- Copyright Page
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Vistas in the Study of Biblical Law
- Covenant
- Social Justice
- Offenses Against Human Beings in Private and Public Law
- Litigation: Trial Procedure, Jurisdiction, Evidence, Testimony
- Women, Children, Slaves, and Foreigners
- Ritual Law: Sacrifice and Holy Days
- Purity and Sancta Desecration in Ritual Law
- “An Eye for an Eye” and Capital Punishment
- The Decalogue
- The Book of the Covenant
- Priestly Law
- Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic Reform
- Law and Narrative
- Determining the Date of Biblical Legal Texts
- The Role of Law in the Formation of the Pentateuch and the Canon
- The Law and the Prophets
- Law in the Wisdom Tradition
- Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections and Legal Forms and Institutions
- Ancient Near Eastern Treaties/Loyalty Oaths and Biblical Law
- Monarchy and Law in the Pre-Exilic Period
- Law in the Persian Period
- The Law in the Late Second Temple Period
- The Bible and the Sources of Rabbinic Law
- The Law and the Gospels, with Attention to the Relationship Between the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount/Plain
- Ethical and Moral Duties in Rabbinic Judaism
- Paul and the Covenant
- Rabbinic Law
- Ritual Law in Rabbinic Judaism
- Women, Children, and Slaves in Rabbinic Law
- Women, Children, Slaves, and the Law in the New Testament Period
- Social Justice in Early Christianity
- Social Justice in Rabbinic Judaism
- Index of Citations
- Index of Modern Authors
- Index of Subjects
Abstract and Keywords
Rabbinic law on women, children, and slaves developed on the basis of biblical law and in the context of the Greco-Roman and Sasanian cultural environments in which Palestinian and Babylonian rabbis lived. The discussions were innovative in their adaptation of biblical law to new circumstances. From a sociological point of view, women, children, and slaves were dependents of the householder who were generally associated with the private sphere of the household. At the same time, they differed from each other with regard to honor, which only free persons possessed, and with regard to gender, since male children were raised to become Torah-observant male Jews themselves. Palestinian rabbinic law shows interesting similarities with and differences to Roman law of which rabbis would have been aware even if direct influences cannot be established.
Keywords: children, household, inheritance, marriage, manumission, matrilineal, property, rabbis, slaves, women
Catherine Hezser is Professor of Jewish Studies at SOAS, University of London, and Professor II (visiting professor) at the University of Oslo.
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- Copyright Page
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Vistas in the Study of Biblical Law
- Covenant
- Social Justice
- Offenses Against Human Beings in Private and Public Law
- Litigation: Trial Procedure, Jurisdiction, Evidence, Testimony
- Women, Children, Slaves, and Foreigners
- Ritual Law: Sacrifice and Holy Days
- Purity and Sancta Desecration in Ritual Law
- “An Eye for an Eye” and Capital Punishment
- The Decalogue
- The Book of the Covenant
- Priestly Law
- Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic Reform
- Law and Narrative
- Determining the Date of Biblical Legal Texts
- The Role of Law in the Formation of the Pentateuch and the Canon
- The Law and the Prophets
- Law in the Wisdom Tradition
- Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections and Legal Forms and Institutions
- Ancient Near Eastern Treaties/Loyalty Oaths and Biblical Law
- Monarchy and Law in the Pre-Exilic Period
- Law in the Persian Period
- The Law in the Late Second Temple Period
- The Bible and the Sources of Rabbinic Law
- The Law and the Gospels, with Attention to the Relationship Between the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount/Plain
- Ethical and Moral Duties in Rabbinic Judaism
- Paul and the Covenant
- Rabbinic Law
- Ritual Law in Rabbinic Judaism
- Women, Children, and Slaves in Rabbinic Law
- Women, Children, Slaves, and the Law in the New Testament Period
- Social Justice in Early Christianity
- Social Justice in Rabbinic Judaism
- Index of Citations
- Index of Modern Authors
- Index of Subjects