that the so-called Covenant Collection of the Torah (Exodus 20:23-23:19) is chiefly the work of a single author, is the result of intellectual interaction with the author's sources and it may have had a politically ideological purpose, somewhat similar to that of the Laws of Hammurabi.
Contents: Introduction: The basic thesis and background -- Pt. 1. Primary evidence for dependence : sequential correspondences and date -- The casuistic laws -- The apodictic laws -- Opportunity and date for the use of Hammurabi's and other cuneiform laws -- Pt. 2. Compositional logic of the covenant code -- Debt-slavery and the seduction of a maiden (Exodus 21:2-11; 22:15-16) -- Homicide, injury, miscarriage, and talion (Exodus 21:12-14, 18-27) -- Child rebellion, kidnapping, sorcery, bestiality, illicit sacrifice (Exodus 21:15-17; 22:17-19) -- The goring ox and negligence (Exodus 21:28-36) -- Animal theft, crop destruction, deposit, and burglary (Exodus 21:37-22:8) -- Animal injury, death, and rental (Exodus 22:9-14) -- The themes and ideology of the apodictic laws (Exodus 20:23-26; 21:1; 22:20-23:19) -- Redactional growth in the apodictic laws and the covenant code's relationship to the Exodus narrative -- Conclusions.