Between Moses and Plato: Individual and Society in Deuteronomy and Ancient Greek Law 9783666538889, 352553888X, 9783525538883

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Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments Herausgegeben von Dietrich-Alex Koch und Matthias Köckert

Band 204

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Anselm C. Hagedorn

Between Moses and Plato Individual and Society in Deuteronomy and Ancient Greek Law

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

To my mother and in memory of my father

Die Bibliografische Information Der Deutschen Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über abrufbar. ISBN 3-525-53888-X

© 2004, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Göttingen. Internet: www.v-r.de Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages. Hinweis zu § 52a UrhG: Weder das Werk noch seine Teile dürfen ohne vorherige schriftliche Einwilligung des Verlages öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden. Dies gilt auch bei einer entsprechenden Nutzung für Lehr- und Unterrichtszwecke. – Printed in Germany. Druck und Bindung: Hubert & Co., Göttingen Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem Papier.

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Acknowledgements The following work represents the slightly revised version of my Oxford DPhil thesis submitted to the Faculty of Theology in September 2000.First of all I wish to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Prof. John Barton for inspiration, guidance, and always constructive criticism in developing an idea into a thesis. Over the last years he has been the Doktorvater every graduate student could wish for. Secondly to Prof. Robert Parker who helped me to get a grasp of the Greek material and introduced me to the world of Classics. His patience with the "amateur" I will never forget. The thesis was examined by Prof. A.D.H. Mayes (Dublin) and Prof. H.G.M. Williamson. Especially Hugh Williamson's comments during the process of writing, in the viva itself and afterwards were more than helpful. My mother has been a constant source of encouragement and support during my time at university. Words cannot express how much I owe her. My sister Amelie not only spent countless hours in the Gottingen University Library hunting down books and articles which were difficult to access in the UK but also helped to improve my use oflegal terminology. Ernest Nicholson, Provost of Oriel College, discussed individual passages with me and generously allowed me to use his private library. The friends Constanze Giithenke, Sean Jorgensen, Angela Kim, Peter Leeming, Niall MacCulloch, Damon Salesa, Vassilios Theodossiou and Christopher Voigt have been of continuous support and offered many helpful suggestions from the 'outsider's perspective'. My fellow graduate students at Oxford, Daniel Maerz, Jill Middlemas, Madhavi Nevader and Francesca Stavrakopoulou, were always willing to listen and endured endless hours of me getting carried away about Biblical and Greek law. I gratefully acknowledge the generous funding of the Gottlieb-Daimlerund Karl-Benz-Stiftung, The British Academy, The Hall Houghton Trust and especially the Kennicott Fund which awarded me the prestigious Kennicott-

Previous parts of the thesis have been published as Hagedorn 2000: 101-121 and Hagedorn 2001: 217-242.

viii

Acknowledgements

Hebrew-Fellowship; without their financial support my studies at Oxford would not have been possible. Finally I would like to express my thanks to Prof. M. Kockert and Prof. D.-A. Koch for the opportunity to publish this study in the series Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments. Anselm C. Hagedom Oxford and Berlin, Summer 2003

Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question ............................................... 3 2. The Comparison of Hebrew and Greek Thought.. ................................ 14 3. Conclusion ........................................................................................... 37 1. Methodological Considerations .................................................................. 39 1. The Comparative Method - Some Remarks ......................................... 39 2. The Eastern Mediterranean as an Area of Cultural Comparison ........... 45 3. Knowledge of the Mediterranean in the Old Testament.. ..................... 53 4. Laws and Legal Systems in the Eastern Levant.. .................................. 60 5. Thinking about Ancient Personalities ................................................... 89 6. The Textual Basis for the Enterprise .................................................... 99 n. The Individual within Society ................................................................. 108 1. Deut 16:18-18:22. The State of the Question ..................................... 108 2. Individual and Society in Deut 16:18-18:22 ...................................... 111 3. Deut 16:18-18:22. Some Provisional Conclusions ............................. 169 Ill. Society at War ...................................................................................... 172 1. Deut 20:1-20. Insights from Hoplite Warfare and Economy .............. 172 2. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 198 IV. Family and Inheritance .......................................................................... 200 1. The Deuteronomic Family Laws ........................................................ 200 2. The Conflict of Generations in Israel and Greece ............................... 201 3. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 239 V. Regulating Sexual Deviance ................................................................... 240 1. Rape and Adultery in Deuteronomy ................................................... 240 2. Rape and Adultery in Ancient Greece ................................................ 255 3. Comparison with Deuteronomy ......................................................... 267 4. The Social Implications of Adultery and Rape ................................... 270 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 278 Appendix - The Great Code of Gortyn ....................................................... 285 Bibliography ............................................................................................... 300 Index ........................................................................................................... 344

Note on Greek Texts The following abbreviations of Greek sources will be used: DielslKranz FDelphes FrGrHist ICr

IG

IVOlympia Koemer LSCG LSAM ML

Nomima I-II

RL

SEG

H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 11, 6th ed., Stuttgart 1952. Fouilles des Delphes, Paris 1909-1985. F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker, BerlinlLeiden 1923-58. M. Guarducci, Inscriptiones Creticae. Opera et Consilio Friderici Halbherr Collectae, Instituto d' Archeologia e Storiadell'Arte, Vol. I-IV, Rome 1935-1950. Inscriptiones Graece, consilio et auctoritate Academiae Litterarum (Regiae) Borussicae (Academiae Scientiarum Germanicae), Vol 1. ff., Berlin 1873ff. W. Dittenberger and K. Purgold, Die Inschriften von Olympia, Berlin 1896. R. Koerner, Inschriftliche Gesetzestexte der friihen griechischen Polis, AGR 9, Cologne a.o. 1993. F. Sokolowski, Lois Sacrees des Cites Greques, Ecole Francaise d' Athenes. Traveaux et Memoirs 18, Paris 1969. F. Sokolowski, Lois Sacrees de I' Asie mineure, Paris 1955. R. Meiggs and D.M. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the end of the Fifth Century BC, 2nd ed. with Addenda, Oxford 1988. H. van Effenterre and F. Ruze, Nomima, receuil d'inscriptions politiques et juridiques de l'archaisme grec 1-11, Collection de I'ecole francaise de Rome 188, Rome 1994/1995 P.l. Rhodes and D.M. Lewis, The Decrees of the Greek States, Oxford 1997. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden 1923ff.

Unless otherwise stated all quotations from Greek authors and the translations thereof are taken from the Loeb Classical Library.

Introduction This study aims at the interpretation of the relationship between the individual and the society the individual lives in and is embraced by, as described in the laws of the book of Deuteronomy and equivalent documents from the (archaic) Greek world. As such the work is an interdisciplinary and comparative study of two ancient legal systems. These two legal systems are found in a geographical area called the eastern Mediterranean; both societies compared are determined by a strong notion of what scholars have termed "sovereignty of law". It will become apparent that such a notion of sovereignty shapes a society in a very specific way. To explore, however, how such a sovereignty of law originated is beyond the scope and aim of this work. Furthermore the notion of such an overarching concept does not imply that we do not find differences between the two legal systems. The method applied here will combine historical-critical issues with insights from the social sciences, especially cultural anthropology. The following book is divided into seven parts. Due to the comparative nature of the work, the Introduction will provide two concise overviews of scholarship. Firstly, it is necessary to briefly review current trends of scholarship on the book of Deuteronomy as a whole. Here close attention is paid to overarching concepts such as the new interest in the utilisation of extrabiblical material such as the vassal treaties of Esarhaddon (VTE) and their possible influence on the fifth book of the Pentateuch. Also, we have to look at interpretations that aim at explaining the social background of the laws in the legal corpus of Deuteronomy (Deut 12-26). These overviews are necessary since our study is not concerned with literary questions. However, we will incorporate these insights; thus at the beginning of each chapter, the "state of the question" regarding the passages considered will be evaluated. The second part of the introduction is concerned with previous attempts to compare texts from the Old Testament with ancient Greek material. Starting as early as F.A. WOLF (1759-1824) and M. ARNOLD (1822-1888) we look firstly at scholarship from the Classics, literary theory and cultural criticism that has emphasised the differences between the two cultural realms before we move on to new models of interpretation, especially from the field of Classics, where new attention has been drawn to the actual dependence of

Introduction

2

Greek literature and culture on the cultures of the Ancient Near East, so that it is no longer possible to view both cultures as separated. Already here it will become apparent that the old opinio communis that Greek culture developed continually whereas oriental culture did not can no longer be maintained.! The methodology used in the thesis is explained in Chapter 1. The chapter itself deals with the environment of the Biblical text, thus placing it in the cultural realm of the eastern Mediterranean. Establishing an anthropological model of "small scale comparison" will allow us to compare two adjoining societies without necessarily having to postulate direct contact or influence; we will then be able to regard the eastern Mediterranean as a culture area in which certain sets of values in conjunction with a similar (ecological) environment prompt similar patterns of behaviour. Of course the question of a specific Mediterranean identity will be addressed. In a second step we will be considering the possible knowledge of the Mediterranean Sea in the Old Testament before thirdly looking at the legal systems available in this cultural area. A fourth part supplements the anthropological model in as much as it addresses the question if and how ancient personalities differed from our own modem understanding of an individual. Utilising insights from "social identity theory", we will be able to view individuals within an ancient, pre-industrial society as entirely group-embedded and collectivistic. The chapter closes with the argument for the selection of the chosen texts from Deuteronomy and the Greek world. Chapter 2 provides a close reading of Deut 16:18-18:22, trying to examine how individuals structure their "official" environment, such as the administration of justice, kingship and spiritual offices like prophecy (attention will be paid to recent redaction-critical studies of Deuteronomy but it is not our task to provide our own literary analysis). Equivalent phenomena from the Greek world, such as the Athenian assembly etc., will be used to illuminate the Biblical text. Probably the main insight of this chapter is the fact that a law such as Deut 17: 14-20, which assumes kingship without any military or judicial powers, is not at all surprising in the eastern Levant as the evidence from Cyrene will show. Also the deep scepticism towards divination reflected in Deut 18 :9-22 can be found in the Greek world. We note

1

Grafton 1999: 10.

1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question

3

moreover that if the deuteronomic text addresses Israel with "you" most likely only adult free males are envisaged. This first preliminary insight will be further developed in Chapter 3, which looks at warfare according to Deut 20. Hoplite warfare will serve as an explanatory model of a war without a king as military leader. Within this model the division of Israelite (male) society as proposed by Deut 20:5-7 serves as an essential asset to maintain society. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 deal with problems concerning the individual families and how these problems affect society as a whole. Firstly, we will look at Biblical texts reflecting a conflict of generations, before moving on to consider sexual deviance. This part of the thesis relies heavily upon the use of cultural anthropology, since it tries to move beyond the text itself and to evaluate the underlying cultural patterns behind the individual stipulations. The concluding chapter will not only bring together the insights from the work but will also reflect how Greek material can be used more fully in the exegesis of Biblical texts.

1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question The historical starting point2 for any study of the book of Deuteronomy is W.M.L. DE WETTE's Dissertatio critico exegetica written in 1805 3 and his Beitrdge zur Einleitung in das Alte Testament, published the following year (1806). Here de Wette sets out to show - as did scholars before him4 - that the book found in the Temple according to the report in 2Kgs 22f during the time of 10siah is actually the book of Deuteronomy.5 However in contrast to 2 Limited space does not allow us to give a detailed history of scholarship on Deuteronomy here. More extensive treatments can be found in Baumgartner 1929: 7-25 (up to 1928); PreuB 1982 (up to 1982); Gertz 1994: 7-27 (literature regarding the administration of justice in Deut); McBride 1999: 273-294; Qtto 1999b: 6-14. 218-236; Romer 1994a: 178-212; 1994b: 56-98; 1995: 153-157; Sonnet 1996: 481-496; Veijola 2002: 273-327. We will provide a discussion of the main streams of scholarship on individual passages, when dealing with them below. 3 de Wette 1805: 149-168. For a detailed analysis of de Wette's life and historical background see Rogerson 1992 and for his work on the Bible see Smend 1958. 4 See Smend 1958: 36 for the predecessors of such an argument. S de Wette 1805: 164fn5 C... Hic in collibus sacra faciendi mos posteriori tempore nefas est habitus, sed adeo inveteraverat, ut Iosias demum, Deuteronomio, tunc in templo invento,

4

Introduction

previous scholarship, he argues against the Mosaic origin of the book and is rather convinced that the book could only have been written shortly before it was actually discovered, i.e. around 620 B.C. 6 Already in de Wette we encounter the question whether older pre-losianic or pre-deuteronomic material has been used in the legal corpus and he also noted the special character of the language employed in Deuteronomy, which has a strangely moralistic tendency.7 Following these groundbreaking insights into the origin and character of the Book of Deuteronomy, A. KUENEN, K.H. GRAF and 1. WELLHAUSEN started using de Wette's exegetical observations in a modified form. In contrast to de Wette these scholars now viewed the priestly corpus P (called "Q" in Wellhausen's work) as the final stage of the origin of Old Testament law. 8 For Wellhausen, Deuteronomy symbolises the transition from Israelite Religion to ludaism since it rationalises the prophetic character of Israelite Religion; nevertheless, Deuteronomy is still part of such a prophetic religion since in it, prophecy reaches its climax. 9 From all that it becomes clear that in Wellhausen's work Deuteronomy is the centrepiece in any reconstruction of the history of Israel. \0 He also assumes that parts of the book can actually be connected with the reform of losiah who wanted a special written Torah to be the law code for his kingdom. lI This aim of losiah is then an important development towards a religion of the law so that we have here a first example of a transformation of Israel from a people of the holy word to a people of the law. 12 The creation of a normative religion enables Israel to survive the disaster of the exile. 13 Nevertheless Wellhausen is careful to distinguish between the deuteronomic legal conception and the post-exilic law as maniadmonitus (ilium enim codicem legum ab Hilkia sacerdote inventum ... Deuteronomium nostrum fuisse haud improbabili coniectura assequi licet) penitus eum tollere posset ... "); 1806: 168f[ 265f[ 6 de Wette 1806: 168f[ 265f[ 7 "moralische Tendenz", de Wette 1806: 275. 8 Wellhausen 1905: 4f; see also note 1 on the same page where he refers to W. Vatke, E.Reuss and L. George (Rogerson 1984: 63--68). 9 Wellhausen 1914: 129; notice the critical stand against such a view taken by Otto 1998: 277-310. We will deal with Deuteronomy's attitude towards prophecy below in our discussion of De ut 18:9-22. 10 McBride 1999: 287. 11 Wellhausen 1905: 402. 12 Wellhausen 1914: 129. 13 Wellhausen 1899: 358.

1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question

5

fested in P. For him, the Israel of Deuteronomy is a community of citizens l4 whereas in P it is more like a church.IS According to this view he is able to label Deut 16: 18-18 :22 as a constitution for Israel: "Eine Art Verfassungsgesetz (welches freilich das Bestehende voraussetzt und wenig daran andert), wahrend im Ganzen nur das Recht codificiert und der Cultus ausserhalb lerusalems verboten wird.,,16 Such a constitution had to be modified during and after the exile.17 We will have to remember Wellhausen's view of the legal corpus of Deuteronomy as a constitution when we begin our investigation of the relationship between individual and society as reflected in its laws. Despite the wide-ranging agreement l8 on the origin and formation of the book of Deuteronomy put forward by de Wette and Wellhausen, there were also voices of criticism and dissent. In particular, G. HOLSCHER I9 tried to 14 Contra Michaelis 1793 §38 who claims that the concept of a citizen is alien to Deuteronomy. 15 Wellhausen 1914: 202. A movement that can acc. to Riitersworden 1987 be detected in Deuteronomy itself. 16 Wellhausen 1899: 357, see already Michaelis 1793 I: 179-183 and Vater 1805: 257. 17 Wellhausen 1905: 402 can call this constitution - in contrast to P - "Reichsgesetz". This "Reichsgesetz" can only be found in Deut 12-26 (Wellhausen 1899: 188f) but is not necessarily identical with it. 18 In the United Kingdom W.R. Smith was one of the first scholars to defend a 10sianic date of Deuteronomy, a view which resulted in his expUlsion from his position in Aberdeen and cost him his eccelsiastical status in the Free Church of Scotland (for a detailed treatment of the relationship between Wellhausen and Smith see Smend 1995: 225-242). For the "Triumph of Well haus en" in Great Britain see Rogerson 1984: 253ff. 19 Holscher 1922: 161-255; 1922a: 130-134. As early as 1829 C.P.W. Gramberg (see Rogerson 1984: 57--63) proposed an exilic/post-exilic date for Deuteronomy. In his periodisation of Israelite history he names Deut, los, 1-2Kgs amongst the documents written towards the end of the exile (Gramberg 1829: xxv-xxvi). Later in his work he says on the character of Deut: "Das Buch selbst wird aber, nicht nur einzelnen bestimmten Ziigen, sondem auch seinem ganzen Geist und Inhalt nach erst am Ende des Exils verfaBt seyn konnen." (Gramberg 1829: 66). The book found in the Temple according to 2Kgs 22fhad to be Ex (Gramberg 1829: 306). In addition Paton 1928: 322 names the following scholars who have, previously to Holscher, argued for a post-exilic date of Deuteronomy: W. Vatke (1835), L. Seinecke (1876), D. d'Eichtal (1886), M. Vernes (1887), L. Horst (1887), SA Fries (1903), 1. Cullen (1903) and R.H. Kennett (1906) and concludes "[n]one of these works attracted much attention at the time of their publication, and they exerted no influence upon general critical opinion" (Paton 1928: 322f). Shortly before the publication of Holscher's work Berry 1920: 44-51 advocated a similar dating.

6

Introduction

develop an alternative model, with the hope of showing that the core of Deuteronomy could not have been the book found in the Temple during 10siah's reign but is rather of post-exilic character?O In contrast to Wellhausen and his followers, Holscher does not use 2Kgs 22f but rather stays within the framework of Deuteronomy itself when doing his literary critical operations. 21 According to Holscher, the earliest layer can be found in the passages written in the singular in Deut 6-28. This exegetical manoeuvre was not a new one. Already C. STEUERNAGEL and others had used the stylistic criterion of second-person singular versus plural forms of address to distinguish editions of the legal corpus. 22 For Holscher the fictive historical background points to the exilic situation of Israel and its idealistic character is close to the priestly schoo1. 23 It is only coherent that he does not find any prophetic character in the writings of Deuteronomy?4 "As to the relation of Deuteronomy to the other Old Testament law-codes, Holscher holds that the documents of the Hexateuch and of the historical books are in the main rightly analyzed by the present school of criticism, and that the relative order in which the codes are arranged is correct ... The absolute dating of the

20 Of course also the opposite view, i.e. an extremely early date for Deuteronomy, can be found in the literature; see e.g. Th. Oestreicher 1923; Driver 1902: Iv-I vii who maintains a "Mosaic nucleus" of the book; see Welch 1924 and Welch 1932 where he argues that H originated in the southern kingdom and Deuteronomy in the northern kingdom (a view later taken up by Nicholson, who states: "It may be concluded therefore that the book of Deuteronomy originated among the circles of prophets who were active in northern Israel." 1967:122; see also Alt 1953: 250-275, who localises Deut in Israel and dates its origin to the century between the fall of the northern kingdom and the reform of Josiah [Alt 1953: 273]). In recent scholarship McConville 1984; McConvillelMillar 1994 and Craigie 1976: 24-29.79-83 have argued for a very early dating. 21 "Es ist uberhaupt methodisch verfehlt, bei dieser ganzen Untersuchung bestandig nach II Reg 22f hinuberzuschielen; denn es ist eine petitio principii, die mit einer rein literarischen Untersuchung nichts zu tun haben darf; erst wenn der Urbestand des Deuteronomiums, ganz ohne Rucksicht auf II Reg 22[, auf rein literarischem Wege festgestellt worden ist, kann das Verhaltnis des Urdeuteronomiums zu II Reg 22f erwogen werden" (Holscher 1922: 189f). The current relevance of Holscher's verdict can be seen in Otto 1999b: 12-14; see also Wurthwein 1976: 188-216. 22 Steuernagel 1894. 1901; Puuko 1910. For a history of scholarship see Begg 1978 and 1979: 116-124 and for the application Minette de Tillesse 1962: 29-87. 23 Holscher 1922: 229. 24 This lack of prophecy can already be found in the opening verses of Deuteronomy (Deut 1:9-17): "Schon hi er verrat sich der klerikale - nicht 'prophetische' Charakter des deuteronomischen Gesetzbuches ... " (Holscher 1922: 165).

1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question

7

documents, however, in the current theory is wholly wrong.,,25 According to Holscher, Deuteronomy has to be viewed as a programme for an Israel after the exile, which is quite utopian?6 Nevertheless not every text of Deuteronomy can be dated late and even Holscher acknowledges that the authors of Deuteronomy were able to draw on older material: "Die vom Gesetzgeber benutzten Quellen freilich, besonders die Gesetze des Altestenrechtes, zeigen durch ihren Inhalt, daB sie im wesentlichen der vorexilischen Praxis entstammen, und sie mogen in ihrer Formulierung recht alt sein.,,27 Since the deuteronomic law was never put into practice, it is impossible to reconstruct a history of the actual institutions to which it refers?8 Due to this lack of historical ties it is hardly possible to verify any of Holscher's theses 29 and this may be the reason why only a few scholars followed his views. 3D It is only in recent times that his thesis of a post-exilic utopia has found new

Paton 1928: 344. "DaB diese gesetzliche Neuordnung allerhand praktische Schwierigkeiten haben konnte, empfindet der Gesetztgeber selber vielfach und sucht dem auch Rechnung zu tragen; aber er hat sich doch nicht klargemacht, wie yollig undurchfiihrbar seine Forderungen, so wie er sie stellt, sind. Es ist der unpraktische Idealismus der priesteriichen Schule, der das ganze Gesetz beherrscht und unbekiimmert urn die Wirklichkeit seine Konstruktion in die Luft baut. Daraus ergibt sich, daB dies Gesetz nicht zur Zeit des bestehenden Staates und Volkstums entstanden sein, nicht unter Josia von der gesamten Volksvertretung als offentliches Gesetz angenommen und vom Konig als Staatsgesetz eingefiihrt worden sein kann. Auf eine vorexilische Entstehung deutet im Gesetzbuch selbst iiberhaupt nichts hin, vielmehr setzt es das Exil und das Fehlen des Konigtums voraus. Seine Entstehung flillt hinter den Elohisten, aber vor das Heiligkeitsgesetz und die Abfassung des Hezekielbuches, also wo hi etwa urn 500. Es ist offenbar gedacht als ein umfassendes Gesetz, nach welchem die Verhaltnisse der Gemeinde im Lande Palastina neu geregelt werden sollten" (Holscher 1922a: 132); HOlscher 1922: 227-230. Otto 1994: 193-208 can speak in the same terms of the dtr Deuteronomy. 27 Holscher 1922: 227. 28 Holscher 1922: 227f 252f 29 Gertz 1994: 14. As early as 1928 Paton could conclude his survey of Ho Is cher's work by saying: "The conclusion to which one comes, accordingly, is that the advocates of the postexilic date of Deuteronomy fail to refute the arguments of the school of De Wette for its origin in the seventh century B.C., and fail to produce any convincing evidence of its origin in the fifth century" (Paton 1928: 357). )0 Horst 1923: 220-238. 25

26

8

Introduction

support in the work of T. VEIJOLA. 31 Despite its obvious flaws, H6lscher's work opened up the possibility of a post-exilic Deuteronomy and in stressing the programmatic character of Deuteronomy and the possibility of its being a legal corpus of a (fictional or actual) state he evoked a certain correction within the reception of Wellhaus en's views. 32 From the middle of the 20th century onwards, scholars begin to use "external evidence", namely material from cuneiform sources etc. for the interpretation of Deuteronomy. In 1954 G.E. MENDENHALL opened up a new chapter in the interpretation of the text by using Hittite suzerainty treaties of the Late Bronze Age in comparison with deuteronomic texts. 33 "He suggested that the genuinely archaic protocol of international treaties had been adapted to define a covenant relationship between the nascent league of Israelite tribes and their divine overlord; he also identified the protocol as vestigial in Deuteronomy, accounting for some of the striking themes and structural features that von Rad had considered indicative of a liturgical provenance.,,34 The extensive debate following Mendenhall's and Baltzer's proposal cannot be rehearsed here in detai1 35 but the debate has shown that it is indeed necessary to pay attention to cuneiform sources. 36 Apart from the debate sparked by Mendenhall, scholars have continued to analyse the structure and redactionallayers in both the frame and the legal

31 Veijola 1995: 287-314. In a later study (Veijola 2000: 192-267) he develops his idea and argues that the Deuteronomists have to be seen as the predecessors of the scribes. 32 Noth 1960: 58-67. 33 Mendenhall 1954a: 26-46. 1945b: 50-76. 1990: 85-100. Followed by Baltzer 1964 and especially McCarthy 1978. 34 McBride 1999: 288. Already Wellhausen used the word treaty to describe the covenant: "Die alten Hebrlier hatten fur Gesetz keine andere Vorstellung und keine andere Bezeichnung als die des Vertrages. Ein Gesetz wurde dadurch rechtskrliftig, daB diejenigen denen es gaIt sich verpflichteten es zu halten." (Wellhausen 1905: 416). 31 See Perlitt 1969 who defends Wellhausen's view and the excellent history of the debate on Covenant Theology in Otto 1998d: 2-37 (see also PreuB 1982: 63-74). Otto himself argues for an utilisation of cuneiform material and refutes scholarship that wants to interpret the Old Testament without any external evidence: "Die Zeit endogener Rekonstruktionen der Religionsgeschichte Israels und Judas ist endgiiltig vorbei. Die Religionsgeschichte formiert sich auf dem Wege zu ihren Propria in Auseinandersetzung mit dem Kulturdruck der Hegemonialmlichte ... In diesen Auseinandersetzungen nimmt die Religionsgeschichte 'Israels' an den Modernisierungsschiiben der Kultur- und Religionsgeschichte des Alten Orients im 1. Jt. teil und wird durch sie geprligt." (Otto 1998d: 66). 36 0tto 1991a: 139-168.

1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question

9

corpus of Deuteronomy.3? While the results are diverse, they seem to agree that Deuteronomy is a multilayered work and that it is necessary to distinguish between pre-deuteronomic, deuteronomic, deuteronomistic and later material. Also almost all scholars agree that something new commences in Deut 16: 18 and that Deut 26 should be regarded as an addition to Deut 12_25.38

Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the question of the relationship between Deuteronomy and Gen-Num. 39 C. CARMICHAEL attempted to solve the problem by arguing that the laws in Deuteronomy were actually a rephrasing of the narratives of the Tetrateuch. 4o In contrast to Carmichael, E. OTTO aims at a connection of inner-pentateuchal evidence and the socalled external evidence, which for him can be found in the neo-Assyrian documents. 41 The process of the origin of the Book of Deuteronomy (and the Pentateuch as a whole) is characterised by the reformulation of legal sentences as found in the Book of the Covenant. 42 In addition to such a reformulation Otto is able to find traces of legal reforms in Deuteronomy which bear close resemblance to similar processes in comparable cuneiform documents. 43 Such processes combined with the external evidence of the neo-Assyrian loyalty oaths, which can be dated quite exactly, allow Otto to

37 Merendino 1969; Seitz 1971; Achenbach 1991. We will only provide a rough outline of the main developments in the analysis of Deuteronomy here. A more detailed treatment on the scholarship will be found below, when dealing with individual passages. 38 Seitz 1971: 92f; PreuB 1982: 108-112. Recent commentaries on Deuteronomy reflect the diversity, see Weinfeld 1991; Rose 1994; Nielsen 1995; Tigay 1996. On the two German commentaries see Achenbach 1996: 86--113. 39 0tto 1995b: 373-392; 1997: 55-69; 1999a: 84-99; Braulik 1998: 125-141; Blenkinsopp 1999: 84-115. 40 Carmichael 1974 and the critical remarks to his approach in Levinson 1996: 227-257, who labels Carmichael's approach as "neo-midrashic eisegesis", since order and dependence ofthe laws on the narratives is always presupposed but never proven. 41 Other views on redactional history of the legal corpus Deut 12-26 are summarised in Otto 1999b: 218-227. Following the labelling introduced by Smend 1989: 114-116, Otto uses the labels DtrH, DtrD to distinguish between different redactional layers (Veijola 1996: 242-276 operates with the same labels but adds a so-called "Bundestheologische Redaktion" (DtrB)). 42 0tto 1993: 260-278; 1994d: 195-217; 1995b: 373-392; I 996a: 112-122; 1999b: 236364. 43 Otto 1991: 290-306; 1995a: 239-274; 1996d: I-52; [1993a: 3-22; 1994c: 160-176 here demonstrated for the Book of the Covenant]. Otto 1999b: 91-202 is a very detailed argument for the process ofredaction and reformulation in middle Assyrian laws.

10

Introduction

postulate as the date of origin of a pre-exilic Deuteronomy some time between 672 and 612 B.C. 44 To encounter the Assyrian crisis, Israel uses the technique of "subversive reception".45 Taking up OHo's idea of a reformulation of the Book of the Covenant but without using cuneiform material, B.M LEVINSON examines the hermeneutics involved in the reworking of older legal material. 46 The central aspect to his "hermeneutics of legal innovation,,47 is the importance of the centralisation of the cult: " ... power relations in the central sphere were reorganised, as the Temple became the exclusive site for cultic activity and consequently usurped even the role of the monarch as final arbiter of problematic legal cases.,,48 The last approaches to determine the literary history of Deuteronomy which we will look at, are those that try to link the structure of the laws in Deuteronomy to the Decalogue. 49 Taking up insights by F.W. SCHULTZ and 44 "Literaturhistorischer Ursprung des Deuteronomiums ist die direkte [italics mine] Dbersetzung von SAA 11/6 §1O, erganzt durch SAA 11/6 §§12*; 18* (29*); 57* des Loyalitiitseides Asarhaddons aus dem Jahre 672 v. Chr., in Dtn 13* und von SAA II/6 §56, erganzt durch SAA 1116 §36A-42; 63-64 in Dtn 28,20-44*, die in der Dbersetzung zusammen einen formgeschichtlich geschlossenen Loyalitiitseid bilden. Fur die antiassyrisch gewendete Rezeption des Loyalitiitseides und seine Dbertragung auf JHWH kommt nur der Zeitraum zwischen 672 und 612 v. Chr. in Frage. Dieser Loyalitiitseid fur JHWH in Dtn 13*; 28* wurde spiitvorexilisch durch die Integration des deuteronomisch-vorexilisch fortgeschriebenen Bundesbuches in Dtn 12-26 zu einem Reformprogramm erweitert, das unter der Forderung der Loyalitiit JHWH gegenuber steht, urn schlieBlich deuteronomistisch-exilisch, verbunden mit dem BundesschluB am Horeb als Ausfaltung des Dekalogs unter Bedingungen des Lebens im Kulturland zu einem Programm des Neuen Israels nach dem Exil fortgeschrieben zu werden" (Otto: 1998d: 37); see also Otto 1997: 325-333. 45 "Das Deuteronomium als Mitte von Theologie und Literaturgeschichte des Alten Testaments entsteht mit assyrischer Geburtshilfe, urn sich mit dem ersten Atemzug gegen diesen Geburtshelfer zu wenden" (Otto 1999b: 74). Otto 1999g: 75-76 furthermore assumes the reception of Egyptian, Syrian, Phoenician, Persian and Hellenistic material in the Hebrew Bible as a whole. 46 "The approach taken here is that, from the very inception of the legal corpus, with the innovation of centralization, the legislative and the hermeneutical were inseparable from each other" (Levinson 1997: 52). For a more detailed history of scholarship on the dependence of Deuteronomy on the Covenant Code, see Levinson 1991: 78-114. 47 "The authors of Deuteronomy have a double program that is simultaneously legislative to propound their new vision of religion, law and the administration of the polity - and hermeneutical - concerned with justifYing their own authority radically to overturn legal history" (Levinson 1997: 51). 48 Levinson 1997: 144. 49 Already in Luther's lecture on the Book of Deuteronomy from 1523-25 we find statements that call Deuteronomy an exegesis of the ten commandments: "Atque si proprie ad

1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question

11

H.D. PREUSS,50 S.A. KAUFMANN assumes that it is possible to assign the legal material in the deuteronomic corpus to the individual commandments of the Decalogue. 51 Thus Deut 12: 1-25: 16 must be viewed as a literary unit which can be dated to the time of Joshua. 52 Kaufmann overlooks the fact that the Decalogue contains deuteronomistic elements. 53 Taking up Kaufmann's ideas, G. BRAULIK argues for a decalogic structure of the laws only on a post-exilic redactional level, which added Deut 19-25 to Deut 12-18. 54 Braulik justifies such a late dating of Deut 19-25 by arguing for Deuteronomy's dependence on Ez 18:5-20 and Lev 17_26. 55 For the leges de officiis (Deut 16:18-18:22) Braulik follows the insights ofN. LOHFINK, who argued that these laws in their final form should be regarded as a constitution for an Israel after the exile. 56 Braulik thus proposes that the deuteronomic law consisted of three successive additions of clusters of texts. 57 According to Braulik's view Deut 12:2-16:17 are of pre-exilic character, Deut 16:18-18:22 can be dated in the time of the exile and - as mentioned above - Deut 19-25 consists of texts of post-exilic origin in a decalogic structure. The reason for such an expansion was the need of the post-exilic commu. 58 mty.

nostrum usum velis libellum appelare, recte appelaveris ExpJanationem decalogi plane copiosissimam et luculentissimam, qua cognita nihil prorsus desiderare queas, quo ad intelligentiam decem praeceptorum opus sit." (W A 14,545). On Luther's lecture in general see Kreuzer 2000: 301-317 and Perlitt 2002: 211-225. 50 Preulll982: 111f. 51 Kaufmann 1979: 105-108 and see the critical remarks by Otto 1999b: 225f. 52 Kaufmann 1979: 147. 53 Hollfeld 1982: 214ff, Otto 1994: 208ff. 54 Braulik 1985: 231-255. 1991: 116. "Wahrscheinlich war Dtn 12-18 (und 26) im wesentlichen bereits der Redaktion vorgegeben, die den dtn Kodex nach dem DekaJog verstehen und dann das als unvollstandig empfundene Gesetzbuch im Sinn des Dekalogs juristisch ergiinzen wollte. Weil aber die Amtergesetze erst waruend des babylonischen Exils zu einem einheitlichen Gesetzesblock redigiert worden sind, diirfte die dtn Gesetzessammlung friihestens in dieser Periode in Anlehnung an den Dekalog erweitert und strukturiert worden sein" (Braulik 1998: 133f). 55 Braulik 1991: 105 (for Ezek 18:5-20); 1996b: 23-55 (forLev 17-26). 56 Lohfink 1990b: 305-323 (the article was originally published in 1971); see also Otto 1994: 193-208. 57 Braulik 1991. 58 "Konkrete Bediirfnisse der exilischen und nachexilischen Gemeinden fiihrten schlielllich ... zu einer massiven Erweitemng des legislativen Materials" (Braulik 1986: 12).

Introduction

12

The above survey of the current trends in research on Deuteronomy has been necessary to emphasise our point of departure from traditional historicalcritical scholarship in the current work. Rather than a traditional historicalcritical explanation for how the book of Deuteronomy developed into its present form we will focus on its cultural setting and background, trying to locate it within the cultural area of the eastern Mediterranean. 59 This does not mean that we will neglect literary-critical insights, but "classic" questions such as the date of Deuteronomy and the different redactional layers will not be our main concern. 60 With regard to the question of the problem of individual and society, N. LOHFINK has tried to examine that relationship following G. v. RAD in Deut 1:6-3 :29. 61 Lohfink states that the text for such an enterprise sheds only light on the educational rhetoric of the author. 62 He never clarifies what is actually meant by the term "individual" and how such a concept might have functioned in the ancient world, so that his study might be valuable for an exegesis of the theological language employed in these chapters but not for a study of the relationship between the individual and its society.63 Generally research into the community behind the book of Deuteronomy has focussed on the institutions described, especially the organisation of justice. 64

On the eastern Mediterranean as an area of cultural comparison see chapter I below. The same is true for the more exegetical studies. The reader is able to deduce from the works some information on how Israelite society functioned; see Buchholz 1988 for the institution of the elders, Gertz 1994 for the administration of justice; also from OUo' s works we can conclude that the authors of Deut must have been familiar with neo-Assyrian legal material etc., but the social information is never fully interpreted so that the reader is left with the feeling that a sociological reconstruction is missing; on the other hand, works like McNuU's 1999 reconstruction of ancient Israelite society tend to neglect the insights from historical-critical scholarship, reading a text only synchronically. 61 Lohfmk 1990a: 45-51 (originally published in 1960); v. Rad 1929. 62 "Dt 1,6-3,29 leistet zwar keinen bedeutenden Beitrag zur intellektuellen KHirung des Problems Individuum - Gemeinschaft. Dennoch kann es neues Licht auf die vielverhandelte Frage werfen. Es handelt von ihr vom rhetorisch-erzieherisch-schriftstellerischen Standpunkt aus" (Lohfink 1990a: 45). 63 Lohfink seems to realise that himself, when he concludes: "Da wird keine Aussage gemacht. Das Problem wird aufgerissen, aber nicht durch eine Lehre erschlossen." (Lohfink 1990a: 51) 64 Riitersworden 1987; Buchholz 1988; Foresti 1988. 59 60

1. Deuteronomy: The State of the Question

13

In a recent article L. STULMAN has put forward the thesis that it is possible to detect a certain concern for group maintenance in Deuteronomy.65 This concern is paired with "an ethos of encroachment" in Deuteronomy.66 In the course of the essay, Stulman argues that this concern for group survival "sits uneasily with a lack of clarity in the definition of the group.,,67 The textual basis for his enterprise are the thirteen crimes that result in capital punishment. 68 As a result, he argues that the deviants encountered in the laws are people that Israel encounters on a fairly regular basis because they live within the group and are therefore not necessarily foreigners but Israelites. 69 Stulman acknowledges the diverse nature of his selected texts but tends to read all the laws synchronically. Such an approach is especially problematic for Deut 13 :2-19 which is a multilayered chapter with several additions. 7o Furthermore we cannot share Stulman's concern regarding the lack of clarity in the definition of the group. As the following work will show, legal stipulations are generally concerned with "wanton individuals/groups who reside within the community boundaries but do not conform to its social and cosmic restraints.,,7! We will propose that the laws in Deuteronomy (and from the Greek world for that matter) are always concerned with the so called "in-group" and deviants from it.72 Recently l.C. GERTZ has tried to evaluate the legal system of Deuteronomy on a historical critical basis. 73 Gertz's work is a valuable study, which will serve us well in our own analysis and most of his exegetical insights 65 Stulman 1990: 613-632. for an application of Stulman's thesis see Mayes 1994: 176--177. 66 Stulman 1990: 613. "In response to this awareness of encroachment and danger, D attempts to produce a program in which the integrity of Israel's internal boundaries is (re)established and clarified in order to protect insiders from potentially harmful outsiders" (p. 614) 67 Mayes 1994: 176. 68 Deut 13:2-6.7-12.13-19; 17:2-7.8-13; 18:15-22; 19:11-13; 21:18-21; 22:13-21.22. 23-24.25-27;24:7. 69 "In D, the concern is apparently to protect insiders from 'indigenous outsiders' (bad insiders) who pose a serious threat to their well-being" (Stulman 1990: 626). 70 For a review of scholarship on the passage see Otto 1999b: 34-57 and Riitersworden 2002: 185-203. 71 Stulman 1990: 631. 72 One further problem with Stulman's analysis is the fact that he introduces the category of "sacral law" to describe the offences mentioned in Deut 22:22; 22:23-24; 22:25-27 but he never defines how he arrives at such labelling. 73 Gertz 1994 and the review in Otto 1996e: 328-332.

14

Introduction

will be utilised in the present study, yet he never reflects on the social implications or on the individuals the laws are concerned with. Furthermore his work is a text-immanent study, i.e. only focussing on texts from Deuteronomy itself. Through the incorporation of comparative Greek legal material we hope to determine the social background of the deuteronomic laws more fully.

2. The Comparison of Hebrew and Greek Thought Since the current work will use archaic Greek legal material and compare it with texts from the book of Deuteronomy, we will have to look in a second part of the introduction into previous attempts to compare Hebrew and Greek thought?4 Here our enterprise will be twofold: first we have to take a closer look at the comparison of Hebrew and Greek thought and secondly we need to pay attention to new models of interpretation, especially from the field of Classics where new attention has been drawn to the actual dependence of Greek literature and culture on the cultures of the Ancient Near East. 75 Despite the closeness of Palestine to the Aegean, modern scholarship does not seem to have realised this closeness and has continued to stress the utter difference between Hebrew and Greek thought. Thus the main contrasts between Hebrew and Greek culture and thought are thought to be: 1) The contrast between static and dynamic 2) The contrasts between abstract and concrete 3) The contrast in the conception ofhumankind. 76

F.A. WOLF is probably the first scholar in whose work we can detect some contrasting of the culture of the Greeks and the culture of the oriental peo-

74 To compare texts from the Old Testament with material from classical sources is by no means a new approach. Already in Jerome's commentary on Jeremiah (in Hieremiam 11.5) we find quotations from Virgil (see Brown 1995: 3-4). 75 Unfortunately the references in Greek sources to Palestine are virtually non-existent; Herodotus is the only author who explicitly calls Palestine Palestine (Herodotus, His!. I.105; II.104; III.5; III.91; IV.39; VII.89). In contrast to that one can detect a certain fascination of the Greek world with Egypt. Assmann 2000a: 9-10. 76 Barr 1978: 10-13.

2. The Comparison of Hebrew and Greek Thought

15

ple. 77 Thus he can be held responsible for the origin of the long~standing (German) opinio communis that Greek culture has developed continually whereas the oriental one did not. 78 In Wolfs work we have the first step towards the separation of Greek culture from its eastern neighbours. 79 This is quite remarkable since Wolf in his early years did study the Bible and utilised an enlightened comparative approach to ancient authors. 8o Later, he compared the tradition of the text of the homeric epics with the Masora. 81 The influence of J.D. Michaelis and J.G. Eichhorn is apparent. 82 The Biblical text can be used as comparative material to fill in the gaps.83 On the other hand, Wolf in his later life is eager to stress the difference between the two cultural realms. 84 The comparative approach to culture (vergleichende Kul-

turwissenschaft) which Wolf got acquainted with in G6ttingen had been abandoned in favour of pure Classics (klassische Altertumswissenschaft).85 MATTHEW ARNOLD devotes the whole fourth chapter of his Culture and Anarchy (1869) to the notion of "Hebraism and Hellenism".86 He recognises

On Wolfsee Marchand 1996: 16-24; Grafton 1999: 9-31. Grafton 1999: 10. 79 "Erst im Laufe des achtzehnten lahrhunderts, als die von Winckelmann und anderen entwickelte Vorstellung, daB die Kultur der Griechen einzigartig hold und rein und schiin gewesen sei, iiberall Verbreitung fand, begann sich die Klassische Philologie von der Theologie zu trennen, wobei sie sich auch von den orientalischen Philogien abgrenzte ... So wurde die These salonfahig, daB ein gebildeter Mensch, der die alten Quellen studieren wollte, sich mit Juden und ahnlichen Barbaren kaum zu befassen habe" (Grafton 1999: 12). 80 Grafton 1999: 23. 81 Grafton 1999: 23-24. 82 See for example Wolff 1795: 85 n25.141 n 12. 83 "Urn Liicken in der alten Literatur auszufullen, kann man andere Wissenschaften zu Rathe ziehen. In geschichtlichen Untersuchungen kiinnen wir anderer Nationen Hiilfsmittel benutzen, z.B. der Hebraer. Hierdurch werden wir wenigstens zu Wahrscheinlichkeiten kommen" (Wolf 1798-99 quoted in Grafton 1999: 27). 84 "Die orientalischen Viilker wichen ganzlich von den vorziiglichsten Viilkem des Alterthums ab. Die Hebraer haben sich nie so ausgebildet, dass man sie fur eine gelehrte Nation halten kiinne, und daher sind sie zu verschieden von den Griechen und Riimem. Es versteht sich also, dass wir Werke so1cher Viilker, wie die Hebraer waren, ausschliessen miissen" (Wolf 1798-99 quoted in Grafton 1999: 28). 85 Marchand 1996: 21. 86 Amold 1869: 127 refers to H. Heine, from whom he has taken over the dichotomy. Heine himself writes in his Elementargeister (1837): "Die Frage war: ob der triibsinnige, magere, sinnesfeindliche, iibergeistigte Judaismus der Nazarener oder die hellenische Heiterkeit, Schtinheitsliebe und bliihende Lebenslust in der Welt herrschen solle?" (quoted acc. to H.Heine, Sdmtliche Werke 7. Band, Leipzig 1910; 407). Heine takes up ideas already found 77

78

16

Introduction

that "Hebraism and Hellenism - between these two points of influence moves our world,,87 thus stressing that they are both contributions to the development of humanity,88 but he refuses to see them as intertwined. "These terms [for Arnold] characterize the two great traditions of thought and feeling that had influenced the Western world, but also stand for the two tendencies which are constantly struggling for dominance within each individual.,,89 Thus he sees the world as a pendulum swinging from one point to another yet it is never balanced evenly between them. 9o Generally, Arnold observes, Hellenism is "reduced to minister to the triumph of Hebraism.,,91 In Arnold's work, both terms are employed to characterise different aspects of Victorian society and culture that are clearly dominated by the aspects of "Hebraism.,,92 Thus his main concern is not necessarily a theological one, but rather a postulation of a Hellenic ideal in society, an ideal that is full of sweetness and light. "Sweetness and light evidently have to do with the bent or side of humanity which we call Hellenic. Greek intelligence has obviously for the essence the instinct for what Plato calls the true, firm intelligible law of things; the law of light, of seeing things as they are.,,93 in Goethe's works, but postulates in the spirit of Hegel a decision for Greek culture which seems to carry for him the roots of freedom. Heine can later on in his work describe himself as "halber Hellene". Scholarship has pointed out correctly that M. Arnold's terminology of Hebrew and Hellene is mismatched and a mixed metaphor, since he also uses "Philistine" vs. "Barbarian" (Prichett 1989: 138). For the general Victorian background and the notion of Greece during that time see Jenkyns 1980; Turner 1981. Interestingly Greek authors at the same time voice the desire of a new Moses who will lead Greece, now seen as the new Israel, to freedom. Thus we read in the works of A.R. Rangavis: LlEv 8EVo. Aci~l] EVTOATW 0 MwuCJfjs 0 VEOS I EK TfjS EPr]~OU TOV Aaov TOV EKAEKTOV CJwCJl]; I Kat 8Lo. pa~80u Ta ~ouvo. WS rrAr]~l] MwuCJEws, I arro TWV ~paxwv XE[~appOL KAErrTwv 8EV 80. pL ~aO'lAEl TWV TapTllO'O'LWV, T4> ovvo[la [lEV ~v 'Apyav8wvloS' ETVpavvEvO'E BE TapTllO'O'oV oyBwKovTa ETEa, E~iwO'E BE 'TTaVTa El KOO'l Kal EKaTov. TOVT4l B~ T4> avBpl 'TTPOO'' ihou TTEp dv Aall~civT]Tal ("you must take the view that offences against the laws concern everyone, no matter in whos case they are detected;" transl. acc. to MacDowelll990: 217). 252 Whitley 1997: 635-636 mentions G. Orwell's Animal Farm in this respect. 253 See Deut 4:40,6:2; 11:9. In Deut 4:26; 30:18 it is said explicitly that the people who do not observe the Torah will not live long. 254 On the issue of the land see Perlitt 1983: 97-108. 255 Thomas 1996: 27ff. 256 ef. IvOlympia 2 (= Nomima 1,23), where we read in line 9 e 7T[l]va~ [apes 'OAuv7TLm ("the tablet is to be consecrated at Olympia"). 257 Jeffery 1990: 105. 258 Text of the so called "Pappadakis Bronze" acc. to Nomima 1,44: "This stipulation shall be sacred to Apollo Pythios and his fellow gods who dwell in the Temple; whoever transgresses these to him shall be destruction, to him and his descendants and his property; to the one who piously keeps them (the stipulations), to him shall the god be friendly" (transl. mine).

I. Methodological Considerations

80

The choice of the Temple or the divine sphere in general is hardly surprising. Here under the protection of the divine, the stipulation/the law code could achieve a quality that reaches beyond the scribal character: the law receives a sacral legitimation and becomes almost infallible, law is made a monument of society, far removed from human alteration. 259 That still leaves us with the problem of when such a process of legitimation originates in society. Following P.L. BERGER and TB. LUCKMANN I would propose that, "[t]he problem of legitimation inevitably arises when the objectivations of the (now historic) institutional order are to be transmitted to a new generation.,,26o As such the process of legitimation is applied to justify the institutional order and to make its mode of function plausible to the members of society. "Legitimation justifies the institutional order by giving a normative dignity to its practical imperatives. It is important to understand that legitimation has a cognitive as well as a normative element. In other words, legitimation is not just a matter of 'values'. It always implies 'knowledge' as well.,,261 Fixed knowledge then, be it on a scroll or on a wall, gives the law a new quality, it gains autonom/ 62 and thus proceeds to distinguish itself from custom?63

Holkeskamp 1994: 141. BergerlLuckmann 1966: Ill. Similarly Bourdieu 1977: 165, "Social representations of the different ages of life, and of the properties attached by definition to them, express in their own logic, the power relations between the age-classes, helping to reproduce at once the union and the division of those classes by means of temporal decisions tending to produce both, continuity and rupture. They thereby rank among the institutionalized instruments for maintenance of the symbolic order, and hence among the mechanisms of the reproduction of the social order whose very functioning serves the interests of those occupying a dominant position in the social structure, the men of mature age." 261 BergerlLuckmann 1966: III and also Bourdieu 1977: 164, "The instruments of knowledge of the social world are in this case (objectively) political instruments which contribute to the reproduction of the social world by producing immediate adherence to the world, seen as self-evident and undisputed, of which they are the product and of which they reproduce the structures in a transformed form. The political functions of classifications is never more likely to pass unnoticed than in the case of relatively undifferentiated social formations, in which the prevailing c1assificatory system encounters no rival or antagonistic principle." 262 See Gagarin 1986: l3lf, 136 ("in order to write down a set oflaws, however one must first have already a recognizable body of rules ... "). 263 Acc. to Holkeskamp 1994: 155, in the Greek world emphasised by the use of eE(J~OS" and v6~oS". 259 260

4. Laws and Legal Systems in the Eastern Levant

81

Through the transfer into the sacred sphere and the codification of the laws of society, it is now possible that the law starts to govern society, or in the words of Herodotus: ETTEaTL yap aL SEaTTOTT]S' VO~lOS' TC)v tITToSEL [lat VOVULV TTOAAW ETL [lClAAOV ,

i\

ol

,264

aOL aE.

A codified written law is generally seen as providing justice and equality for all members of society (8EUIlOUS' 8' 0llolWS' T4) KaK4) TE Kaya84) Ev8ELav ElS' EKaOTOV apllooaS' 8lKT]V EypmIJai65 so in Deut 17:19, where the king is commanded to read day and night in the book of the law, so that "he may learn to keep all the stipulations and laws and to act according to them. ,,266 The Question a/Unity and Continuity in Greek Law: Generally speaking, research into Greek law assumes that the date of the legal inscription or the legal text does not necessarily provide us with any information regarding the actual age of the law itself. 267 This might be the reason why scholarly works on Greek law hardly ever address the question regarding the unity and continuity of Greek law?68 In general works on the 264 Herodotus, 7.104 (" ... for them is set a law as a master, whom they fear much more than thy people fear thee ... "). Unfortunately we cannot use Pindar, fr. 169.1--4: NOl1os 6 rraVTWV j3aolEAEuS I 9vaTWV TE KaL a9avaTWV I uYEL olKa'i:wv TO j3LalOTaTOV I llTTEpTapTaL XELpt ("Law, the lord of all, mortals and immortals, carrieth everything with a high hand, justifying the extreme violence") here since V0l10S in this fragment refers in the fragment to custom, rather than to actual law (on the fragment as such see Lloyd-Jones 1990: 154-165). In Athens V0l10S does not denote written law before the end of the 5th century, see Thomas 1996: 17. The earliest occurrence ofvol1oS as written laws can be found in IG 84; on the problem in general see Ostwald 1969: 20-54. 265 Solon,fr. 36 [West]: "I wrote laws for the lower and upper classes alike, providing a straight legal process for each person" and Euripides, Suppl. 433--434. 266 See also Deut 8: 11 and Ps 1:2. 267 Probably the most famous case to support such a view is the republication of Draco's law of homicide in the year 409--408 B.C. (IG 1/3,104), where the council and the people (TEl j30UAEl KaL Till OEI1Ol) decide to order the new inscribing of the old law (civaypa[]oa[v]Tov ol civaypaE-1 S TOV vOl1ov). On the re-publication of the Athenian laws between 410--404 B.C. see Hansen 1992: 162-165. Also the Gortyn law code has to be seen as such a document. 268 E.g. in Harrison's extensive study on the law of Athens such a problematisation is entirely missing. Todd 1995: 30--48, however, addresses the question regarding the sources for a reconstruction of Athenian law. Also, Arnaoutoglou 1998 who deliberately uses evidence from outside Athens such as Gortyn, Delphi and the Aegean, does not address the question. His

e

82

I. Methodological Considerations

origin of judicial litigation in the Greek world are more concerned with the historical developments?69 On the other hand, Greek authors themselves were aware that the laws could be changed and Demosthenes quotes a law, saying that it is unlawful to introduce a law that contradicts existing laws.270 Furthermore the process of changing laws is well attested in the Greek world and we find special stipulations regarding legislation271 as well as a whole string of actions regarding legislative procedure. 272 Demosthenes in his speech Against Timocrates (24.139-142) describes the procedure of the Locrians, a well governed community (TTOALS EVV0I-l0UI-lEVll), where members of the community are actively and forcibly discouraged to introduce any new legislation: EKEL yap oihwS' OlOVTaL 8ELV TOLS' miAaL KEqlEVOlS' xpfju8aL V0I-l0lS' Kat Ta miTpLa TTEplUTEnElV Kat I-l~ TTPOS' TOS ~OVATjUELS' I-lTj8E TTPOS' TaS' 8La8VUELS' TWV ci8LKTjUaVTWV v0I-l08ETELu8aL ... 273

This behaviour is contrasted to the way of Athens, where hardly a month goes by - according to Demosthenes - without some new legislation. 274 "Perhaps indeed this public disapproval grew hand in hand with an ever indivision of the laws into topics such as household, agora and public affairs rather suggests that a certain unity and continuity is indeed implied. 269 Wolff 1946: 31-87 but see Cohen 1995: 3-24 who prefaces his study on the legal control at Athens with some theoretical considerations. 270 Demosthenes 24.33: EvavTlov oE V0I-l0V I-l~ EeElVaL TL6EvaL TWV VOI-lWV TWV KElW'VWV I-lTJOEVL ("It shall not be lawful to introduce any law contrary to existing laws"); [Demosthenes] 26.24 further reports a law that prescribed the death penalty for a person quoting a law in court that does not exist: Kat 6avaTov I-lEV WPlKEVaL Tilv CTJI-lLaV, Eav TLS' oliK QVTa V0I-l0V TIapaOXTJTaL, TOUS' oE TOUS' QVTaS' ELS' Tilv TWV OUK QVTWV V0I-lWV TaeLV aYOVTaS', T01!TOUS' aTLIlWp~TOUS' TIEPlOPUV ("That you should have fixed death as the penalty if anyone cites a law which does not exist, and yet should allow men to escape unpunished who reduce the existing laws to the level oflaws which do not exist?"). 271 Hansen 1992: 166. 272 Hansen 1992: 168-175. 273 "In that country the people are so strongly of opinion that it is right to observe oldestablished laws to preserve the institutions of their forefathers, and never to legislate for the gratification of whims, or for a compromise with transgression ... " (Demosthenes 24.139); see also Diodorus Sic. 12.17,1-18,1. Gagarin 1986: 76 and Hiilkeskamp 1999: 194-195. 2740t OE TIap' ~Iilv P~TOPES', wavopES' olKaOTal, TIPWTOV IlEv OOOl IlfjVES' IllKPOU 8EOUOl VOllo8ETElV Ta aUTolS' OUIlSovov' o'L B' ESEATJlloi ijauxol EPY' EVEIlOVTO avv EaSAOLO"lV 1TOAEEO"O"lV. aVELOI. lliJAolal, LAOl llaKapEO"al SEOlO"lV. 396 VOaEPEV oE T- I EV hLEpEav 7TEVTEKOVTa OpaXl1aS Kal I Ta OKO..E Kal Ta OEPl1aTa cj>EPEV TOV OE-11100LOV'). 30 IG 112 5022-164. 31 Burkert 1985: 95 remarks on the nature of Greek religion: "Greek religion might almost be called a religion without priests: there is no priestly caste as a closed group with fixed tradition, education, initiation and hierarchy ... "; see also Garland 1984: 74. On the other hand, Aristotle, Politics 1322b states: dUo 0' EIOOS E7TLI1EAElas 1] 7TEPl TOUS 9EOI)S, olov lEPELS TE Kal E7TLI1EATJTal TWV 7TEPl Ta lEpa Toil o'Ol,1 ouo' av ouoq,poouvus, IhE o~ SEOS a>,yEU 7TE!J.7TU, I SVllTOS dv~p OWpOlS ~OUA6!J.EVOS 7TpOq,UYElV ("No one can pay a ransom and avoid death or heavy misfortune, if fate does not set a limit, nor, although he wish to, can a mortal avoid mental distress through bribery, when the god sends pain"). See also Solon, fr. 24.9-10: ouo' av a7ToLVu OLOOUS SciVUTOV q,UYOl, ouoE ~UPEtuS I vouoous, ouoE KUKOV yfjpus E7TEPXO!J.EVOV ("nor can he pay a price to escape death or grim diseases or the onset of evil old age"); Aeschylus,fr. 161: !J.ovos 9EWV yap 9civUTOS ou owpov Ep~,1 ouo' av TL Suwv ouo' Emo7TEvowV avOlS, I ouo' EOTL ~w!J.Os ouoE 7TaLWvt(ETUL" I !J.OVOU oE IlELSw OUL!J.OVWV a7TooTuTEL ("For, alone of gods, Death loves not gifts; no, not by sacrifice, nor by libation, canst thou aught avail with him; he hath no altar nor hath he hymn of prause; from him, alone of gods, Persuasion stands aloof'). 10' Braulik 1986: 85f argues for a description of YHWH as an oriental king here; Rose 1994: 343 wants to see the verse in the perspective of the organisation of the world, stating: "In der Weltordnung Gottes findet jeder seinen Platz, ohne daB Privilegien und Bestechungen einen EinfluB haben k6nnen." Rose overlooks the fact that an abolishment of status etc. is never mentioned in the passage. 106 On the problem in the Ancient Near East see Kummel 1982: 55-64; for Egypt Helck 1982: 65-70. 107 Mi 3: lla seems to echo such a sterereotype and again imD occurs together with ~O:l: lOOp' ~O:l:::l i1'l(':::lll nl' i'nO:::l i1'li1:1l It!l:JtD' inrv:::l i1'tDl(i. See also Prov 17:23, .IltDi p'no inrv

2. Individual and Society in Deut 16:18-18:22

125

A punishment for the judge who takes a bribe is not mentioned in Deut 16:19,108 as it is never said what exactly constitutes a bribe. lo9 Nevertheless

Job 15:34 seems to hint at a certain degree of (divine) punishment, saying that the house of the person who takes a bribe will be burnt with fire (1ntz'-'?i11ot i1?~1ot rDlot).1I0 In Hesiod we find a statement that there is a certain noise when Justice is breached by the ones who take bribes: TTlS' OE ~lKTJS' po6oS' EAKOI1EVTJS', 11 K' avopES' aywaL OWpOq,clyOl, UKOALUS' OE OlK1]S' KPlVWUL 6EI1LaTaS'.11l

t!lElfllO mn.,~ mt!li1" np'. Aeschines 1.88 talks of certain judges who took bribes because they could not cope with poverty and old age. Nevertheless there were certain persons who were impossible to bribe such as Aristeides (Aeschines 3.258) or Perikles (Thucydides 2.65.8). Demosthenes 46.26 cites a law the forbids giving and taking bribes (on the authenticity see Bonner/Smith 1938:10-11; Harvey 1985: 81):'Eciv TlS O'uvLO'TfjeJaL, ~ O'UVBEKciCU TllV ~AtalaV ~ TWV BLKaO'TTJPlWV TL TWV 'Ae~VTJO'LV ~ T~V ~OUA~V ElTl BwpoBoKl~ xp~llaTa BLBous ~ BEXOIlEVOS. ~ ETaLpElaV O'UVLO'Tfj ElTl KaTaAUO'EL Toil B~llou, ~ O'uv~'Yopos WV Aall~civ1J xp~llaTa ElTl TalS BlKaLS TalS [BlaLS ~ BTJlloO'laLS, TOUTWV EtVaL Tas 'Ypaas lTPOS TOUS eEO'Il0eETas ("If any man enter into a conspiracy, or join in seeking to bribe the Heliaea or any of the courts in Athens or the Senate, by giving or receiving money for corrupt ends, or shall organize a cliquefor the overthrow of the democracy, or, while serving as public advocate, shall accept money in any suit, private or public, criminal suits shall be entered for these acts before the Thesmothetae"), but another law regarding the bribery of magistrates just blames the person who took bribes (Aristotle, Ath.Pol. 54.2). 108 In the Roman XII Tables the punishment is generally death: Table 9 quoted in Gellius

20.1.7: duram esse legem putas, quae iudicem arbitrumve iure datum, qui ob rem {iuJdic{aJndam pecuniam accepisse convictus est, capite poenitur? ("Do you regard the law as harsh that threatens as judge or a referee, who was lawfully installed, with capital punishment when he is found guilty of taking money during a case entrusted to him? [transl. mine]). IG 34 speaks of the payment of a fine; the exact amount is not clear. ML 46 read in line 37 BOpo[v XLAlaLO'L 8paXIl]EO'[L hjEKaTos' and thus got the amount of 1000 Drachmae. 109 In the Greek world bribes could constitute material objects (Homer, 11. 23.295-299; Od. 11.326-327; Aristophanes, Wasps 677; Peace 424-425; Herodotus, 3.148; Demosthenes 19.265) and of course money. In lKgs 15:19 the ,nfll sent to the king of Aram in Damascus by Asa is clearly money: :li111 ']0' ,mv 1" 'nn"fll mi1; see also 2Kgs 16:8, where gold and silver are again mentioned in connection with ,ntv. The use of,nfll as opposed to ']0' in Ps 15:5 seems to indicate material objects. 110 Job 15:24b; see also Is 5:24. Herodotus 6.72.2 reports the incident of a certain Leotykhidas, king of Sparta, who was caught accepting a bribe from the Thessalians. After a trial he was sent into exile and his house was burnt. 111 Hesiod, Works and Days 220-221 ("There is a noise when Justice is being dragged in the way where those who devour bribes and give sentence with crooked judgements, take her.").

e

126

n. The Individual within Society

If all the stipulations of Deut 16:19 are observed, the judge is following the path of justice, here described as =pin p'~ p,~.ll2 Following after justice is then the prerequisite for the entry into and well-being in the land that YHWH is giving to Israel. ll3 In analogy to such a concept of the well-being of the people, Hesiod praises those who give straight judgments, because such behaviour will contribute greatly to the well-being of the city.114 The promise of prosperity for the just person is also known to the Greek authors, and we read in Hesiod: ... El yap TLS' K' E6EAl] Ta BLKaL' ayopEUUaL yl YVWaKWV. T4> I1EV T' OA~OV BlBoL EvpVOTTa ZEiJS" oS' BE KE l1apTvpL l]Ul EKWV ETTLOPKOV 0l1ouuaS' . is rare in Deuteronomy as a whole (see Deut I: 16; 16:18.20; 25:U5; 33: 19). Il3 Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 395-396 ~u~~axov B' EAO~EVOS BlKav I KPlVE oE~as TO rrpos 9EWV ("Take justice as thy ally, and render judgement for the cause approved righteous by the gods"). 114 Hesiod, Works and Days 225-229; see also SeyboldlUngem-Stemberg 1993: 222-224. liS Hesiod, Works and Days 280-285 ("For whoever knows the right and is ready to speak it, far-seeing Zeus gives him prosperity; but whoever deliberately lies in his witness and forswears himself, and so hurts Justice and sins beyond repair, that man's generation is left obscure thereafter. But the generation of the man who swears truly is better thenceforward."). 116 See also Hesiod, Works and Days 230-237; esp. 230f ouBE rrOT' LeUBlKl]CH ~ET' civBpaol Aq.lOS OTIT]BEl I ouB' (!TT] ... ("neither famine nor disaster ever haunt men who do true justice").

2. Individual and Society in Deut 16:18-18:22

127

Within a framework of a certain professionalisation of the organisation of Justice1I7 such a Richterspiegel is then necessary to ensure that on the one hand all (Israelite) people are equal before the Law, ll8 and on the other hand to ensure the maintenance of society as a whole through the just application . . Ies. ll9 of IegaI pnnclp Deut 17:2_i20 The Law is again addressed to a 2nd pers. sg. m. (l:::lip:::l ~~O'-':l) but in contrast to Deut 16: 18 it is not quite clear who is the addressee here. The case concerned here is simply apostasy, expressed with the standard dtr formula inil' 'j'll:::llliil-n~ iliVll in Deut 17:200. 121 This doing of what is evil in the eyes of the Lord is specified in the following verse, again using dtnldtr terminology: D'in~ D'i1?~ 1:::l11.122 The reader realises that the offence pictured is clearly a breaching of the 1st commandment of the Decalogue which is equalled to a breaching of the covenant (m'i:::l i:::lll?)/23 this is especially remarkable, since the concept of n'1J has not yet been mentioned in the leges de officiis. Interestingly enough the case of apostasy or idol 117 "Es geht in Dtn 16, 18f urn die Professionalisierung von Ortsgerichten in Abgrenzung vom Zentralgericht ... " (Otto 1999b: 246). On the professionalisation of the organisation of justice in general see Gertz 1994: 226-233. Differently Graupner 1999: 11-26, who refutes such a view. 1180tto 1999b: 247. 119 See Hesiod, Works and Days 225-227: Ol BE BlKas ~ElVOlOl Kat EvBTjIlOlOl BlBouOLV / leElas Kat IlTj Tl lTapEKl3alvouol BlKalou, I TOLOl TEeT]~E lT6~lS, ~aot B' dv9EUOLV EV QliTfj ("But they who give straight judgements to stamgers and to the men of the land, and go not aside from what is just, their city flourishes and the people prosper in it"). In Athens bribery is generally viewed as a threat to the city and thus labelled aloxp6v (see Demosthenes 19.28; 19.133; 19.255; Sophoc1es, Antigone 299.313; Thucydides 7.48.4 and Harvey 1985: 108-113. 120 On the historical-critical problems of the passage see most recently Otto 1999b: 88-90.238-251; he remarks "Der Modellfall wird nach 13,2-10* als Paradigma fur die Zustandigkeit der Ortsgerichte in Dtn 17,2-7 entfaltet: Alle durch Zeugen autklllrbaren F i!lle werden der professionalisierten Ortsgerichtsbarkeit zugewiesen. Die vor der Kultzentralisation an den Lokalheiligtiimem kultisch aufgekillrlen Fi!lle dagegen fallen unter die mit priesterlicher Beteiligung arbeitende Zentralgerichtsbarkeit." (Otto 1999b: 89); see also Levinson 1991: 325-404; 1997: 118-126. 121 The expression ;'11;'1' 'J'.Il:::l .Ili;'1-nK mv.Il is only used four times in Deuteronomy: Deut 4:25; 9:18; 17:2; 31:29. 122 See [Ex 20:5; 23:24]; Deut 5:9; 7:4; 8: 19; 11:16; 13:3.7.14; 17:3; 28: 14.36.64; 29:25; 30: 17; 31:20. 123 The phrase only occurs here in Deuteronomy (but see the positive phrase n'i:::l:::l li:::l.Il? in Deut 29:11); cf. Josh 7:11.15; 23:16; Jud 2:20; 2Kgs 18: 12; Hos 6:7; 8:1; Jer 34:18.

128

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worship does not seem to rank amongst the cases too difficult to decide for the local judges (Deut 17:8-13), and therefore does not have to be referred to the priestly judge in the Temple of Jerusalem. In contrast to the unclear addressee of the law, the offender (i1rv~n~ rv'~) and the place where the offence takes place Ti1?~ i11i1'-irv~ Ti.IJrv 'n~::l l?)124 are clearly labelled. The law concerns the male and female population,125 since both are able to worship foreign gods. The law also concerns only Israelites, as the use Of?~irv'::l in Deut 17:4 indicates;126 and I would suggest that it only concerns Israelites within an Israelite settlement (l::lip::l). This settlement is for a later redactor clearly a city, and thus he inserts Deut 17:2a(3 (l? lm Ti1?~ i11i1'-irv~ Ti.IJrv). In addition to the exact placement of the offence the dtnldtr author(s) also makes it clear that the apostasy has to have a public dimension. The apostate has to be caught in flagrante delicto to be commiting proper idol worship, just as in the case of sexual offences; thus Deuteronomy places a huge importance on the role of witnesses. The private sphere or what is done behind closed doors does not concern the lawmakers. Thus they are able to formulate: n.IJorv1 l?-"i11 ::l~'i1 nrvi'1. It is not enough that one hears a rumour or listens to some denunciation, but one has to make a thorough enquiry in the case.127 This enquiry is described with the Hebrew term rvi' which is (as in Deut 13:15) modified by an Inf. abs. ::l~'iJ to stress the thoroughness of the procedure. As

om

124 The phrase is also found in Deut 16:5.18, where it is both times a secondary addition; this also seems to be the case in Deut 17:2a, since the more detailed localisation Tilltll In!t:J I'? 1nl Til'?!t il1il'-itll!t interrupts the construction ilq)!t-1!t q)'!t l:JiP:J !t~O'-';', which can be understood as parallel to Deut 13:2 cn'?n Cl'?n 1!t !t':JJ l:JiP:J !t~O'-';' (see Foresti 1988: 24f; Gertz 1994: 46; differently Nielsen 1995: 177). 125 The explicit mentioning of the woman is not very frequent in Deuteronomy (see Deut 29:9f.17; 31:12) and she is strangely absent in the list of participants in the cult (see Deut 12:12.18; 16:11.14); on the question if women participated in sacrifice see Braulik 1992a: 19-28. 126 See Horst 1930: 98, "Eine Gefllhrdung der Mfentlichen Sicherheit wird nun ganz konkret in der Verehrung fremder Gotter gesehen." 127 The same is true for the Greek courts where hearsay evidence was ruled out by law: ouSE llaPTUpEiV aKoT)v EWcrLV oL VOIlOl ouS' ElTl TOlS mivu auAOlS EYKA~llaalv ("the laws do not admit the production of hearsay testimony even in the case of the most trifling charges", Demosthenes 57.4) and only allowed when the original witness was dead: aKoT)v S' OUK CWVTOS llapTUpElV. aAAa TE9vEWTOS ("It shall be lawful to introduce hearsay evidence from one that is dead", Dem 46.7).

2. Individual and Society in Deut 16:18-18:22

129

in Deut 17:8 the judicial case is described as i:J,.128 The addressees are clearly the judges who are responsible for the prosecution. The result of the enquiry and the punishment are formulated in parallelism to Deut 13: 15. 129 If the accusation is correct the person has to be killed. Again it is stressed in Deut 17:5 that the offender can be male or female. The punishment is death by stoning as in Deut 13:11a; 22:21.24. The law continues with a stipulation regarding the witnesses for such a case in Deut 17 :6-7a. The term used here for witness is '-l-', which occurs ca. seventy times in the Old Testament;130 since we also find the female form,13I it might be that only male witnesses are addressed here. The word clearly belongs to the judicial sphere and we can distinguish between official and accidental witnesses in ancient Israel. 132 The presence of a witness gives every act a certain public dimension; this becomes especially evident in Num 5: 13 where it is stated that having no witness means that the adulterous woman has not been discovered: 133 il~~t!lJ ~'il' ilinm, iltD'~ 'J'.v~ Cl?.vJ' .vir-n:J~tD iln~ tD'~ :J~tD'

iltDElnJ ~? ~'i11 il:J r~

'.1"

A special problem seems to have been the giving of false evidence in courts as the 9th/8th commandment clearly shows: iptD '.1' ll'i:J i1J.vn-~?134

128

Comp. Ezra 10: 16, where a civil legal procedure is described, using the words (VIi (read

(Vl1i? as in LXX and Vulgate instead ofMT rv1'li?) and l::li as in Deut 17: 17-18. 129 See Gertz 1994: 50f; Levinson 1997: 123, who states: "Deut 17:2-7 reformulates Deut 13:7-12 in oder to introduce the requirement for a minimum of two witnesses for conviction in capital cases." On the role and function of witnesses in the Old Testament in general see Schenker 1990: 3--6 with further references in nl. 130 In Deuteronomy we find the following occurrences: Deut 5:20; 17:6.7; 19:15.16.18; 31:19.21.26. 131 Gen 21:30; 31:52; Jos 24:27 (nevertheless we should note that the object described as "witness" is never a female person). 132 Jer 32:10.25.44; it was also possible to have an animal (Gen 21:30) or a thing, such as a stone (Gen 31:44), as witness; cf. Deut 22:28 for accidental witnesses (see also the parallels at Gortyn; Gagarin 1989: 29-54). 133 A similar example is known from Gortyn, where we read in ICr IV 72 11.16--20: aL Ka TG.V E-IAEu9Epav E1l"llTEPETaL OllTEV G.KE-luoVTOS Ka8EOTo., 8EKa oTaTE-lpavs KaTaoTaoEL at Q.lTOlTovlo-ll llaLTUS ("If someone attempt to have intercourse with a free woman who is under the guardianship of a relative, he shall pay ten staters if a witness should testify;" trans\. acc. to WilIetts 1967) on the text in general see Gagarin 1984: 347. 134 Ex 20:16. Deut 5:20 reads: 1t1rv ill lll1::l iiJlln-It?1. On the 8th/9th commandment in general see SchmidtlDelkurtJGraupner 1993: 125-130.

130

n. The Individual within Society

The term for such a lying witness is 1piD 11';135 the frequency of the term in the Old Testament suggests that lying witnesses belong to the daily life in ancient Israel. 136 But the Old Testament also knows of reliable witnesses . d h'Ig hiy, 137 whereas th ' lwitness ' wh 0 are praIse e eVI WI'11' pens h.138 The text in Deut 17 :6f furthermore stresses that the accusation of apostasy is only valid, if two or three witnesses can give testimony:139

These witnesses have then to throw the first stone,140 before the whole community will partake in the action. In this formulation we find a quite striking formulation in Deut 17:7aj3: i1J1mtJ Cll'ir?:l 1'1. The singular of "hand" is bound to a collective (Cll');141 the same phrase occurs in Deut 13:10 and already the LXX seem to have struggled with the translation. In Deut 13: 10 (LXX) we read: Kat at XELPES TTaVTOS TOU Aaou substituting the plural for a singular, but in Deut 17:7 (LXX) the singular form is maintained: Kat Tj xElp TTaVTOS TOU Aaou. 142 Leaving the grammatical problems aside for the moment, one realises that the sg. "you" of Deut 17:5b suddenly attains a plural connotation due to the verses 6_7,143 a feature of the text to which we have to return at a later stage. The Greek world also knows of stoning by the hand of all the people, but probably also only implies the male population: In Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1615-1616 we read:

Ex 20:16; Deut 19:18; Ps 27:12; Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5; 19:5.9; 25:18. Seeligmann 1967: 262. 137 Prov 12: 17; 14:5.25. 138 Deut 19:19f; Prov 19:5; 21:18. 139 See also Num 35:30; lKgs 21:10. " ... the requirement ofa minimum of two witnesses becomes a precondition to conviction even in the case of the most heinous offense imaginable, apostasy as the breach of the first commandment of the Decalogue ... " (Levinson 1997: 121). 140 A similar case is found in Deut 19:15, but it is difficult to decide whether Deut l7:6fis the description of the use of the law (thus Riitersworden 1987: 36f) or whether Deut 19: 15 is simply a generalisation of De ut 17:6f(thus Mayes 1981: 266.289). 141 For the grammatical issues etc. see Levinson 1997: 118 n54. 142 Wevers 1995: 233 tries to explain the phenomenon in Deut 13:10 (LXX) with the [unsupported] fact that people generally use both hands in a stoning. This of course does not explain the sg. in Deut 17:7 (LXX). 143 Levinson 1997: 118-119. 135

136

2. Individual and Society in Deut 16:18-18:22

131

OV T][l' aAV~ELV EV 8lKl] TO CJOV Kcipa 8T][lOPPLElC;, CJci LCJSL, AEUCJl[lOUC; apciC;l44

The mentioning of a curse of the people suggests that we are dealing with the KaTa8EO"IlOL of the assembly here. 145 Of special interest is furthermore Euripides, Orestes 442: . " aCJTWV "I\EUCJL[lWL \' ,146 " UTT SaVELV TTETpW[lan

Not quite so clear in the matter of the partaker in the stoning is Sophocles, Antigone 35-36, where it is said that the entire city will participate in the stoning:

wc;

OUX TTap' OU8EV, aAA' OC; QV TOVTWV TL 8p~, ovov TTpoKElCJSm 8T][lOAEUCJTOV EV TTOAEL. 147

Probably the most striking innovation of the deuteronomic law in Deut 17:2-7 is the introduction of two or more witnesses for legal cases, a fact that is not yet known to the Book of the Covenant. 148 Innovative as it may be for the Biblical legal corpus, the requirement of two or more witnesses is not unknown to the people in the eastern Mediterranean, as a look at the Greek world will exemplify. The Role a/Witnesses in ancient Greece: 149 In the Homeric epic we do not find any references to witnesses. In the judicial scene of the shield of Achilles, the judge gives the award to the litigant with the straightest story, receiving an award for the straightest

144 "1 tell thee in the hour of justice thou thyself - be sure of that - shalt not escape the people's curses and death by stoning at their hand." 145 See also Ostwald 1986: 357 and Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes 195. 146 "To be put to death by stoning at the hands of the citizens." 147 " ... but for anyone who does any of these things death in the city is ordained by stoning at the people's hand." Since &~[loS', EKKAT]a(a etc. could be used interchangeably in Greek, it might be possible to argue that TTOAlS' only means male members here (see above). 148 Levinson 1997: 122 rightly states: " ... the actual topos of Deut 17:2-7 is the innovation it makes in legal history: the evidentiary requirement of two witnesses." 149 As usual the literature on the topic is legion. Old but still valuable is Bonner/Smith 1938: 117-144 but see also Wolff 1946; Harrison 1998a: 136-147.

132

11. The Individual within Society

judgment: T4\ BOIlEV OC;- IlET(Ojlapa, Kat T~V EKKjlapTup(av aVclyvwElL T~V 'APlOTOB~jlou Kat KclAEl lTPOS' oilS' E~EjlapT1JPTlOEV ("take, if you please, the decrees, and read the depositions of Aristodemus, and call the witnesses before whom the deposition was made") Demosthenes 46.7: TWV BE clBuVclTWV Kat UlTEPOp(WV EKjlapTUp(av YEypajlllEVTlV EV T4> ypallllaTE(4l ("but in the case of those who are sick or absent from the country they allow evidence to be introduced provided it be in written form"). 173 Aeschines 1.46: Eav BE lTpOmpijTm EKKAETEu9ijvm jlclAAOV 1\ TaA~9T] llaPTUPElV UIlElS' TO OAOV lTpclyjla OUv(BETE. EL yap 0 jlEV lTpcl~aS' aLoxuvEiTm Kat lTpOmp~OETm XlA(aS' IlclAAOV BpaXjlaS' alTOTElOm T4> BT]jloo(4l WOTE jl~ BEl~m TO lTPOOWlTOV TO EaUTOl) UjllV ... ("but ifhe prefers to refuse the summons rather than testifY to the truth, the whole business will be made clear to you. For ifthe man who did the thing is going to be ashamed of it and choose to pay a thousand drachmas into the treasury rather than show his face before you, while the man to whom it has been done is to be speaker in your assembly ... "). 174 Demosthenes 32.30 (private); Aischines 1.46; 2.68; Demosthenes 19.176; 19.198; 58.7; 58.47; 59,28; Lycurg, Leokr. 20. m On the problem see Ostwald 1986: 528-536; Parker 1997: 199-217 (on the trial of Socrates); Cohen 1989a: 99-107; 1991: 203-217; Dover 1975: 135-158; O'Sullivan 1997: 136-152; Rudhardt 1960: 87-105. In Greek literature there exist a number of broad definitions of what impiety actually meant: See Plato, Euthyphro 7a: ... TO jlEV 9EOcj>lAES' TE Kat 9Eocj>lA~S' civ9pWlToS' OOLOS', TO BE 9EojlloES' Kat 0 9EOjllO~S' ciVOOLOS'. ou TalJTOV B' EOT(V ciAM TO EvaVTU{)TQTOV, TO OOLOV T4> civoo(4l ("The thing and the person that are dear to the gods are holy, and the thing and the person that are hateful to the gods are unholy; and the two are not the same, but the holy and the unholy are the exact opposites of each other"). (Ps-)Aristotle, Virtues and Vices 1251a: 'ABlK(aS' BE EOTlV dBT] Tp(a cioEj3Ela lTAEOvE~(a i)~PlS'. ciOE~Ela IlEV ~ lTEpt 9EOUS' lTATljljlEAEla Kat lTEpt Ba(jlovaS' 1\ lTEpt TOUS' KaTOlXOjlEVOUS' Kat lTEpt yOVElS' Kat lTaTp(Ba ("Of unrighteousness there are three kinds, impiety, greed and outrage.

136

11. The Individual within Society

from Plato's Laws which bears striking resemblances to Deut 17:2-7. In Laws 907d--e we read:

av

A8: METa TO lTPOOllllOV TOlVUV AOYO') oLO') TWV VOIlWV EPIlTJVEU') op8w') YlYVOl TO ~lllV, lTpoayopEuwV E~loTao8al mlol TOl,) ciOE~EOl TPOlTWV TWV aiJTwv El') TOU') EVoE~El'). TOl,) BE Il~ lTEl80IlEVOl') ciOE~Ela') OBE EOTW lTEPl VOIlO')' 'Eciv Tl,) ciOE~ij AOYOl') ElT' EPYOl'), 0 lTapaTvyxcivwv cillUVETW O1l1lalVWV lTPO') apXOVTa'), TWV BE ciPXOVTWV OL lTPWTOl lTu80llEVOl lTPO') TO lTEpi TOlhwv cilToBEBEl YIlEVOV KPlVElV BlKaOTTJPlOV ELoayaYOVTWV KaTa TOU') VOIlOU,). Eav BE Tl,) ciKouoaoa cipX~ Il~ Bpq TavTa, aVT~ cioE~Ela') iJ1ToBlKO') yl YVEo8w T4J E8EAOVTl TlIlWPElV imEp TWV VOIlWV. EaV BE Tl,) oAlJ, TlllciTw TO BlKaOTTJPLOV EV EKciOT41 TWV Ka8' EV ciOE~OUVTWV TlllTllla. BEOIlO') IlEV OVV • , ~ 176 UlTapXETW lTam' Transgression in regard to gods and spirits, or even in regard to the departed and to parents and country, is impiety"). Further incidents that are described as ciaE~Ela are: a) profaning the mysteries: Xenophon, Hell. 1.4.4; b) offences against cults and Temples: Demosthenes, 22.72,78; 23.51,55,147,197,227; 59.77,116--117; Andocides 1.71: 6 ~EV yap ELiTEV ELpYEaSm TWV LEpwv TOue; ciaE~T\aaVTae; Kat 6~oAoyT\aavTae; ("to exclude from temples all who had committed and act of impiety and admitted their guilt"). 132; Lycurgus, Against Leocrates 129; Thuycidides 6.27.53; Herodotus 6.81; c) violating a Temple by sacking it, murdering someone within its boundaries: Aristotle, N.E. 1126a; Isocrates, Paneg. 156; Xenophon, Hell. 4.4.3; Herodotus 1.159; 2.139; 8.129; Thucydides 4.97-98; Lysias 2.7; 2.10; IG 2418 and d) violating or destroying sacred objects: Thucydides 6.27.53. Also the violation of oaths can be described as an act of aaE~Ela: Aristotle, Rhet. 1377a20-4; 1416a30; Lycurgus, Against Leocrates 76; Demosthenes, 21.104-5; 21.120; 23.79; 59.82; Xenophon, Cyr 8.8.3; Andocides 1.30-33; Antiphon 5.88. Furthermore parricide, not persecuting a homicide or certain offences against parents are also described with aaE~Ela: Demosthenes 22.2-3; Plato, Rep 615c: Ele; BE SEoue; aaE~E[ae; TE Kat El,aE~[ae; Kat yovEae; Kat UI!TOXElpOe; ovou ~ElCoue; ETl TOue; ~laSoue; BlllYElTO ("and he had still greater requitals to tell of piety and impietey towards the gods and parents and of self-slaughter"); Symposium l88c: iTnaa yap ciaE~Ela lAEl Y[YVEaSm EaV ~T\ Tle; TW Koa~[ou "EpWTl xap[CllTm ~llBE Tl~n TE aUTOV Kat iTpEa~EUll EV iTavTt EPYw aAAa TOV ETEPOV Kat iTEpt yovEae; Kat CWVTae; Kat TETEAEuTllKoTae; Kat iTEpt SEoue; ("For impiety is usually in each case the result of refusing to gratify orderly Love or to honor and prefer him in all our affairs, yielding to the other in questions pf duty towards one's parents whether alive or dead and also towards the gods"); according to Herodotus 2.139 an act of ciaE~E[a could be punished by either gods or men: lB6vTa BE TT]V O!jJlV TauTllv AEYELV aUTov we; iTpoaa[v oL BOKEOl TauTllV TOUe; SEOue; iTPOBElKvuvm lva aaE~T\aae; iTEpt Ta Lpa KaKOV Tl iTpoe; SEWV ~ iTpoe; aV8pwiTwv Ad~Ol ("Having seen this vision, he said that he supposed it to be a manifestation sent to him by the gods, that he might commit sacriledge and so be punished by gods or men"). 176 ATH.: "After the prelude it will be proper for us to have a statement of a kind suitable to serve as the laws' interpreter, forewarning all the impious to quit their ways for those of piety. For those who disobey this shall be the law concerning impiety: - If anyone commits impiety either by word or by deed, he that meets him shall defend the law by informing the magistrates who hear of it and shall bring the man up before the court appointed to decide such cases as the

2. Individual and Society in Deut 16:18-18:22

137

Despite the obvious differences to the deuteronomic text, we find some striking parallels in the Platonic text. Like the law in Deut 17 :2-7, the proposal in Laws 907d-e is concerned with the purity ofthe community. The community is under threat from impiety (aO'E~ELa) and thus a law concerning impiety is established (aO'E~ElaS' OOE EO'TLcrt 8UvaIlL') EK SEWV TTOPL(OIlEVTJ SuuLa') TE Kal ETTrrluw ... Tae; 8E oLKlae; ou KaTE~aAAE Au8oe; Twv8E ElVEKa, oKwe; EXOLEV EVSEVTEV 0PIlWIlEVOL Tl]V ')'fjv urrElpELv TE Kal Ep,),a(EUSaL ot MLArlULOL, aUToe; 8E EKElVWV Ep')'a(oIlEvwV EXOL TL Kal UlVEUSaL Eu~aAAwv.148

145 ANET 228. 146 ANET 239a see also ANET 239b: "Year 30. Now his majesty was in the country of Petenu on his majesty's sixth victorious campaign. Arrival at the town of Kadesh. Destroying it. Felling its trees. Cutting down its grains ... " 147 ANET 280. 148" ... he sent his invading anny, marching to the sound of pipes and harps and flutes bass and treble, when the crops of the land were ripe ... but the trees and the crops of the land he destroyed, and so retumed whence he came ... The reason why the Lydian did not destroy the houses was this - that the Milesians might have homes whence to plant and cultivate their land,

1. Deut 20:1-20. Insights from Hoplite Warfare and Economy

197

Despite this quite overwhelming evidence for the destruction of the crops and trees during a war, it has become doubtful if all military campaigns especially in ancient Greece - were accompanied by a total destruction of the agricultural landscape. 149 For example in the plays of Aristophanes written during or shortly after the Archidamian War, we read of the usual ubiquity of olive-trees and vines. 150 Also, during the Decelian War the devastation of the countryside does not seem to have been complete: ETTLaTaa8E yap EV T4J TTE8L4l TTOAAclS' iJ.OpLaS' ouaaS' Kat TTVpKa·LaS' EV TOtS aAAOlS' TOlS' EiJ.olS' XWPLOlS' ... 151 In addition to that, Greek authors often admit that only a part of the country has been destroyed. 152 Since agricultural devastation was a tedious task, it was not always accomplished;153 nevertheless many Greek sources suggest that such devastation was believed especially effective. It is clear that in Deuteronomy such devastation should be prevented, stressing that the agricultural land and fruit trees can indeed provide food for the fighting forces, and so Deuteronomy may aim at preventing Israel's warriors from tiring themselves out by trying to destroy the country-side, thus losing focus on the siege of the city. In the second half of Deut 20: 19 the issue receives an ethical twist when the author states a Proverb-like saying: "'~O:::l TJElO ~:::l? intlli1 P' Cl1~i1 ':J. The text is notoriously difficult to translate and it might be best to change the masoretic text following the reading of LXX (iJ. ~ av8pwTToS'), thus reading !J:r~ry (with i1 interrogativum as proposed by BHS) instead of !J:r~iJ. As it stands now, the MT has to be translated "men are the trees of the field." The imagery here is quite similar to Job 14:7-10 where the tree is also contrasted to men:

and that there might be the fruit of their toil for his invading army to lay waste." See also Lysias 7.7; Xenophon, Hell. 4.5.19. 149 See Hanson 1983: 42-58, who draws attention to the immense difficulty of destroying an olive-tree or vines completely. See Lysias 7.6-8.26. and also Pliny, Hist. Nat. 17.241 (olivia in totum ambusta revixit). 150 See Aristophanes, Ach. 35; 550; 1128; Wasps. 450; Birds 617; Frogs 988.995. 151 Lysias 7.24 ("For you understand that in the plain there are many sacred olives and burnt stumps on my other plots ... "). Also Aristophanes' later plays do not seem to reflect any total destruction; see Lys 255.308; Ecc. 817; Thes. 420. 152 Xenophon, Hell. 7.2.4; Thucydides 1.142.4; 5.55.4; 6.7.1. 153 See Hanson 1983: 145.

198

Ill. Society at War :1l1TJ mo' iE).1':J' ,tvitv

:.1't!lno:J

i'~P

ri~Cl rpi'-!J~

i1rv.1" niE)' !J'o n'io :"~, !J'~ tv?n', mo' i:J"

.v,,',

If trees are entirely different from humans then it is only understandable that one does not have to wage war against them. 154 Finally, Deut 20:20 again makes a distinction - this time between different types of trees - using again pi as in Deut 20: 14.16. 155 The text states that trees, which are not fruit trees (?:J~o r.1'-~?-':J .1"n-itv~ r.1'), can be used for siegeworks, as is done in the entire eastern Levant. 156 The description of war against the city is made in the same way as in Deut 20:12 (i1on?o 10.1' i1tv.1').

2. Conclusion Without having to use atomising literary criticism it is safe to argue for the following origin of Deut 20:1-20. The oldest group of laws can be found in Deut 20:1.5-7.9 (incorporating older material in verses 5-7.10-14. 19*_20).157 All these verses are probably from the same dtr redactor. 158 Deut 20:14-18 is an insertion that revises the stipulation in Deut 20:10-14 according to the dtr world-view in Deut 7.159 Deut 20:2-4 inserts a religious component into the otherwise quite profane law. Even the oldest stratum does not seem to reflect any historical reality,160 and speculation about an 154 Rofe 1985: 37 concludes, due to the closeness of Job and Deut here, that this part of the law must have been written by a sage, who has been close to the royal court, and he continues to speculate on the status of the sage: "We cannot, however, assume that his scroll, with its lofty goals, gained the status of positive law during his lifetime." Rofe omits to tell his readers how he arrived at such a conclusion. 155 Merendino 1969: 228 views Deut 20:20 as an explanation of Deut 20:19, but it remains doubtful ifp' can introduce an exegesis. 156 See Xenophon, An. 4.8.2; 4.8.8; Polynaeus, Strat. 1.32.3; 3.9.8,18; Thuycidides 2.75.2; 2.98.1. 157 Rofe 1985: 36 regards Deut 20:10-14.19-20 as the oldest part. 158 Braulik 1991: 68; Otto 1994b: 42; Noort 1994: 219. 159 0UO 1994b: 42. 160 Thus already Wellhausen 1899: 192 "". denn nach den in 20,5-8 ausgesprochenen Grundsatzen haUe Konig Josia schwerlich ein Heer aufbieten kOnnen, und die Anschauung eines wirklichen jiidischen Reiches scheint hier schon ganzlich zu fehlen." Rofe 1985: 36 rightly states: "Law neither precedes circumstances nor is it created simultaneously therewith;

2. Conclusion

199

origin during the time of 10siah's reign remains highly doubtful. 161 Where we find concrete action regarding siegework etc., the text merely reflects the common practice of warfare. As a whole, we simply do not have any descriptions of war according to Deut 20 in the Old Testament besides in Deuteronomy itself. The application of the model of Hoplite warfare has shown that the laws in Deut 20:1-9 are on the one hand concerned with the maintenance of the society and on the other hand determined by the striving for maximisation of independent households, since these households are responsible for the number of men in arms. Of course it is not possible to argue that a concrete battle formation such as the phalanx has also been used in the Israel envisaged in Deuteronomy. However certain features known to us from the Greek world such as the elections of generals and a mode of fighting without any central authority such as a king can also be found in the Biblical text. In contrast to the wars reported in the Deuteronomistic History, warfare according to Deuteronomy is a democratic enterprise.

rather, law responds to reality post factum, only then attempting to govern it." See also Otto 1994: 200. 161 Thus Schmitt 1970: 138; Seitz 1971: 164. Noort 1994: 220frejects the time of Josiah's reign as possible for the origin of the law and thinks rather of the time around Hezekiah, i.e. ca. 705 B.C.

IV. Family and Inheritance The following two chapters will be concerned with the question how the single (male) individual as head of a household relates to the other members of his family. Therefore we need to look at some of the so-called deuteronomic family laws in more detail. Since limited space does not allow a detailed treatment of all the laws regarding the family, our criteria for selection will be the "conflict of generations" on the one hand, and "sexual deviance" on the other. In this chapter we will look at Deut 21: 15-17 ("The Law of Primogeniture") and 21: 18-21 ("The Unruly Son").

1. The Deuteronomic Family Laws With Deut 21:15-17 we have moved into the realm of family laws within the deuteronomic corpus. 1 In comparison with the Book of the Covenant, we find here expanded material concerning the family, whereas Ex 20:22-23:33 contains just one stipulation concerning the family, namely Ex 22:15f? These so called "family laws" can only be found in Deut 21: 15-25: 10 within the Book of Deuteronomy but even here the laws are not grouped together but are rather disparate. Nevertheless, we might have here remnants of an older corpus of family laws. The series of laws tells us what is considered right and wrong within Israelite society; thus we find here stipulations and prohibitions. Within the laws regulating the relationship between male and female, we also have a rather loose order: Deut 22:13-21; 22:22; 22:23-29 deal with unlawful sexual relationships and Deut 23:1; 24:1--4; 25:5-10 with various stipulations regarding marriage. As a whole, we have in Deut 21: 15-25: 10 only thirty out of 95 verses that deal with matrimony. It is I Smend 1989: 76; Otto 1999b: 203-217 for the possibility of a reception of MAL.A in the family laws of Deuteronomy. 2 Carmichael 1974: 138; Otto 1999g: 84 and also Otto 1994: 191 who thinks that the redactor of Dtn uses a pre-dtn collection of family laws; according to Otto this collection contained Deut 21:15-21; 22:13-21a.22a.23.24aa.25.27.28f; 24:1-4a.5; 25:5-10; similarly

Nielsen 1995: 204ff. On Ex 22: 15-16 see most recently Rothenbusch 2000: 387-393 (with the parallel material from the ANE).

2. The Conflict of Generations in Israel and Greece

201

difficult to decide whether that is a result of simply a blind addition, or the incorporation of a separate codex dealing with laws of sexuality? There are only two parallel texts in the Covenant Code and H, and thus it might be possible to say that we have a genre sui generis here. Naturally, the determination of the age of such laws is increasingly difficult, since they merely reflect the morality and the understanding of right and wrong within a society. As such we have to try to integrate the laws in Deut 21:15-25:10 into the life and culture of the eastern Levant. All the laws dealt with here are formulated in an impersonal casuistic way, similar to the Akkadian phrase summa awllum found for example in CH and in the Laws of Eshnunna, but also in the Greek world. 4 These casuistic laws are generally divided into two parts: Protasis and Apodosis, thus defining the offence and the punishment/result caused by that offence. s Within Deuteronomy, we find this form only in Deut 19-25. 6 As such, casuistic laws are not typical for Deuteronomy. Maybe the laws were originally collected to record the case law of Ancient Israel. In the final form of the book, the originally secular laws are now divine stipulations and words of Moses (iltll10 i::l').

2. The Conflict o/Generations in Israel and Greece Deut 21: 15-17. The Law ofPrimogeniture: 7 Within Deut 21, the law regarding the first-born son and his right to inheritance is grouped with two other laws, namely Deut 21 :18-21 and Deut 21:22-23.

3 See Otto 1991: 290-306; in contrast to Deut 21:15ffthe laws regarding sexuality in CH §§ 128ffare well organised. 4 See above Chapter I Formal Similarities ofBiblical and Archaic Greek Laws. l Alt 1934: 278-332. 6 See the useful chart in Nielsen 1995: 194-195. 7 Following Todd 1995: 392, we will defme primogeniture as "[t]he system of inheritance whereby the whole estate descends to the oldest son to the exclusion of sisters and younger brothers ... It applied only to real property." Anthropological resear'.crpOS" within the kingroup. 131 The very short time frame of just three months in which the inheritance has to be claimed (TplOV !lEVOV), points also in that direction ("Als Sinn dies er Fristenregelung ist anzunehmen, daB dadurch ein Verkommen des Erbguts verhindert werden sollte.,,132). Furthermore, it is remarkable that the law extends its sphere over the boundaries of the actual polis, since it is assumed that the colonist can inherit in the mother city and vice versa. 133 A change of citizenship seemed to be without any problems and a right to inheritance of female members of the kin-group is not mentioned: 134 :~: E NaVlTaKTO clV)(OPEOVTU : EV Ao«pouS" TOUS" hvlToKValll8[ovS" : EV NuvlTCIKTOl : KapU~aL EV Tclyopa : KEV AO«pOlS" Tol[S"] hvlTOKVUlll8[ovS" : EV Tal lTOA.l, hO K' ;h : KUPV~aL EV TclYOp&

The law concerning the land is probably much older than the other document,135 and its context is difficult to determine since much hinges upon the interpretation of the term Em VO!lla. 136 In the passage relevant to our enterprise we read: Koerner 1993: 189. Koerner 1993: 189. 13l "Deutlich wird nur, daB das Erbgut wieder unter miinnliche Herrschaft und damit gesicherte Erbfolge gelangen sollte, und das so sehnell wie moglich." (Koerner 1993: 190). 132 Koerner 1993: 190. 133 ML 20, line 19-22.36-37; Holkeskamp 1999: 179. 134 ML 20. "If from Naupactus a man returns to Hypocnemidian Locris, he shall proclaim it at Naupaetus in the Assembly, and in the city of his origin among the Hypocnemidian Locrians he shall proclaim it in the Assembly"; (transl. acc. to Fornara 1983: 48). 135 Holkeskamp 1999: 182. 136 ML13 line 3; discussion of the problem by Holkeskamp 1999: 182-183; Link 1991: 67 n6; Gschnitzer 1991: 85-86. Biscardi 1989: 11 remarks on the problem o[ElTLvoI1La: "Forse la clausola dell' ElTLvol1La non eontempla esclusivamente la morte dell'assegnatario titolare del lotto, nel qual caso qual dovremmo aspettarci una formulazione analoga a quell a ehe riscontriamo per esempio nel codice di Gortina ... 0 nella gia ricordata legge coloniaria di Naupatto ... " 129 130

220

IV. Family and Inheritance

... ETTLVO!lLa B' EUTO yoKal TTaLBL' at BE !lE TTaLS' ElE, KOPaL' at BE !lE Kopa ElE, dBEAq,EOl' at BE !lE dBEAq,EOAElV aOL 5lKflv, El 8E TLS' EL'TTOL wS' T~V TEKoDaav ~v TOV vaavTa ETV'TTTES', .Aao' U~lWS" T~VOE KaTaVWV UWUTOU, VOiJ.OV oE TOVOE TalS" a>.AaLUL 8ES" yUVaL~l, 8VI]UKELV ~TLS" 7Tpoo0 7TOULV. 165

av

... ~alVE AEUUT~PWV 7TEAaS" 7TOVOUS" T' 'AXaLWV U7TOOOS" EV UiJ.LKP0 iJ.aKpOVS" 8avouu', LV' EioUS" iJ.~ KaTaLUXVVELV EiJ.E.I66

Here at least on a literary level it is possible to imagine the justified killing of an adulteress. 167 On the other hand Aristotle quotes a law from Tenedos where the killing of the adulterer is only allowed if the adulteress is killed too: EV TU TEVEO[WV 7TOALTElc;I OTL ~aULAEVS" TLS" EV TEVE04> VOiJ.OV E8TlKE TOV KaTaAaiJ.~aVOVTQ iJ.OLXOVS" UVaLPELV 7TEAEKEL UiJ.po8lma, VT]1TOLVL TE9vaTw lmo TE Toil u!3pLo9EVTOS !3LQ. KaL U1T() 1TaTpos ii ci8EAcj>WV ii UiEWV. Eav TE civ~p ElTlTUXIJ yal1ETU yuvaLKL !3LaCOI1EVIJ, KTElVas TOV !3LaCOI1EVOV EOTW Ka9apos EV T4J V0I141 ("The man who forcibly violates a free woman or boy shall be slain with impunity by the person thus violently outraged, or by his father or brother or sons. And should a man discover his wedded wife being violated, if he kills the violator he shall be guiltless before the law"). Dimarchus, Demosthenes 23 (and similarly Aeschines 1.15) reports the execution for hybris after the rape of a woman; on the question of hybris and the prosecution for rape see Omitwoju 2002: 39-49. 177 Carey 1995: 407-417; Carawan 1998: 290; Cohen 1984: 153; Cole 1984: 103; Harrison 1998: 34; Salviat 1971: 75; Differently Harris 1990: 370-377 (on the discussion of Harris' argument see Schmitz 1997: 118-119). 178 Plutarch, Solon 23.1 mentions lOO Drachmai. 179 Lysias 1.32; he continues in 1.33 commenting on the seriousness of adultery stating: TOUS 8E 1TEloavTas oihws aUTwv TaS I\luxas 8Lacj>9ElPElV, ~l. vac. aVTTaVaLV E/lEV aTTO Kcl TLA AEL. a/lTTaLVESaL OE KaT' ayopav KaTaF EA/lEVOV TO/l TTOALaTav aTTO TO ayopEvoVTL. vac. 0' a/lTTaVcl/lEvoS' OOTO TaL ETaLPELaL TaL FaL Ulho lapELOV KaL TTPOKOOV FOLVO. vac. K' al /lEV K' aVEAETaL TTclVTa Ta KPE/laTa KaL /lE UVVVEL YVEULa TEKva, TEAAE/l /lEV Ta eLva KaL Ta aVTpOTTlVa Ta TO aVTTaVa/lEVO K' aVaLAESaL aLTTEp TOLS' yVEULOLS' EypaTTaL. a~ [o]~ Ka hlE AEL TEAAEV aL EypaTTaL, Ta K[p]E/laTa TOVS' ETTl~clAAOVTavS' EKEV. at OE K' EL YVEu[L]a TEKva TaL TTaVa/lEVOL, TTEOa /lEV TOV EPUEVOV TOV a/l1TaVTOV, aLTTEp at SEME]LaL aTTO TOV aOEATTlOV AaVKclVOVTl' at OE K' EpUEVES' /lE '{QvTl, SEAELaL OE, FLUFo/lOLPOV E-

a

Acio a

av-

A son may give to a mother or a husband to a wife one hundred staters or less, but not more. And if he should give more, the heirs are to keep the property if they wish, once they have handed over the money. If anyone owing money or being the loser of a suit or while a suit is being tried should give anything away, the gift shall be invalid, if the rest of the property should not be equal to the obligation. No one shall offer to buy a man while pledged until the mortgagor release him, nor one who is the subject of legal process, nor accept him (in payment) nor accept him (in pledge) nor take him in mortgage. And if anyone does any of these things, it shall be invalid, if two witnesses should testify. Adoption may be made from whatever source anyone wishes. And the declaration of adoption shall be made in the place of assembly when the citizens are gathered, from the stone from which proclamations are made. And let the adopter give to his hetaireia a sacrificial victim and a measure of wine. And if he (the adopted person) should receive all the property and there should be no legitimate children besides, he must fulfil all the obligations of the adopter towards gods and men and receive as is written for legitimate children; but if he should not be willing to fulfil these obligations as is written, the next-of-kin shall have the property. And if there should be legitimate children of the adopter, the adopted son shall receive with the males just as females receive from their brothers; and if there should be no males, but females, the adopted son is to have an

Appendix

298

Col. XI

Col. XI I!EV] TOV aV7TaVTOV KaL I!E EmivavKov EI!EV TEAAEV T[a TO aV]TTavaI!EVO KaL Ta KpEl!aT' aVaLA(E)6aL aTl Ka KaTa[A[ TTEl 6 a]l!TTaVaI!EvoS" TTA[Vl BE TOl! aVTTaVTOI! I!E ETTlKOpEV. vac. aL B' aTTo ]6avOl 6 aVTTavToS' Y1!E