Bibframe Work

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Law in the Bible and in the Ancient Near East

"Biblical law ": ambiguities, problems and challenges of a definition

"Does it make sense to speak of 'biblical law'?" : Epistemological problems

Methodological difficulties : the problem of the sources

Comparison with roman law

Comparison with anglo-saxon law

Juridical models of the 19th Century : between 'evolutionism' and 'diffusionism'

The 'evolutionist' model

The 'diffusionist' model

The authority of the law and the law-text relationship

The authority of the law according to the statutory model

The authority of the law according to the customary model

The law-text relationship in the two models

The affirmation of statutory law in Europe

The law of the ancient Near East

The principal Mesopotamian juridical collections

The juridical tradition of ancient Egypt

General considerations on the legislative collections of the ANE

Statutory Interpretation : the law of the ANE as positive or prescriptive law

Customary interpretation of the laws of the ANE

Elements of continuity between the laws of the ANE and biblical law

Peculiar elements of biblical law compared with the laws of the ANE

"What, then, is biblical law?" an attempt at synthesis

Biblical Criminal Law and the Book of Numbers

Criteria distinguishing 'civil law' and 'criminal law' in the biblical legislative texts

The State of the art in recent literature

A proposal to distinguish the norms based on the nature of conflict

Criteria for the cataloguing and structuring of biblical laws

Situational or 'external' criterion of cataloguing

'Internal' criterion of cataloguing of the laws

The penal legislation in the book of Numbers

The legislative texts of the book of Numbers : general considerations

The general structure of the book of Numbers

The Organisation of the legislative material of the book of Numbers

"Repetition or Reformulation?" : the Curious Case of Num 35:9-34

The pericope in its literary context : demarcation and structure

The beginning of the pericope

The conclusion of the pericope

The internal articolation of the pericope : a structural hypothesis

Exegetical analysis of Num 35,9-34

Injunction to designate "cities of refuge" (vv. 10b-15)

The meaning of ...

The meaning of ...

The meaning of ... and its specific function in Num 35,9-34

The meaning of the syntagma ...

The interpretation of Num 35,12 and its consequences for the hermeneutics of the whole pericope

The meaning of ...

The meaning of ... and ...

The conclusion of Num 35,15

Determination of the different examples of homicide and their regulation (vv. 16-29)

The particularly wilful case, or malicious murder (vv. 16-21)

The unintentional case, or manslaughter (vv. 22-23)

The key function of Num 35,24

Procedure to be adopted in the case of homicide (vv. 24-29)

Procedural clarifications and theologico-religious conclusion (vv. 30-34)

Procedural clarifications (vv. 30-32)

Theologico-religious conclusion (vv. 33-34)

"From Law to Law" : understanding the novelty of Num 35,9-34 in the light of selected Biblical Criminal Laws

Comparison with thematically related texts

The case of homicide in the mishpat of Ex 21,12-14

The legislation in the cities of refuge in Deut 19,1-13

The relationship between Deut 19,1-13 and Deut 4,41-43

The internal structure of Deut 19,1-13

The introduction of the legislation on the cities of refuge (Deut 19,1-3)

Purpose and demarcation of the area of the validity of the law (Deut 19,4-10)

Regulation of the cases of murder (Deut 19,11-13)

Summary considerations on the legislation of Deut 19,1-13

The legislation on the cities of refuge in Josh 20,1-9

The differences between the Hebrew and the Greek texts of Josh 20,1-9

The proposal of A. Rofé : the Greek text of LXXB is the archetype of Josh 20

The proposal of L. Schmidt : the Grundbestand of the Masoretic Text is the archetype of Josh 20

Conclusions on the interdependence of the four biblical texts analysed

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index of Biblical References (selective)

Authors Index

Subject Index.