The Transformation of Torah from Scribal Advice to Law
Recent
discussion of biblical law sees it either as a response to
socio-economic factors or as an intellectual tradition. In either case
it is viewed as the product of elites that form an international
community drawing on a common culture. This book takes that fundamental
discussion a step further by proposing that 'law' is an inappropriate
term for the biblical codes, and that they represent, rather, the 'moral
advice' of scribes working independently of the legal framework and
appealing to Yahweh as authority. Only by prolonged exegesis and through
the transformation of Judaean religion does this 'advice' take the form
of divine law binding on Jews.
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