Ten Commandments

Question 1

What is the structure of the exam?

Answer 1

2 hours long- from 9:00am until 11:00am.
1st half = three gobbets of 20 minutes each
2nd half = an essay

Question 2

Which word is used for a ‘top down’ approach in law?

Answer 2

Substantive.

Question 3

What does ‘functional’ mean in a legal context?

Answer 3

‘Bottom up’
A more informal approach arising from practise and precedent.
Eg: children playing tig.

Question 4

What is arguably the most significant date in ancient Israel’s history?

Answer 4

587/586 BC, the year King Nebuchadnezzar returns to quash the second uprising and Jerusalem is razed to the ground.

Question 5

Which scholar argued that the rhetorical techniques used in the ‘law’ sections of the old restatement mean that it is not a separate category to the ‘narrative’ and that the two are inseparable?

Answer 5

J.W Watts

Question 6

Give an opposing view to that of J.W. Watts.

Answer 6

Thomas Aquinas attempted to categorise Old Testament law into 3 areas:

1. Moral law
2. Judicial law
3. Ceremonial law

Question 7

What two divisions did Albrecht Alt apply to Old Testament law?

Answer 7

CASUISTIC: “If you do x then y will happen…” Thought to come from OUTSIDE Israel and be the first written down. Less focus on God, unless in context of “acts of God”

APODEICTIC: “thou shall not…” Thought to come WITHIN Israel and be written secondarily. God is first person speaker.

Question 8

Name a critic of Albrecht Alt.

Answer 8

Patrick Dale who argued Alt’s division between casuistic law originating from outside Israel and apodeictic law originating from within Israel is overly simplistic

Question 9

Around what time did the written version of the Hebrew Bible begin to take shape?

Answer 9

Post-Babylonian exile in 587/586 BC.

Question 10

Name the first seven books of the Old Testament.

Answer 10

1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
6. Joshua
7. Judges

A mnemonic for remembering this is “Greedy elephants like Nutella, despite jam and jelly.”

Question 11

Use a scholar to explain a difference in a Jewish and Christian interpretations of the law.

Answer 11

Bradford A. Anderson has written of the differences between how Jews and Christians see the law. Christians tend to see the law as punitive and restrictive, whereas the Hebrew word ‘torah’ means ‘teaching and instruction’ and “is seen as life enhancing rather than something that is limiting”.

Question 12

What is another name for the Ten Commandments?

Answer 12

The Decalogue

Question 13

Which of the Old Testament law traditions came first?

Answer 13

The Covenant Code: of which the casuistic laws came first and the apodeictic laws came second.

Question 14

What has Raymond Westbrook said about wether law in the Ancient Near East was actually enforced?

Answer 14

He has posited that ancient Near Eastern law was based more on custom than codified texts which primarily functioned as royal propaganda/ material for scribes to copy when learning to read and write.

Question 15

Are the 10 commandments ‘timeless moral instruction’?

Answer 15

Arguably yes, they are absolutist BUT consider the ongoing debate in America about hanging them in public spaces like schools and courtrooms and also the view of David J.A. Clines who questioned “in whose interests” the 10 commandments were and argued they mostly serve those with property- meaning they are relativist to the particular society of Ancient Israel.

Question 16

What metaphor did Bradford A Anderson use to describe the relationship between the narrative of the Exodus and the law given at Sinai?

Answer 16

They are “two sides of the same covenantal coin”

Question 17

What is the difference between relativist and absolutist?

Answer 17

Relativist = applicable to a specific time and place.

Absolutist = universally applicable.

Question 18

What does the name ‘moses’ mean?

Answer 18

It’s Egyptian for ‘son of X’.

Question 19

Did the tabernacle actually exist?

Answer 19

Scholarly consensus is that it didn’t. Julius Wellhausen, for instance.

Question 20

What OTHER purpose did the ritual purity laws in Leviticus serve?

Answer 20

“Whatever their historical origins, the rituals portrayed in Leviticus legitimised the authority of those performing the rituals.”- Bradford A Anderson.

Question 21

Give an example of the laws from Leviticus being used in a modern context.

Answer 21

Jubilee 2000- Debt relief towards developing nations echoing the idea of the jubilee in Leviticus.

Question 22

What does Moses judge in the book of numbers?

Answer 22

He is called to adjudicate in certain scenarios- although wether they were actually real life legal dilemmas or a literary creation is up for debate.

Question 23

How is the book of Deuteronomy structured?

Answer 23

Narrative > Law > Narrative

Question 24

Who instituted the reforms in Deuteronomy?

Answer 24

King Josiah

Question 25

What is the difference between henotheism and monotheism?

Answer 25

Monotheism is the belief that only one god exists, whereas henotheism allows for the existence of many gods but requires that only one is worshipped.

Question 26

Was Moses a real historical figure?

Answer 26

There is no evidence of Moses in contemporary Egyptian records.
The story of his birth echoes other myths of the ancient near east like Sargon of Akkad who was also born in secret and cast into a river in a basket made of reeds.

Question 27

Describe the image on King Hammurabi’s Stone stela.

Answer 27

Christopher B Hayes interprets the image as Hammurabi being handed a sceptre by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash symbolising the authority to rule and govern.

Question 28

What is the Akkadian word for a person of high-ranking birth?

Answer 28

An awilu.

Question 29

In Babylonia, an awilu’s life was worth the same as a slave’s life - true or false?

Answer 29

False. The laws of Hammaruabi state that “if an awilu should blind the eye of another awilu, they shall blind his eye”, whereas “if an awilu should blind the eye of a commoner […] he shall weigh and deliver 60 shekels of silver.”

Question 30

Identify 3 key features of the prologue to Hammaruabi’s laws.

Answer 30

1. It begins “I am Hammaruabi, the good shepherd.”
2. Hammaruabi justifies his authority by listing the pantheon of various Babylonian gods beginning with “when the god Marduk command me”.
3. The first of the list of casuistic laws is “if a man charges another man with homicide but cannot bring proof against him, his accuser shall be killed” demonstrating the importance of the truth and legitimate testimony in a society without a formal legal structure with police/judges/ prisons.

Question 31

When do historians think the stone stela from ancient Mesopotamia was inscribed?

Answer 31

1754 BC, under Hammaruabi the 6th Babylonian king.

Question 32

What is Casey Strine’s best guess as to levels of literacy in the ancient world?

Answer 32

Less than 5%.

Question 33

How were Babylonian slaves identifiable?

Answer 33

A hairlock called an ‘abbuttu’ which was shaved off when they earned their freedom.

Question 34

What is noteworthy about the Babylonian economy?

Answer 34

Hammaruabi’s laws list fixed prices for some goods and services. For instance, “if a man rents an ox for threshing, 20 Silas of grain is its hire”

Question 35

When did King Josiah reign?

Answer 35

641-609 BC. He became King aged 8 after the assassination of his father at a time when the power of the Assyrian empire was on the wane.

Question 36

Identify an incongruent passage from the covenant code in Exodus and explain why it is ‘awkward’.

Answer 36

A good example of an incongruent law in the Exodus Covenant Code is Exodus 21:22.

• It serves a double purpose: turning a specific casuistic law about what should happen if a woman is injured whilst pregnant and it causes harm to the baby into a general exhortation to proportional retribution in the form of Lex Talionis.
• There is a switch from plural to singular: “when men struggle and they knock out a pregnant woman” becomes “he shall be fined.”

David P. Wright argues that “the irregularities and inconsistencies in the covenant code’s formulation come from the creative process of blending laws and motifs from different places into the same source” going on to say that the similarities between the laws of Hammurabi and the covenant code are NOT COINCIDENCE.

Question 37

List King Josiah’s reforms:

Answer 37

1. The Jerusalem temple is reconsecrated to Yahweh alone
2. Passover becomes a national pilgrimage. Exodus 23 stipulates “Three times a year you shall make a pilgrimage…” but Deuteronomy 16 specifically adds “in the place that I choose.”

Question 38

How accurately does the book of 2 Kings portray King Josiah’s reign?

Answer 38

Archeological tax documents reflect the switch from worshiping several deities to Yahweh alone. Art from the 7th century B.C. also shows a general move from being image heavy to being text heavy.

Question 39

Where did the precursor to Josiah’s reforms begin?

Answer 39

Hosea’s prophecy in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the century before (800 years B.C) as well as content in 1 Kings shows that pure worship of Yahweh alone was not a new idea.

Question 40

What two texts does Deuteronomy adapt?

Answer 40

The form of an Assyrian vassal treaty and the covenant code from Exodus.

Question 41

Who was Hilkiah?

Answer 41

The priest who “””finds”””” the scroll which justifies King Josiah’s reforms.

Question 42

What does David M Carr say about the seventh century?

Answer 42

“The seventh century was a time when Judah enjoyed the hope of independence.”

Question 43

Compare the way Hammaruabi’s characteristics are presented with Yahweh’s.

Answer 43

Both have paternalistic qualities- Eg: “I am Hammurabi, the Lord who is like a father and begetter to his people.”

Concerned with justice- Eg: “Just ways to the waif and the widow.”

Agricultural metaphors- Eg: “I am Hammurabi the shepherd.”