Law, Mosaic
LAW, MOSAIC
Law has a most important place in the religion of the OT. The first five books of the Bible, called by Christians the pentateuch, are called the Torah (tôrâ, law) by the Jews. The first of them, Genesis, contains only history; the fourth, Leviticus, only laws; the three other books, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, contain history, laws, and discourses of Moses. The Pentateuch was the first book to be canonized by Judaism; it is the only holy book of the Samaritans. Its importance has been paramount for the history and development of the Jewish religion.
Nature of Israelite Law. The greatest difference between OT law and ancient Oriental law lies in its character of having been revealed. It is stressed that the Law is an expression of God's will, which has to be revealed to become known. Yahweh, the God of Israel, did not primarily reveal articles of faith to be believed, but commandments to be obeyed. The word tôrâ etymologically means instruction. The underlying idea is that man has been created by God and therefore must serve Him; but in order to be able to do so, he must know His will. God's revelation is His instruction to Israel how to serve Him. In the Greek Septuagint tôrâ is usually translated by νόμος (law), a translation that has become universal; but it should be borne in mind that for Israel the tôrâ meant more than law now means.
The importance of law in Israel appears from the fact that the Hebrew language possesses many synonyms for tôrâ, which, though originally of different meanings, came finally to include this meaning (word, prescription, commandment, custom, testimony, etc.). For the pious Israelite the Law has never been a yoke, but a supreme privilege: it enables him to conform his life to the divine ordinances and so to give intrinsic value to his deeds.
Therefore, it is his duty and his privilege to study the Law in order to know it always better.
Growth of Mosaic Law. The laws of the Pentateuch were not all given at once to Israel, nor all during the life of Moses. "At present there is no longer anyone … who does not admit the progressive growth of the Mosaic laws caused by the social and religious conditions of later times" [Acta Apostolicae Sedis 40 (Rome 1948) 45–48]. Old laws were expanded and adapted to new circumstances; new paragraphs and new laws were added; the existing laws were gathered in various collections or codes before the whole was compiled in the Pentateuch in its present form. This process went on from the time of Moses until after the end of the Babylonian Exile (538 b.c.).
Not all the laws are explicitly represented as revealed to Moses; e.g., those of Deuteronomy are nearly all formulated as prescriptions given by Moses, who was invested with divine authority (Dt 5.31–33). A part of the laws are formulated in the casuistic style of ancient Near-Eastern law, but many of them are formulated apodictically as divine commandments. This apodictic form is characteristic of Israelite law and reveals its nature [especially the form of the Decalogue: "Thou shalt (not)…" etc.]. But there is also a mixture of both styles in various ways and there are other formulations. The laws are often accompanied by religious considerations, because the Law as a whole is thought to be a divine instruction. Most of the law paragraphs have a direct religious meaning, and in this they differ from the other laws of the ancient Near East.
Relation of Law to Covenant. It is clear that Israel borrowed a part of the material of its legislation, not only in civil but also in religious matters, from the common Near-Eastern civilization; yet it pervaded its law with its own spirit, the spirit of the "fear of Yahweh." The Law was closely connected also with the covenant Israel had concluded with God; the covenant was conditioned on the fulfillment of the Law by the people. The nature of the covenant was that of a free pact between Yahweh and Israel, but Israel would have been far from blameless if it had not accepted the covenant and its law offered by God. Therefore in later times the people felt itself bound not only by act of the forefathers, but by the very revealed will of God.
In the postexilic period the importance of the Law grew more and more; it was identified with the idea of divine wisdom as revealed to men (Bar 3.37–4.4; Sir 24.22–27). The scrolls of the Law became and still are an object of veneration in the Jewish synagogue.
Various Collections of Laws. Different collections of laws, among which are at least two codes, can be clearly distinguished, each of them having its own literary history. The most important ones are briefly analyzed or characterized below.
Decalogue. The basic law of the Ten commandments is quoted twice (Ex 20.2–17; Dt 5.6–21) in forms not completely identical; this shows that in the course of time even the text of this fundamental law received secondary additions. The Mosaic origin of the Decalogue has been disputed in modern times, though without cogent reasons.
Book of the Covenant. The group of laws in Ex 20. 22–23.33 is a true code, the (modern) name of which, book of the covenant, has been taken from Ex 24.7. It contains a series of casuistic laws of the common Oriental type (21.18–22.16), which may have antedated the time of Moses, and a number of typically Israelitic statutes that contain certain important moral principles (e.g.,23.1–3, 6–9). The section in 21.12–22.16 seems to have been arranged according to a plan: crimes committed by a man against the life or bodily integrity of his fellow man; injuries done by a beast; damage caused to the property of a man. In the second part of the Book of the Covenant we find a series of various religious prescriptions and of some moral or humanitarian precepts. The historical circumstances in which the law was given are clearly indicated in the context; the promulgation of it was followed by the conclusion of a covenant. The code was destined for people possessing flocks and devoted to agriculture, but they do not presuppose a seminomad population only.
Book of Deuteronomy. Chapters 12 to 26 of the Book of deuteronomy form a code also. The laws are preceded by discourses of Moses, recalling God's guidance of the people in history and inculcating the scope and general meaning of the Law: to serve God as his chosen people, distinguished and separated from all the peoples of the earth. The Greek name Δευτερονόμιον (second law), based on a faulty translation of mi[symbol omitted]nēh hattôrâ (copy of the law) in Dt 17.18, was taken to mean that the book contains the second legislation of Moses given to the people at the end of the 40 years of wandering through the desert. Though no convincing argument can be produced to disprove the fact of a second legislation by Moses, the book in its present form is certainly of a much later date, probably of the 8th or 7th century b.c., and may have received even later additions. Most likely Deuteronomy is the book of the Law found in the temple in 622 b.c. (2 Kgs 22.3–23.24). In its present form it is a code, clearly with reform tendencies, for a sedentary people living in towns and villages, in which the rights of various groups of socially weak people are defended. The paragraphs are given without much order; systematically reviewed, they may be said to contain: religious precepts, especially the law of centralization of the cult; laws that regulate institutions of public interest, such as kingship, prophecy, Levites, justice, war; measures taken to protect common interests of the nation, the town, and the family; measures to protect easily oppressed persons and even animals. In the discourses of Moses, the Decalogue and some other precepts of a general nature, such as the love of God (Dt6.4), are quoted.
Priestly Code. Large portions of Exodus and Numbers and the whole of Leviticus have received the modern name Priestly Code from the supposedly priestly character of its legislation, which is for the greater part concerned with ritual matters: sacrifices, the cult, purity and impurity, etc. As a whole it is not a true code, but the name given to a collection of laws from various times. Many of them are ancient, others date from the time of the Exile (587–538 b.c.) or even later. Special mention should be made of the Law of holiness (Lv ch. 17–26), considered by modern scholars to be the most ancient collection in the Priestly Code. It ends with a long epilogue of a general character, promising rewards, and menacing with punishments. (see priestly writers, pentateuchal.)
Undue importance has been given by some scholars to the so-called cult Decalogue of Ex 34.10–26. It presents a problem to exegetes, but apparently consists of extracts from older laws. The Pentateuch does not contain all the laws and customs observed in Israel. From other Biblical passages, several other laws may be reconstituted [see J. van der Ploeg, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 13 (Washington 1951) 42].
Bibliography: j. van der ploeg, "Studies in Hebrew Law," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 12 (Washington 1950) 248–259, 416–427; 13 (1951) 28–43, 164–171, 296–307. j. m. p. smith, The Origin and History of Hebrew Law (Chicago 1931). g. Östborn, Tora in the Old Testament: A Semantic Study, tr. c. hentschel (Lund 1945). h. h. rowley, "Moses and the Decalogue," The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 34 (Manchester 1951–52) 81–118. l. waterman, "Pro-Israelite Laws in the Book of the Covenant," American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 38 (Chicago 1921–22) 36–54. j. morgenstern, "The Book of the Covenant," Hebrew Union College Annual, 5 (Cincinnati 1928) 27–81. h. cazelles, Dictionnaire de la Bible, suppl. ed. l. pirot, et al. (Paris 1928–) 5:497–530. m. noth, Die Gesetze im Pentateuch (Halle 1940). a. alt, Die Ursprünge des israelitischen Rechts (Leipzig 1934). w. stoderl, Das Gesetz Israels nach Inhalt und Ursprung, v.1 of Beiträge zur Einleitung ins Alte Testament (Marienbad 1933). w. kornfeld, Studien sum Heiligkeitsgesetz (Vienna 1952). l. m. schmÖkel, Das Angewandte Rechte im Alten Testament (Leipzig 1930).
[j. p. m. van der ploeg]