RHS 602 Graduate Biblical Seminar Love your neighbor! Old Testament Ethics and Law, Fall 2017 / LSTC Klaus-Peter Adam Rationale for the course Why is the biblical command Love your neighbor! (Lev 19:18b) one of the best known ethical sentences in Judaism and Christianity? What is the meaning of love and its opposite hate? Is it adequate to render the Hebrew and Greek terms generally rendered as hate instead as mutual malevolence and the term love rather as mutual benevolence? This course introduces to the concept of private enmity and private hate in Ancient Israel by ways of comparison with other kinship based societies. A legal anthropological comparative perspective demonstrates what conflict settlement meant and demonstrates concept of kinship-feud in various societies; ranging from the Ancient world to the modern Mediterranean, and to contemporary forms of feuding structures; for instance, in sub-legal forms of conflict settlement among members of gangs in US urban culture. In the biblical field the course introduces to the major law collections as well as to their concepts of private conflict settlement. The course will cover various fields of biblical and Ancient Near Eastern law, mainly about homicide law, injury, as well as marriage law. It defines hallmarks of the legal meaning of hate and of love in the Covenant Code, the Deuteronomic Law, the Priestly law as well as in the Holiness Code. It includes reflections on gender-specific aspects of these laws, namely marriage law. It considers selected situations of oppression of individuals as mirrored in the Psalms and it reflects on the social realities of conflict settlement from the perspective of Proverbs. The actualization of the theme in judgment prophecy, for instance, in the oracle against the city of bloodshed in Ezekiel 22:6-12 and the command to love your neighbor in a series of prohibitives in Leviticus 19 round off the array of biblical material that the course covers. Finally, it considers how perspectives on conflict settlement are relevant for an understanding of the New Testament as well as an understanding of private hate and enmity and love in the Jewish and Christian ethics in a contemporary society. This course is one in a sequence of 6 (Th.M.) or 12 (Ph.D.) that introduces students to the details of the literary genres, to the development of the tradition and to the interpretation of the books of the Old Testament. Students will become familiar with the resources and the scholarship of the legal material and of ethics in the Hebrew Bible. In this course students will enhance their abilities to formulate productive questions about biblical and about Christian ethics and to engage in critical scholarly discussions. This course will enable them to pursue scholarly research about the themes of conflict settlement, hate and love as forms of behavior. 1
It will also introduce to legal corpora and to the ethos of the Old Testament. Students will be able to integrate the themes of this course with their overall competence in biblical studies, in theology as well as in other academic disciplines. This course in the curriculum of Th.M. and Ph.D. also intends to enable the participants to teach a section on law and ethics in an introductory college course in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Outcomes Students will be able to -describe the origin and the interpretation of the most important ethical principle of interaction between individuals in Christianity, i.e., the command of mutual love (Learning outcome Th.M. #1; Ph.D. # 2). -demonstrate full mastery of the development of Biblical ethics and understanding of the command Love your neighbor! (Learning outcome Th.M. #1; Ph. D. #1 ). -list and describe the lexicography of the main categories of relevance for social interaction between individuals in Ancient Israel: neighbor, brother, friend, enemy, kin member or member of a foreign kin (Learning outcome Th. M. # 1 and 2; Ph. D. # 3). -explain major rules of private life in Ancient Israel and in Judaism in Antiquity (Learning Outcome Th. M. # 1; Ph.D. # 1). -design a college course on the ethics of neighborly love in the Hebrew Bible (Learning outcome Th.M. #1; Ph.D. #4). -describe the contents, the outline, the literary forms and the history of the traditions of legal collections in the Pentateuch: the Decalogues, Covenant Code, Deuteronomic and the Priestly Law; parts of Hittite, Old Babylonian and Assyrian laws (Learning Outcome Th. M. # 1; Ph.D. # 1). -integrate ethical discourses in the Old Testament in their diverse literary forms (in codified laws, selected narratives, Psalms, Wisdom Literature) into the larger concept of Christian ethics and explain Christian, modern and post-modern Christian ethics through the juxtaposition with Old Testament ethics and Law (Learning outcome Th.M. # 4,5; Ph. D. # 5,6). -demonstrate the development of ethics in the Old Testament, in Hellenistic Judaism and in the New Testament and relate it to the development in theological ethics (Learning outcome Th.M. # 4; Ph.D. # 5). -contextualize the command of neighborly love in the field of theological ethics and engage critically in a debate about theological and historical/philosophical ethics (Learning outcome Th. M. # 4, 6; Ph. D. # 5). -use standard research methods on the basis of the Hebrew and the Greek text (Learning outcome Th.M. # 2; Ph. D. # 3). -demonstrate familiarity with basic forms of social interactions in kin-based societies in antiquity such as love, hate, revenge (Learning outcome Th.M. # 1, Ph. D. # 2). -engage in a critical discussion with professors and peers about the categories of private dispute settlement in Ancient Israel and Ancient Greece (Learning Outcome Th. M. # 6). -formulate productive questions about the social categories neighbor, friend, enemy. list (Learning outcome Th.M. # 3; Ph. D. # 1) 2
-describe and analyze the Decalogues as examples of ethical rules (Learning outcome Th.M. # 1). -use biblical commentaries and other standard reference works to discover the scholarly understanding of Biblical ethics (Learning outcome Th. M. # 2; Ph.D. # 2). -integrate their specialization with other overall competence in biblical studies (Learning outcome Th.M.# 4; Ph. D. # 5). -use the methodology of literary analysis of ethical discourses in legal texts and in narratives (for instance, 2Sam 13-14 and in doing so integrate their specialization on legal discourses into their overall competence (Learning outcome Th.M. # 4; Ph.D. # 5). -engage in a critical scholarly debate with professors and peers around the complex themes of enemies and friends in diverse parts of the Old Testament in the Law, in the Psalms and in Wisdom Literature in oral and written form (Learning Outcome Th. M. # 6). Strategies for Learning Weekly reading and translation of prepared Hebrew Biblical texts; alternatively, for advanced M.Div. students, of the English translation. Detailed discussion of the Biblical texts in their original languages and of scholarly commentaries in class. An oral presentation of the participants exegetical work on a biblical passage in class, including a 1,000-word document that explains the biblical text and a 1,000-word document that outlines major scholarly approaches. An exegetical paper on this ethically or legally relevant passage of at least 6,000 words based on the Hebrew and Greek text using the historical-critical method (for students who take the class as Advanced exegesis in an M.Div. program, this will be adjusted.) Reading secondary literature assignments. Weekly oral summaries of biblical texts and of secondary literature based on written notes (based on keyword summaries, 400-1,000 words). Final language exam for students in the Advanced studies program: Translation of 3 passages of each approximately 10 biblical verses of Hebrew (or Greek from the LXX), selected from passages that have been assigned to translate during the seminar. Analysis of approximately 10 verb forms. 5 questions on syntax and lexicography. Assessment: Thoughtful oral feedback during classroom discussions. Guiding oral feedback during small group work in class. Written criticisms and evaluation of weekly quizzes. Evaluation of the style, the structure, and the descriptive accuracy of reports on scholarly works. Criticism of the methodology and of the content and further advice on bibliography for the exegetical paper, including specific assignments for further work. Individual academic mentoring for students with particular research interests, for instance, students with interest comparative studies, in Biblical Archaeology, in Biblical Theology, in 3
Assyriology etc. Textbooks: Bruce Wells/Raymond Westbrook, Everyday Law in Biblical Israel. An Introduction, Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox, 2009 Bibliography: Mostly on reserve in JKM; partly posted on the course site on Jenzabar; not required to purchase. John Barton, Understanding Old Testament Ethics: Approaches and Explorations, Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003. Walter Brueggeman, Disruptive Grace: Reflections on God, Scripture, and the Church, edited and introduced by Carolyn J. Sharp, Minneapolis: Fortress 2011 René Girard, The Girard Reader, edited by James G. Williams, New York: Crossroads 1996 Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly (ed.), Violent origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard and Jonathan Z. Smith on ritual killing and cultural formation, Stanford: University of California Press 1987 Katharine Dell (ed.), Ethical and Unethical in the Old Testament. God and Humans in Dialogue, Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies, New York/London: T&T Clark, 2010 Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus, A Commentary. Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996 Douglas A. Knight, Law, Power and Justice in Ancient Israel. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox, 2011 Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible 3, New York: Doubleday, 1991. -, Leviticus 17-22., Anchor Bible 3A, New York: Doubleday, 2000. -, Leviticus 23-26, Anchor Bible 3B, New York: Doubleday 2001. Bernard S. Jackson, Wisdom-Laws. A Study of the Mishpatim of Exodus 21:1-22:16, Oxford: University, 2006. Waldemar Janzen, Old Testament Ethics. A Paradigmatic Approach, Louisville KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1994. Thomas Krüger, Das menschliche Herz und die Weisung Gottes: Studien zur alttestamentlichen Anthropologie und Ethik, ATHANT 96, Zürich: Theologischer Verlag: 2009. Christophe Nihan, From Priestly Torah to Pentateuch, FAT 2. Reihe 25, Tübingen: Siebeck (Mohr) 2007. Eckart Otto, Theologische Ethik des Alten Testaments, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1994 = Theological Ethics of the Old Testament, Nashville TN: Abingdon (appears Nov 2012). J. David Pleins, The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible. A Theological Introduction, Louisville KY: Westminster: John Knox, 2001, 41-91. Baruch Schwartz, The Holiness Legislation. Studies in the Priestly Code, Jerusalem: Magnes 1999 (Hebrew). -A Literary Study of the Slave-Girl Pericope Lev 19:20-22, in: S. Japhet (ed.), Studies in Bible. Scripta Hierosolymitana 31, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986, 241-255. Christopher J. H. Wright, Old Testament Ethics For the People of God, Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004 (in parts first ed. 1983). 4
David P. Wright, Inventing God s Law. How the Covenant Code Used and Invented the Laws of Hammurapi, Oxford: University Press, 2009. Prerequisite: Biblical Hebrew The course is open to M.Div. Senior students. 5