Homicide in the Biblical World
Pamela Barmash
Language: English
Pages: 270
ISBN: 0521547733
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Analyzing the treatment of homicide in the Hebrew Bible, this study demonstrates that it is directly linked to the social structure and religion of ancient Israel. Pamela Barmash reconstructs biblical law from both legal texts and narrative texts and analyzes the law collections and documents of actual legal cases from the ancient Near East.
proponents of biblical criticism in the eighteenth century, was among the first to argue against the prevailing theory, the social contract model, and for a rule-bound system of vengeance. The self-help model received new impetus in the nineteenth century when it was championed by G. W. F. Hegel in Philosophy of Right (trans. T. M. Knox; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952 [1821]), and by the preeminent legal ¨ historian Rudolf von Jhering in Geist des romischen Rechts auf den verschiedenen
reconstructed text <> scribal omissions << >> scribal superfluity x cuneiform sign that cannot be read Acknowledgments THIS STUDY has its origins in a doctoral dissertation I completed at Harvard University. I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation advisor, Professor Peter B. Machinist, for his constant encouragement and kindness. His meticulous reading and his generous and consistently good advice have been indispensable to my work. He is a shining example of the best in
says Bahdi-lim, your servant. The city of ˘ Mari, the palace, and the district are well. There has been no negligence with regard to bringing in the cleaned barley. 5–13 Another matter: Habdu-Ishtar, Bazi-Istar, and Ianzib-Addu, three men of B¯ab-nahlim, ˘whom Dannutahaz has now brought to Eshnunna, have run˘ away from the house˘of Atamrum and have arrived completely naked. I have given each one a n¯aramu-garment39 from the palace. I have sent them to my lord. . . . 1 –14 I have given strict
compensation the guilty party must pay. The final two documents, ADD 806 and PPA 95, reflect the conclusion of the process: The payment is delivered to the injured party and the dispute is settled. Specifically, ADD 806 refers to land forfeited as compensation, a legal transaction conducted by government officials, while PPA 95 records a payment made in the presence of an official ensuring that the obligation was discharged properly. There is a great deal not recorded in these documents. For example,
si-lim-DINGIR GAZ-u-ni rev. 15 ˇ S-ˇ ˇ su´ lu-u DUMU´ ina IGI-ˇsu-nu lu-u MUNUS-ˇsu 16 lu-u SE 17 98 18 ˇ ˇ ´ sal-lumu 19 IGI sˇ u sˇ u-nu US.MES u-ˇ man-nu sˇ a´ e-la-a-ni Kohler and A. Ungnad suggest that the first two signs might be an error for URU-aˇs+ˇsur, ¯ (Assyrische Rechtsurkunden [Leipzig: Eduard Pfeiffer, 1913], yielding a name like Aˇssˇ uraya 388). Nicholas Postgate reads this name as I d uru HI-a-a and suggested with reservations that it might be eri-du10 -a-a (Fifty Neo-Assyrian