Legislation in ancient Israel

Abstract

This article aims to support interdisciplinary research between jurists and exegetes. For this reason, it first mentions the main areas where cooperation can be fruitful: the legislative texts from the ancient Near East, the law codes within the Old Testament, the legal codes in the prophetic books and the legal organisation of social institutions. The material is rich; it is all the more surprising that we have little information about the process of legislation in the ancient Near East. The 8th chapter of the book of Nehemiah is nevertheless an exception, but it poses some problems for the exegete: the people gathered in the square in front of the Water Gate are not a cultic community, but the law is passed by the priest Ezra; the occasion is rounded off by the Feast of Tabernacles. All of this comes close to the adoption of a basic law – whereby the literary formation of the Torah, the Old Testament law, as well as the constitution of the satrapy of Yehud played an important role. The study focuses on the questions of who, what and how the constitution of the post-exilic nation was accomplished.