Homicide in the Biblical World

Reconstructs biblical law from a variety of texts, analysing legal cases from the Near East.

Pamela Barmash (Author)

9780521834681, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 December 2004

270 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.465 kg

' … this is a valuable book, with a rich bibliography …' Themelios

Homicide in the Biblical World analyses the treatment of homicide in the Hebrew Bible and demonstrates that it is directly linked to the unique social structure and religion of ancient Israel. Close parallels between biblical law and ancient Near Eastern law are evident in the laws of the ox that gored and the pregnant woman who is assaulted, but, when the total picture of the process by which homicide was adjudicated comes into view, what is most noticeable is how little of it is similar to ancient Near Eastern law. This book reconstructs biblical law from both legal texts and narrative texts and analyses both the law collections and documents from actual legal cases from the ancient Near East.

Introduction
1. A first case, the story of Cain and Abel
2. Blood feud and state control
3. The development of the cities of refuge in the Bible
4. Pollution and homicide
5. Typologies of homicide
6. Lex Talionis
7. International law in the Ancient Near East
8. Conclusion
9. Excursus aeven: cuneiform sources on homicide.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]