Post: Week 2

Tobin_Week 2

Tobin_Week 2

by Ryan Tobin -
Number of replies: 6

Decalogue

I found the information (speculation?) about the source of the sabbath commandment to be particularly interesting (Collins, 84). I did not know that there are references in Amos and Isaiah that associate sabbath with the new moon festivals (and, even having read the passages cited, I’m not entirely clear what that relationship could be). This is meaningful to me because I’ve always thought that the sabbath commandment was unique. The rest of the commandments are fairly routine - - it is not unusual for a society to require its people to refrain from murdering and stealing, nor for it to mandate religious observances. The sabbath commandment, while religious in origin, would have had a major impact on daily life (as it still does, to a lesser extent, in our time). Any information about the source of the sabbath is highly relevant simply because it is unique.

Book of the Covenant

Collins mentions that Exodus 21:22-25 has been read at various times as a prohibition against abortion (86). I had assumed that most of the religious arguments against abortion would have focused either directly on the prohibition against murder or perhaps on general principles about “the sanctity of life” (a concept which itself carries little weight in the Book of the Covenant, in my opinion). It is hard for me to imagine how a person could read Exodus 21:22-25 as prohibiting abortion when a far more straightforward reading is available: providing financial compensation to the husband who has lost the economic value of the labor that the putative child could provide. 

Book of Leviticus

Collins makes the claim that, where the Priestly tradition links holiness to proper ritual action, the Holiness Code in Leviticus attempts to recast this tradition to link holiness with proper ethical behavior (98). I found this particularly relevant because it is directly relevant to Christians who are trying to grapple with the question of what is required for salvation. Some Christians will find the Holiness Code to be the right model for Christian belief: one’s relationship to God (holiness) is dependent on one’s choice to make proper ethical decisions. Others will lean toward the Priestly model: one’s relationship to God (holiness) is related to the proper faith and participation in the rituals that the church provides. Both traditions place high value on ethical behavior, but the emphasis on ritual and faith vary.

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Re: Tobin_Week 2

by Gregg Kohlhepp -

Hello, Ryan! I totally agree with your takeaway from the Book of the Covenant regarding abortion. The excerpt from Exodus 21 seems only to graze the subject. I, like you, thought that it arose more from the commandment: You shall not murder" (Ex. 20:13), combined with a law or divine command on where life truly begins. The fact that the Bible does not address it at all seems remarkable, in that many social issues and moral choices that we have today have more specific reference points somewhere in the Bible. In pondering this, I cannot think of any other gripping issue today that was not also faced in some form or fashion when the Pentateuch was set forth. 

Clearly, children are of great importance at many times throughout the Bible, chosen as prophets and rulers in the Old Testament and championed by Jesus in the New Testament. In fact, I wonder if Jesus' command in Matthew: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea," (18:6) has not been linked to this casuistic law from Exodus 21. It makes me question how a faction of our society has definitely put this Biblical interpretation forward without a foundational text that offers definitive support.

In reply to Ryan Tobin

Re: Tobin_Week 2

by Mary Merriman -

Hi Ryan.  I too find the reference to the Sabbath as related to the moon interesting but confusing. Both the Amos and Isaiah passages referenced the new moon and Sabbath but I didn't see the Hosea reference to Sabbath until I went to the Jewish Bible and found the pairing of the new moon and Sabbath in all three passages and being burdensome in Amos. I would understand the concern not being as much about astrology and religion as the prohibition against work when so much light is available for planting and harvest. After the New Moon, the periods of light continue to fade. So prohibitions to work on the Sabbath would be a difficult challenge for Israel as an agrarian society as the New Moon occurred occasionally on the Sabbath. The value of the Sabbath as a hallmark in the Jewish faith became a great source of conflict in the time of Maccabbees. This is an interesting reading on the conflict and Sabbath. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3400&context=auss.  Researching Sabbath further in the Oxford Online Dictionary, in liberation theology, according to Mark 2: 23–8 and its parallels the Sabbath presumes that people will have had enough to eat when they praise God. The bodies of humans are a part of their relationship to God. Thus the violation of the Sabbath commandment is the expression of a need that is so great that it displaces the Sabbath.   

 

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Re: Tobin_Week 2

by Kevin Smith -

Ryan,

I had taken it for granted about the Sabbath as a commandment, because, that is my Judeo-Christian context.  By pointing out how this commandment makes the Israelites different, you have opened up another perspective.  There are other ancient cultures that had similar commandments or law codes, like the Hammurabi or Lipit-Ishtar, but the Sabbath commandment really gives expression to who Israel's God is, and their relationship with that God. 

We take it for granted that we can choose to take off the Sabbath, and our needs will still be met, but in the ancient world where life was so much more precarious, the idea to not work for your food or money did required not just obedience but faith.

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Re: Tobin_Week 2

by Julia O'Brien -

Ryan, your discussion about use of the law of miscarriage is helpful, reminding us to pay attention to who was understood to have been harmed.

Interesting, too, was your discussion about the ethics of H and the ritual of P as two forms of religious perspective. Are the distinctions between the two collections actually so stark? Aren't there rituals in H? and ethical principles in P?

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Re: Tobin_Week 2

by Ryan Tobin -

I would say that the H and P materials are not so starkly different. The documentary hypothesis provides a useful "handle" that helps us grasp the primary values and concerns of each of the source traditions, but neither of these two traditions are so single-minded as to deal exclusively with ritual or ethics. There is ritual material in the Holiness Code, such as Leviticus 24:1-9 (instructions about a continuing offering of oil for a lamp and of bread). There are also ethical rules set forth in P, such as the Decalogue in Exodus 20.

I note a parallel between this discussion and our discussions about rituals and symbols in our WP 200 Worship class. There are some worshiping communities that place a high value on ritual, and others that focus more on broader ethical/moral principles. But when examined more closely, there are symbols and rituals in each denomination, and there is certainly ethical and moral instruction in each. We need to be mindful of our tendency to put people and groups (including ancient people and groups) into tidy boxes because this tendency obscures important parts of their stories.

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by Calvin Collins -

Ryan

I appreciate your perspective on The Book of the Covenant. I never considered that "Exodus 21: 22-25 would have been read various times as a prohibition against abortion." I do see however the harm that could cause for so many especially those seeking abortions. The idea as Collins states on Page 85 that "if the master gives the slave a wife, she and her children remain the master's property" really makes me think about the idea of a woman's right to choose and the fact that the way Collins is stating this correlates to that idea that men are superior and therefore own property. 


Peace,

Calvin