The Scribes of the Torah

The Scribes of the Torah

Author: Konrad Schmid

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2023-05-26

Total Pages: 955

ISBN-13: 1628374322

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A revised view of the Pentateuch with consequences for the broader literary history of the Bible This collection of thirty-one studies on the Pentateuch represents more than twenty years of Konrad Schmid’s research and publications advocating for a new view of the Pentateuch’s formation. Schmid’s essays present the case for a Persian period Priestly document that provided a basic narrative thread to the Torah, which included separate, pre-Priestly components of narratives in Genesis and the Moses story. Schmid’s open discussion includes evidence from various fields, such as literary history, comparative cultural history, historical linguistics, epigraphy, and archaeology. The essays are divided into eight sections usefully structured around the themes of the Pentateuch in the Enneateuch, the history of scholarship, the formation of the Torah, Genesis, the Moses story, the Priestly document, legal texts, and the Pentateuch in the history of ancient Israel’s religion.


Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Author: Dominique Charpin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2010-11-15

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 0226101592

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Ancient Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now western Iraq and eastern Syria, is considered to be the cradle of civilization—home of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, as well as the great Code of Hammurabi. The Code was only part of a rich juridical culture from 2200–1600 BCE that saw the invention of writing and the development of its relationship to law, among other remarkable firsts. Though ancient history offers inexhaustible riches, Dominique Charpin focuses here on the legal systems of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia and offers considerable insight into how writing and the law evolved together to forge the principles of authority, precedent, and documentation that dominate us to this day. As legal codes throughout the region evolved through advances in cuneiform writing, kings and governments were able to stabilize their control over distant realms and impose a common language—which gave rise to complex social systems overseen by magistrates, judges, and scribes that eventually became the vast empires of history books. Sure to attract any reader with an interest in the ancient Near East, as well as rhetoric, legal history, and classical studies, this book is an innovative account of the intertwined histories of law and language.


Money as God?

Money as God?

Author: Jürgen von Hagen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-05-01

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 1139916815

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The nature of money and its impact on society has long interested scholars of economics, history, philosophy, law, and theology alike, and the recent financial crisis has moved these issues to the forefront of current public debate. In this study, authors from a range of backgrounds provide a unified examination of the nature and the purpose of money. Chapters cover the economic and social foundations of money; the historical origins of money in ancient Greece, China, the ancient Middle East, and medieval Europe; problems of justice connected to the use of money in legal systems and legal settlements, with examples both from ancient history and today; and theological aspects of monetary and market exchange. This stimulating interdisciplinary book, with its nontechnical and lively discussion, will appeal to a global readership working in the interfaces of economics, law and religion.


LXX

LXX

Author: Martha Tobi Roth

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

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Understanding Contract Law

Understanding Contract Law

Author: Richard Austen-Baker

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-18

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1000784886

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Understanding Contract Law provides an accessible, in-depth analysis of the purpose of contracting and the role of the law of contract, as well as theories that inform it. Assessing the historical development of this cornerstone of law, the book provides detailed analysis of some of the leading theoretical explanations, and how they are applied in jurisdictions throughout the world. With a new chapter examining the impact of globalization on contract law, this new edition also includes recent behavioural research around responses to contract breach. The book’s accessibility is enhanced by text boxes defining key concepts and terms, and biographical notes of leading figures and scholars. This ensures that readers are able to gain a clear understanding of the narratives and theories explained in the book, and to appreciate how contract law has evolved. Uniquely, the book is not limited to one jurisdiction, making this an essential text for students wishing to expand their knowledge of this fundamental area of law around the world.


Contract in Context

Contract in Context

Author: Richard Austen-Baker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-08-27

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1135096139

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Contract in Context provides an easy to read, in depth analysis of the purpose and role of contract law and the theories that surround it. It looks at the historical development of contract law as well as providing detailed analysis of some of the leading theoretical explanations and how they are applied on an international level. The book’s accessibility is enhanced by text boxes defining key concepts and terms and by bullet-point lists and descriptions further enlivened by biographical notes for leading figures and scholars. This ensures that students are able to gain a firm grasp and a clear understanding of the narratives and theories explained in the book. Contract in Context is unique in that it is not limited to one jurisdiction, making it ideal for students around the globe wishing to develop or expand their knowledge of contract law.


Making a Case

Making a Case

Author: Sara J. Milstein

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-08-11

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0190911824

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Outside of the Bible, all of the known Near Eastern law collections were produced in the third to second millennia BCE, in cuneiform on clay tablets, and in major cities in Mesopotamia and in the Hittite Empire. None of the major sites in Syria that have yielded cuneiform tablets has borne even a fragment of a law collection, even though several have produced ample legal documentation. Excavations at Nuzi have also turned up numerous legal documents, but again, no law collection. Even Egypt has not yielded a collection of laws. As such, the biblical texts that scholars regularly identify as law collections represent the only "western," non-cuneiform expressions of the genre in the ancient Near East, produced by societies not known for their political clout, and separated in time from "other" collections by centuries. Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law challenges the long-held notion that Israelite and Judahite scribes either made use of "old" law collections or set out to produce law collections in the Near Eastern sense of the genre. Instead, what we call "biblical law" is closer in form and function to another, oft-neglected Mesopotamian genre: legal-pedagogical texts. During their education, Mesopotamian scribes studied a variety of legal-oriented school texts, including sample contracts, fictional cases, short sequences of laws, and legal phrasebooks. When biblical law is viewed in the context of these legal-pedagogical texts from Mesopotamia, its practical roots in a set of comparable legal exercises begin to emerge.


First Writers—The Sumerians

First Writers—The Sumerians

Author: Gary Arthur Thomson

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2011-11-04

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1462059856

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Sumerians were the ?rst people to write. Using a sharp three-cornered stylus, they wrote on claysmall wedge-shapes called cuneiform. With writing, Sumerians turned the corner from prehistory to history! After at least two million years of humans telling stories, the Sumerians introduced literacy. Most civilizations passed down their heritage through orally recited traditionsstories were passed from one generation to another by word of mouth. The Sumerians were the ?rst to write down their oral traditions. To make the historical record easier, the Sumerians invented calendars with exact dates of events and contracts often corroborated by astronomy. Since Sumerian farmers invented irrigation and created a surplus, other Sumerians could choose to specialize in law, education, architecture, engineering, marketing, and politicsall of which were accompanied by written records. Using the writings of the Sumerians and modern archaeology, this book will trace the story of the Sumerians, the worlds ?rst writers.