Syracuse University SURFACE Religion College of Arts and Sciences 2013 The Political and Legal Uses of Scripture James W. Watts Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/rel Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, History of Religion Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Legal Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation James W. Watts. "The Political and Legal Uses of Scripture" The New Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to 600. Ed. James Carleton Paget and Joachim Schaper. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 345-364. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religion by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NEW CAMBRIDGE THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE HISTORY OF The New Cambridge History of the Bible series comprises four vol­ THE BIBLE umes which take into account the considerable advances in schol­ arship made in almost all biblical disciplines during the previous forty years. The volumes respond to shifts in scholarly methods of study of the Old and New Testaments, look closely at spe­ * cialised forms of interpretation and address the new concerns of VOLUME 1 the twenty-first century. Attention is paid to biblical studies in east­ ern Christian, Jewish and Islamic contexts, rendering the series of From the Beginnings to 6oo interest to students of all Abrahamic faiths. The entire New Cam­ bridge History of the Bible offers a comprehensive account of the development of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, * but each volume can also be read independently, providing a sub­ stantial contribution to the scholarship of the period it covers. Edited by The New History will provide an invaluable resource for scholars, JAMES CARLETON PAGET researchers and students alike. and List ofvolumes: JOACHIM SCHAPER Volume 1: From the Beginnings to 6oo EDITED BY JAMES CARLETON PAGET AND JOACHIM SCHAPER Volume 2: From 6oo to 1450 EDITED BY RICHARD MARSDEN AND E. ANN MATTER VolumeJ: From 1450 to 1750 EDITED BY EUAN CAMERON Volume 4: From 1750 to the Present EDITED BY JOHN RICHES CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Contents CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS List offigures page ix Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, List ofcontributors x Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Preface xii Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Abbreviations xvi Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Abbreviations ofbooks of the Bible xxiv Table ofPsalm numbering xxvii www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521859387 PART I ©Cambridge University Press 2013 LANGUAGES, WRITING SYSTEMS AND BOOK This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception PRODUCTION and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. I · The languages of the Old Testament 3 First published 2013 GEOFFREY KHAN Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CRo 4YY 2 · Varieties of Greek in the Septuagint and the New Testament 22 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library JAN JOOSTEN ISBN 978-0-52I-85938-7 Hardback 3 · Writing and book production in the ancient Near East 46 WILLIAM M. SCHNIEDEWIND 4 ·Writing and book production in the Hellenistic and Roman periods 63 LARRY W. HURTADO AND CHRIS KEITH PART II THE HEBREW BIBLE AND OLD TESTAMENTS Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy ofURLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such 5 · The Old Testament text and its transmission 83 websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. EUGENE ULRICH v Contents Contents 6 · The literary history of the Hebrew Bible 105 18 · The New Testament text and versions 412 JOACHIM SCHAPER DAVID C. PARKER 7 · The Old Testament canons 145 19 · The 'apocryphal' New Testament 455 JOHN BARTON J. K. ELLIOTT 8 · The 'apocryphal' Old Testament 165 20 · The Old Testament in the New Testament 479 JOHN J. COLLINS DALE C. ALLISON, JR. 9 · From inner-biblical interpretation to rabbinic exegesis 190 GUNTER STEMBERGER PART IV BIBLICAL VERSIONS OTHER THAN THE HEBREW ro ·The Aramaic Targums 218 AND THE GREEK C. T. R. HAYWARD 21 · The Latin Bible 505 n · Scriptural interpretation at Qumran 242 PIERRE-MAURICE BOGAERT JONATHAN G. CAMPBELL 22 · The Syriac versions of the Bible 527 12 · The Septuagint 267 PETER J. WILLIAMS KRISTIN DE TROYER 23 · The translation of the Bible into Coptic 536 13 · Biblical interpretation in Greek Jewish writings 289 WOLF-PETER FUNK WILLIAM HORBURY PART V 14 · Scripture in the Jerusalem temple 321 THE RECEPTION OF THE BIBLE IN THE POST-NEW C. T. R. HAYWARD TESTAMENT PERIOD 15 · The political and legal uses of scripture 345 24 · The interpretation of the Bible in the second century 549 JAMES W. WATTS JAMES CARLETON PAGET 16 · Modem editions of the Hebrew Bible 365 25 · Gnostic and Manichaean interpretation 584 EMANUEL TOV WINRICH LOHR PART III 26 · Origen 605 THE NEW TESTAMENT GILLES DORIVAL 17 ·The New Testament canon 389 27 · Eusebius 629 JOSEPH VERHEYDEN MICHAEL J. HOLLERICH vi vii C. T. R. HAYWARD more associated with levitical psalm-singing in the service of the temple. storing of sacred texts in the sanctuary, an ancient practice throughout ancient Near East, continued during the period of the texts we have surve:r.. rlv and served to prove for sages like Ben Sira that wisdom was resident in IS temple, from where her teachings flowed forth to instruct not only the people, but the whole world. The political and legal uses of scripture The Hebrew Bible is reticent about how the scribes who wrote it were JAMES W. WATTS trained; what lessons they received in letters and culture; and how they transmitted their learning. That the temple played a significant role in all activities is likely, and recent research tends to confirm that likelihood. sacred texts from early times did not remain tied to the temple.60 Non-pnc::srs Pentateuch, the five books at the beginning of the Hebrew Bible, was were expected to know them, and to be able to express in solemn liturgical first text to be treated as scripture in ancient Judaism. Though debate formulas laid down by those same texts the realities which so "'"'""..h,lln MlOntinues regarding whether and the extent to which all or part of Deuteron­ bound together temple, text and worshipper in solemn bonds of ouu~aLIUH had normative authority in late seventh-century Judah, there is much and service of the Almighty. Constructed and ordered according to a :,eVIaence that by the fifth or fourth century BCE, the Pentateuch functioned plan, the temple housed divine writings deposited in its most holy essentially as scripture. The traditional name of this collection, the Torah thus sacred writing and temple on earth embody heavenly realities, preserved ' or 'law'), implies the normative textuality that has distinguished indeed by priestly guardians, but made present in time and space for all and subsequent scriptures (the Christian Bible, the Qur'an, etc.) from other to know, observe and repeat. Nor is the future forgotten in these things: important texts in western religious and cultural traditions. preservation in the temple of texts which foretell what God intends has its The Torah's precedence as scripture raises the question of how and why own dynamic - but that would take us beyond the limits set for this chaoter,~ it.accumulated such unique authority. The question of the origin of scripture just a question of canonisation, 1 of which books became authoritative 6o The implications of this observation for the continuing vitality ofJudaism after 70 CE shotH4 and under what circumstances. It is also a question of social function, be considered in tandem with the essay of Goldenberg, 'The Destruction of the Jerusalell! Temple', pp. 191-205. what practices, beliefs and social situations motivated elevating the Torah to such normative status. Addressing the social function of scriptures requires 'consideration of the political interests behind their publication and ongoing and it may also involve their role as law. Ancient law and scripture name Torah might suggest that the Pentateuch's normative authority out of its legal functions. However, the notion that scripture's [authority derives from its status as law does not correspond to the likely of ancient law collections. Collections of laws dating from the third and millennia BCE have survived from ancient Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and r See Barton in this volume, pp. 145-64. 344 345 JAMES W. WATTS The political and legal uses of scripture 2 Anatolia. This Mesopotamian tradition ofdrafting collections ofcasuistic laws (Deuteronomy to Kings), or a hundred years earlier, according to Chronicles, influenced the earliest biblical legal collection, the Covenant Code (Exod. 2I- do these histories tell of kings using a 'book of the law' to justify their changes 3), and through it most oflsrael' s other legal traditions. 3 There is no evidence, to ritual practices (2 Kings 22-3/h Chron. 34-5) or sponsoring public education however, that texts containing such legal collections were ever cited or used in in the written Torah (2 Chron. I7:7-9)? One other text (2 Kings I4:s-6) justi­ other ways to regulate the practices oflaw courts in any of these societies. The fies the mercy shown by an eighth-century king to the children of his father's abundant documentation from Mesopotamian courts contains no references assassins by referring to the law of Moses and quoting it (Deut.