CLASSICS 2LW3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Covenant Code, Torah, Near East
Document Summary
Sumerian codes (ch, ur-nammu: much that is novel or unique, deut. Covenant code: code containing book of exodus, oldest of biblical codes, reflect a more agrarian (rural) lifestyle for the community than do the other codes, sits unnaturally within exodus narrative. Sabbath and sabbatical year, the three annual festivals or feats of passover, Sacrifice, diet and cleanliness: partake in public, group actions to get a connection with the divine, animal sacrifice ubiquitous in ancient world, hebrew obsession with spiritual ritual (leviticus, rules described for each of the 12 tribes of israel. However, all of the rules are the same: dietary cleanliness, enormous, very detailed lists of foods acceptable/unacceptable for. God"s people to eat: ritual cleanliness, contact with certain animals renders people temporarily impure (weasels, geckos, sexual activity- ritually unclean. Lex talionis and torts (eye for an eye: exod. Debt & theft: theft punished much less severely than in ch, principle of restitution and compensation, exod.