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legal revision and religious renewalin ancient israel
This book examines the doctrine of transgenerational punish-ment found in the Decalogue—that is, the idea that God pun-ishes sinners vicariously and extends the punishment due themto three or four generations of their progeny. Though it was“God-given” law, the unfairness of punishing innocent peoplemerely for being the children or grandchildren of wrongdoerswas clearly recognized in ancient Israel. A series of inner-biblicaland post-biblical responses to the rule demonstrates that laterwriters were able to criticize, reject, and replace this problematicdoctrine with the alternative notion of individual retribution.From this perspective, the formative canon is the source of itsown renewal: it fosters critical reflection upon the textual tradi-tion and sponsors intellectual freedom.
To support further study, this book includes a valuable biblio-graphical essay on the distinctive approach of inner-biblical exe-gesis showing the contributions of European, Israeli, and NorthAmerican scholars. An earlier version of the volume appearedin French as L’Hermeneutique de l’innovation: Canon et exegesedans l’Israel biblique. This new Cambridge release represents amajor revision and expansion of the French edition, nearly dou-bling its length with extensive new content. Legal Revision andReligious Renewal in Ancient Israel opens new perspectives oncurrent debates within the humanities about canonicity, textualauthority, and authorship.
Bernard M. Levinson holds the Berman Family Chair of JewishStudies and Hebrew Bible at the University of Minnesota. He isauthor of Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation(1997), which won the 1999 Salo W. Baron Award for Best FirstBook in Literature and Thought from the American Academy forJewish Research. He is coeditor of four volumes, most recentlyThe Pentateuch as Torah: New Models for Understanding Its Pro-mulgation and Acceptance (2007), and the author of “The RightChorale”: Studies in Biblical Law and Interpretation (2008). Theinterdisciplinary significance of his work has been recognizedwith appointments to both the Institute for Advanced Study(Princeton) and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Berlin Insti-tute for Advanced Study.
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Levinson, Bernard M. (Bernard Malcolm)Legal revision and religious renewal in ancient Israel / Bernard M. Levinson.
p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-521-51344-9 (hardback)1. Punishment – Religious aspects – Judaism. 2. Punishment (Jewish law)
3. God (Judaism) – Righteousness. 4. God (Judaism) – History of doctrines.5. Bible. O.T. – Criticism, interpretation, etc. 6. Bible. O.T. – Historiography.
7. Judaism – History – To 70 A.D. I. Title.bm729.p85l48 2008
296.3′118–dc22 2008019149
isbn 978-0-521-51344-9 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility forthe persistence or accuracy of urls for external or
third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publicationand does not guarantee that any content on such
Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
1. Biblical Studies as the Meeting Point of theHumanities 1
2. Rethinking the Relation between “Canon”and “Exegesis” 12
3. The Problem of Innovation within theFormative Canon 22
The Legacy of Cuneiform Law 23Legal History as a Literary Trope in Ruth 33The Impact of the Idea of Divine Revelation 45
4. The Reworking of the Principle ofTransgenerational Punishment: Four Case Studies 57
Critical Scrutiny of the Principle in Lamentations 57The Transformation of Divine Justice in Ezekiel 60The Homily on Divine Justice in Deuteronomy 72The Interpretation of Divine Justice in the
interpreter at the dawn of the third millennium. His
method, inherited from his masters, Michael Fishbane and
James Kugel in particular, shows the extent to which an
intelligent reading of the Bible is indispensable for under-
standing our Western culture and the richness of its contri-
bution toward the construction of a more humane and just
world. Others have shown that some of the fundamental
values of Western law have biblical origins;1 that, although
Herodotus is certainly the father of history, the “biblical
historians” have also contributed to the formation of the
historical and critical consciousness of our world;2 and
that the Western world’s sense of reality owes as much to
the Bible as to the classical literary inheritance of Athens
and Rome.3 One should also mention here the obvious
importance of the Bible for those who wish to understand
art, whether painting, sculpture, architecture, or music.4
1 To the biblical scholars cited by Levinson (J. J. Finkelstein, MosheGreenberg, and Eckart Otto), we might add the work of the legalscholar Harold J. Berman, Law and Revolution: The Formation ofthe Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1983); and idem, Law and Revolution II: The Impact of theProtestant Reformation on the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge,Mass.: Belknap Press, Harvard edition, 2003).
2 In particular, I am thinking of Arnaldo Momigliano, The Classi-cal Foundations of Modern Historiography (foreword by RiccardoDi Donanto; Sather Classical Lectures 54; Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1990), especially the first chapter, “Persian Histori-ography, Greek Historiography, and Jewish Historiography,” 5–28.
3 Erich Auerbach comes immediately to mind; see his Mimesis: TheRepresentation of Reality in Western Literature (trans. Willard R.Trask; with an introduction by Edward Said; Fiftieth-AnniversaryEdition; Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, [1953], 2003).
4 On this topic, let us at least make note of Jean-Christophe Attiasand Pierre Gisel, eds., De la Bible a la litterature (Religions en per-spective 15; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 2003); Danielle Fouilloux et al.,eds., Dictionnaire culturel de la Bible (2d ed.; Instruments bibliques;
Furthermore, Levinson reveals the Bible to be close to
the modern world through its critical, creative, and inno-
vative spirit. We must perforce admit that the modern
spirit does not impose its revisionist interpretations as
something external to these ancient texts but rather that
the Bible itself introduced and developed the art of inno-
vative reading of which we are the distant heirs. “Scrip-
tura sacra sui ipsius interpres” (Sacred Scripture is its own
interpreter), the leaders of the Reformation already pro-
claimed. This saying is true in at least two senses. To
understand the Bible, we must first turn to the Bible itself;
at the same time, the Bible provides us with adequate
resources for its interpretation. In this sense, Scripture
anticipates certain contemporary trends in hermeneutical
theory, including Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction. To be
sure, it is necessary to qualify this assertion with impor-
tant nuances. But it is astonishing to note the close kinship
between certain currents of contemporary literary theory
and the ways that biblical authors and editors fixed their
gaze upon the past in order to size it up, to weigh it, and
to deconstruct it before reconstructing it so that it could
nourish the present.
The annotated bibliography that accompanies this vol-
ume reveals that modern scholarship from the dawn of
historical-critical interpretation has been sensitive to the
“phenomenon of rewriting at the heart of the Hebrew
Paris: Editions du Cerf/Nathan, 1999); Olivier Millet and Philippe deRobert, Culture biblique (Premier cycle; Paris: Presses Universitairesde France, 2001); and Anne-Marie Pelletier, Lectures bibliques: Auxsources de la culture occidentale (2d ed.; Instruments bibliques; Paris:Editions du Cerf/Nathan, 2001). Likewise, see Andre Wenin, “Deslivres pour rendre la Bible a la culture,” RTL 33 (2002): 408–13.
b. Babli: Talmudic tractate cited in the version of theBabylonian Talmud
Ber. Berakotnjps Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. The New JPS Translation
according to the Traditional Hebrew Textm. mishnahMak. Makkotmt Masoretic Text (of the ot)nrsv New Revised Standard VersionSanh. SanhedrinSebu. Sebu �otTg. Onq. Targum Onqelos
periodicals, reference works, and serials
AB Anchor BibleAcT Acta theologicaAnBib Analecta biblicaAS Assyriological StudiesATD Das Alte Testament DeutschATM Altes Testament und ModerneBaghMB Baghdader Mitteilungen: BeiheftBBB Bonner biblische Beitrage
BEATAJ Beitrage zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments unddes antiken Judentums
BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarumlovaniensium
Bib BiblicaBJS Brown Judaic StudiesBN Biblische NotizenBO Bibliotheca orientalisBThSt Biblisch-theologische StudienBWA(N)T Beitrage zur Wissenschaft vom Alten (und Neuen)
TestamentBZ Biblische ZeitschriftBZAR Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur Altorientalische und
Biblische RechtsgeschichteBZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche
WissenschaftCBQ Catholic Biblical QuarterlyCBQMS Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph SeriesConBOT Coniectanea biblica: Old Testament SeriesCRINT Compendia rerum iudaicarum ad Novum Testa-
mentumCSHJ Chicago Studies in the History of JudaismDJD Discoveries in the Judean DesertDMOA Documenta et Monumenta Orientis AntiquiDSD Dead Sea Discoveries: A Journal of Current Research
on the Scrolls and Related LiteratureEgT Eglise et theologieErJb Eranos-JahrbuchFAT Forschungen zum Alten TestamentFRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten
und Neuen TestamentsGreg GregorianumGTA Gottinger theologischer ArbeitenHBS Herders biblische StudienHSM Harvard Semitic MonographsHSS Harvard Semitic StudiesHThKAT Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Tes-
tamentICC International Critical CommentaryJAOS Journal of the American Oriental SocietyJBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JHS Journal of Hebrew Scriptures[http://www.jhsonline.org]
JJS Journal of Jewish StudiesJQR Jewish Quarterly ReviewJR Journal of ReligionJSOT Journal for the Study of the Old TestamentJSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supple-
ment SeriesJSQ Jewish Studies QuarterlyJSS Journal of Semitic StudiesKAT Kommentar zum Alten TestamentMaarav Maarav: A Journal for the Study of the Northwest
Semitic Languages and LiteraturesMBPF Munchener Beitrage zur Papyrusforschung und
antiken RechtsgeschichteNCB New Century BibleNEchtB Neue Echter BibelNICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testa-
mentNumen Numen: International Review for the History of Reli-
gionsOBO Orbis biblicus et orientalisOBS Osterreichische biblische StudienOTL Old Testament LibraryOTS Old Testament StudiesPAAJR Proceedings of the American Academy of Jewish
ResearchProof Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary HistoryQD Quaestiones disputataeRB Revue bibliqueRBL Review of Biblical Literature
[http://www.bookreviews.org/]RevQ Revue de QumranRIDA Revue internationale des droits de l’antiquiteRSR Recherches de science religieuseRTL Revue theologique de LouvainSAA State Archives of AssyriaSBAB Stuttgarter biblische AufsatzbandeSBLBMI Society of Biblical Literature The Bible and Its Mod-
ern InterpretersSBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series
SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph SeriesSBLSCS Society of Biblical Literature Septuagint and Cog-
nate StudiesSBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium SeriesSBLWAW Society of Biblical Literature Writings from the
Ancient WorldSBS Stuttgarter BibelstudienScrHier Scripta hierosolymitanaSHR Studies in the History of Religions (supplement to
Numen)SJLA Studies in Judaism in Late AntiquitySTDJ Studies on the Texts of the Desert of JudahTarbiz Tarbiz: A Quarterly for Jewish StudiesTB Theologische Bucherei: Neudrucke und Berichte
aus dem 20. JahrhundertTextus Textus: Annual of the Hebrew University Bible ProjectThWAT Theologisches Worterbuch zum Alten Testament.
Edited by G. Johannes Botterweck, Heinz-JosefFabry, and Helmer Ringgren. 10 vols. Stuttgart:Kohlhammer, 1970–.