Ethics in Ancient Israel PDF
Preview Ethics in Ancient Israel
ETHICS IN ANCIENT ISRAEL Ethics in Ancient Israel JOHN BARTON 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries #JohnBarton2014 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2014 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014933930 ISBN 978–0–19–966043–8 Printedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. In Memory of Ernest Nicholson Foreword I have worked on ethics in relation to the Old Testament since my doctoral dissertation, ‘God and Ethics in the Eighth-Century Prophets’, presented in 1974. My supervisor for that was John Austin Baker, who first aroused my interest in the subject when he set me an essay on ‘Old Testament Ethics’ as myOldTestamenttutorin1967.Iremainverygratefultohimforallhetaught meaboutthisandmanyotherareasoftheology. Writing this book was made possible by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowshipfrom2010–13,whichboughtoutallmyteachingandadministra- tion for that period, and it is a pleasure to express my gratitude to the Leverhulme Trust for their generosity. I am also hugely grateful to Dr John Jarick,whodeputizedformesoablyduringthatperiod. Warmest thanks to Tom Perridge, Lizzie Robottom, and Karen Raith at Oxford University Press for all their work on the book, and to the Press’s anonymousreadersforhelpfulandconstructivesuggestionsforimprovingit. HollyMorsecompiledthebibliographyandindex,andIammostgrateful toherforundertakingthistask,atthesametimeboringanddemanding. The work of a number of my former doctoral students who have worked withmeonethicalthemesovertheyearshasmadeabigimpressiononmany oftheargumentshere:amongthemIwouldmentionespeciallyProfessorPaul Joyce,DrAndrewMein,DrSungminMinChun,andDrCarlyCrouch. Quotations from the Bible are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Anglicized Edition, unless otherwise specified. After some thought, Ihavefreelyusedthename‘Yahweh’fortheGod/godworshippedinancient Israel.Thereisacase,outofreverenceforJewishsensitivitytousingthename of God, for eschewing it altogether, or printing it in the at least slightly reverential, ‘unvocalized’ form YHWH. But in a book about ancient Israel, forwhichtheOldTestament/HebrewBibleishistoricalevidenceratherthana sacredtext,Ithinkitbettertowritethenamestraightforwardlyintheformit isgenerallythoughttohavetakeninthetimebeforeitspronunciationbecame taboo, just as one writes Zeus, Enlil, Chemosh, or Thoth. At the same time, there are clearly many places in the Hebrew Bible where the name is not treatedexactlyasapersonalname,butmoreasasynonymforthesingleGod in whom at least some in ancient Israel believed, and hence I have also used ‘God’,withacapitalG,wherethatseemsappropriate,justasthebiblicaltexts oftenuse’elohim. There are many quotations from German sources, and a few from French ones,andinaccordwithOxfordUniversityPresspolicytheseappearonlyin viii Foreword Englishtranslation.Exceptwherethequotationsareattributedtoapublished Englishtranslation,theyaremyown. I dedicate the book to the memory of Ernest Nicholson, my colleague and close friend for over thirty years, who died as it was being completed. He supported me in more ways than I can say, and he and Hazel have been the best of friends. The influence of his own superb work will be very clear to many readers, but it is his personal kindness that I and so many others will rememberevenmore. JohnBarton OrielCollege,Oxford December2013 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the following for permission to include material from previ- ouslypublishedarticles:BloomsburyPublishingplcforexcerptsfrom‘Virtue intheBible’,StudiesinChristianEthics12/1,1999,pp.12–22and‘Prophecy andTheodicy’,inJ.J.AhnandS.L.Cook(eds),ThusSaystheLord:Essayson the Former and Latter Prophets in Honor of Robert R. Wilson, New York & London: T & T Clark International, 2011, pp. 73–86; Cambridge University Press for excerpts from ‘Imitation of God in the Old Testament’, in R. P. Gordon (ed.), The God of Israel, 2007, pp. 35–46; and Ergon Verlag for excerpts from ‘Evil and the Dark Side of God in the Old Testament’, in P.FiddesandJ.Schmidt(eds),RhetorikdesBösen/TheRhetoricofEvil,2013, pp.1–22.
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