people of the ancient world other than Israel produced a corpus of literature critical of the practice of monarchy. On purely humanistic grounds, the Hebrew Bible holds a distinctive place within ancient literature because of the passion it displays on this subject. Second, while monarchy in Israel and Judah was very much like monarchy in other countries, Israel remembered a time when there was no king in Israel, and the biblical writings were actually compiled after the demise of the monarchy. This does not necessarily mean that all human beings were “created equal.” The idea that earliest Israel, the tribes that occupied the central highlands of Canaan towards the end of the second millennium BCE, constituted an egalitarian society is a modern romantic myth. Tribal societies were not egalitarian, even if they were not as stratified as their monarchical counterparts. But there surely were tendencies in the direction of egalitarianism both in early Israel and in post-monarchic Judah. The law of the king in Deuteronomy 17 is the parade example. Here the role of a king is acknowledged, but he is subordinated to the Law, so that Deuteronomy has reasonably been said to provide the first instance of constitutional monarchy. In postexilic Judah, the High Priest took the place of the king to a great degree but the principle of equality before the Law was widely accepted. Third, the Hebrew Bible typically modifies the common ancient Near Eastern concern for the widow and orphan, by adding another marginal figure, the alien. We find this already in Exodus 22:21: You shall not wrong an alien, or abuse a widow or an orphan. The concern for aliens is distinctive to Israel in the ancient Near East. Biblical law distinguishes between the resident alien (ger) and the foreigner (nokri). Resident aliens had a well-defined place in Israelite law. The could join in the
people of the ancient world other than Israel produced a corpus of literature critical of the practice of monarchy. On purely humanistic grounds, the Hebrew Bible holds a distinctive place within ancient literature because of the passion it displays on this subject. Second, while monarchy in Israel and Judah was very much like monarchy in other countries, Israel remembered a time when there was no king in Israel, and the biblical writings were actually compiled after the demise of the monarchy. This does not necessarily mean that all human beings were “created equal.” The idea that earliest Israel, the tribes that occupied the central highlands of Canaan towards the end of the second millennium BCE, constituted an egalitarian society is a modern romantic myth. Tribal societies were not egalitarian, even if they were not as stratified as their monarchical counterparts. But there surely were tendencies in the direction of egalitarianism both in early Israel and in post-monarchic Judah. The law of the king in Deuteronomy 17 is the parade example. Here the role of a king is acknowledged, but he is subordinated to the Law, so that Deuteronomy has reasonably been said to provide the first instance of constitutional monarchy. In postexilic Judah, the High Priest took the place of the king to a great degree but the principle of equality before the Law was widely accepted. Third, the Hebrew Bible typically modifies the common ancient Near Eastern concern for the widow and orphan, by adding another marginal figure, the alien. We find this already in Exodus 22:21: You shall not wrong an alien, or abuse a widow or an orphan. The concern for aliens is distinctive to Israel in the ancient Near East. Biblical law distinguishes between the resident alien (ger) and the foreigner (nokri). Resident aliens had a well-defined place in Israelite law. The could join in the
9._social_justice2c_ot.docx