Tanakh and the Ancient Near East Index – Parashat Kedoshim/0

Tanakh & the Ancient Near East Index – Parashat Kedoshim

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Overview

Knowledge of the history, law, cultic practices and realia of the Ancient Near East can often shed much light on Tanakh. This index contains a list of links to articles which touch on the connections between Tanakh and ancient cultures.

Law: General

• See M. Greenberg, Some Postulates of Biblical Criminal Law, for discussion of the contrasts between the underlying values of Biblical law and laws of surrounding Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Greenberg demonstrates that Biblical law is unique in identifying God, rather than the king, as its source. Consequently, for example, adultery is viewed by Tanakh as a sin against God, not simply an affront against the husband. Similarly, the sanctity of human life, and the fact that it is not comparable to the value of property, is a basic premise of Biblical law but not of other ancient law codes. Tanakh is also unique in prohibiting vicarious punishment. All of these differences derive from the belief that law derives from God’s will, and the corresponding notion of sanctity in the legal context.
• See Tanakh and the Literature of the Ancient Near East I and Tanakh and the Literature of the Ancient Near East II, by R. Amnon Bazak, for comparison and contrast of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern law in general. He, too, notes that a fundamental difference between the two is that Tanakh views law as deriving from the will of Hashem rather than that of the king, which leads to many practical ramifications.  Among these are that Tanakh includes apodictic laws such as those of the Ten Commandments, whereas Ancient Near East laws are consistently expressed casuistically.  
• See The Torah and Ancient Near Eastern Law Codes which analyzes points of contact and difference between the various law codes, noting that the variations reflect both the different underlying values and principles of the cultures, and their different conceptions of justice and punishment. While the Torah attempts to lay forth principles of right and wrong and to set up a just society, the primary goal of the other codes is to preserve law and order. The topic also includes a case study comparing the laws of the goring ox in various codes.

Shabbat

• See Tanakh and the Literature of the Ancient Near East (3), by R. Amnon Bazak, for analysis of the claim that ancient Mesopotamian literature contains parallels to the institution of Shabbat. R. Bazak demonstrates the significant differences between the Biblical and Mesopotamian institutions.¹ While the latter were very much related to the lunar calendar and considered days of bad luck, appeasement to the gods, and meant for only a small segment of society, the Biblical Shabbat is unrelated to the lunar cycle, is considered a day of blessing and affirmation of faith in Hashem as creator, and is an egalitarian institution applying to everyone from servants to rulers.

The Disadvantaged

• See Widow, Orphan, and the Poor in Ancient Near Eastern Legal and Wisdom Literature, by F. Charles Fensham, for information about how Ancient Near Eastern societies legislated and protected the rights of these vulnerable groups. The various cultures all view protection of these disadvantaged people as the will of god/God and expected of a just king. It seems to have been a common policy, already in place across the near east even before Torah law.
• See Sacred and Human Components in Ancient Near Eastern Law, by Carlo Zaccagnini, for discussion of the significance of protecting the orphan and widow in Ancient Near Eastern law codes.
• See Foreigners in the Ancient Near East, by Gary Beckman, for a survey of attitudes toward foreigners and how different populations of foreigners were integrated into Ancient Near Eastern societies.

Theft and Kidnapping

• See The Meaning of Theft in Ancient Near Eastern Law, by Hossein Badamchi, for analysis of different types of theft and their punishments in ancient law codes, including kidnapping. He notes that the punishment for theft of property is more severe in these codes than in the Bible 

Sexual Offenses

• In his article, Crime and Sexual Offense in Hatti, Ilan Peled notes that Hittite codes were the only Ancient Near East codes aside from the Bible that prohibited bestiality. See also Structures of Power: Law and Gender Across the Ancient Near East and Beyond, Chapter 2 (Gender and Sex Crimes in the Ancient Near East: Law and Custom), also by Ilan Peled, for comparison and contrast of laws on sexual matters in the Ancient Near East, including the case of seduction that is described in Shemot 22:15. 

Divination

• See Divination, Politics, and Ancient Near Eastern Empires, particularly Chapters 2 (The King at the Crossroads Between Divination and Cosmology, by Beate Pongratz-Leisten) & 3 (Divination as Warfare: The Use of Divination across Borders, by Jonathan Stokl), for information about forms and uses of sorcery and divination in the Ancient Near East.

Capital Crimes

• See Capital Punishment and Its Alternatives in Ancient Near Eastern Law, by Edwin M. Good, for discussion of the crimes for which capital punishment was mandated in ancient societies, including sexual prohibitions and laws related to justice, sorcery, and property rights mentioned in Vayikra 19-20. The author tries to deduce from these the varying values of these differing cultures. For example, he suggests that the more severe the punishment, the worse the society views the offense, which provides insight into the way differing cultures evaluated differing acts. Regarding Israel, he concludes: “One finds in Israel a religious ethic that is sometimes explicitly adduced in explanation of legislation, whereas Babylonian ethics would seem to be based entirely upon social or utilitarian considerations.”

¹ There is a day known as "sappatu" in the Assyrian Babylonian calendar, defined as the "day of rest for the heart." Another source speaks of dividing the lunar calendar into quarters of seven days on which certain activities were forbidden to the elite of society.