THE LEVIRATE and GOEL INSTITUTIONS in the OLD TESTAMENT with Special Attention to the Book of Ruth
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THE LEVIRATE AND GOEL INSTITUTIONS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT With Special Attention to the Book of Ruth DONALD A. LEGGETT 1974 MACK PUBLISHING COMPANY Cherry Hill, New Jersey Digitized with permission by Ted Hildebrandt, Gordon College, 2006. TO LINDA hvhy rxry twx Proverbs 31:30b Acknowledgments IT is with deep gratitude that I take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge many who have played a key role in the completion of my work. It was through training received at Reformed Episcopal Seminary, Philadelphia, and Westminster Seminary, Phila- delphia, that I was first introduced to the Free University. A scholarship received from the University was an impetus to- ward taking the step of coming to Europe and tackling an unfamiliar language. I am grateful for the happy years which I was able to spend in Amsterdam and Dordrecht, from 1960-1964, while pursuing my studies. I would like to single out Rev. and Mrs. Jacob Vos, fellow-students at the Free University in those early years, who were tremendously help- ful to my wife and me and who remain to this day our closest friends. In Dordrecht, mention should be made of the De Leng family who extended many kindnesses to us. Drs. Van- noy and his family graciously allowed me to share their home in the closing phases of my work. Research for my thesis was carried on in numerous librar- ies. Special mention should be made of the libraries of the Free University and Municipal University of Amsterdam, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. My sabbatical year was spent in Belfast, N. Ireland, and I am grateful to Queen's University, Belfast, for the gen- erous use of their facilities. It was my pleasure to make two extended visits to the Tyndale House, Cambridge, England, and to be able to take advantage of their research facilities. Lastly, I would not wish to omit mention of the extensive help which I have received from the library personnel at the Ontario Bible College. v vi Acknowledgments This thesis would never have been completed without the generous grant of a sabbatical year by Ontario Bible College. I am also grateful for the stimulation received in my part- time involvement at the Irish Baptist College during that year. How can I ever thank those students of mine and their wives who gave me substantial support during that year and who have been a constant encouragement to me! To the Postma, Males, Pointner, Barber, Smith, Stoute, McPhee, Henkelman, and Taylor families, I am deeply grateful. Simi- larly, to Dr. and Mrs. C. Wellum and Dr. and Mrs. E. Higbee, and the congregation of Grace Baptist Church, Carlisle, Penn- sylvania, for their kind expressions of Christian love. To Professor Dr. N. H. Ridderbos, I wish to express my thanks for his wise counsel and competent criticism of my work. For the considerable time which he has given in its supervision and for the high standard of biblical scholarship which he has exemplified, I remain in his debt. Finally, I wish to thank my wife and children for their part in my thesis. Through the loving encouragement of my wife, I was enabled to persevere in my work. She willingly assumed the added responsibilities of typing and proofread- ing to her already busy life. The children too have known what it is to sacrifice vacation time and other things in the interest of "the thesis." As a family we are thankful to God, who has enabled us to finish this work. To Him be glory forever. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 Part One THE LEVIRATE AND GOEL INSTITUTIONS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT (EXCLUSIVE OF THE BOOK OF RUTH) 1. THE LEVIRATE IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST 9 Babylonia 10 Assyria 12 Hittites 21 Nuzi 24 Ugarit 25 2. THE LEVIRATE IN ISRAEL 29 The Levirate Incident, Gen. 38 29 The Levirate Law, Deut. 25:5-10 49 The Persons Involved, Deut. 25:5 42 The Purpose of the Levirate, Deut. 25:6 48 The Ceremony of Refusal, Deut. 25:7-10 55 3. THE GOEL IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST 63 Parallels to the Goel-Redemption of Property 63 Parallels to the Goel-Redemption of Person 68 Parallels to the God-Redemption of Blood 71 4. THE GOEL IN ISRAEL 83 Goel-Redemption of Property, Lev. 25:23-28 83 Goel-Redemption of Person, Lev. 25:47-55 98 God-Redemption of Blood, Num. 35; Deut. 19: 1-13; Josh. 20:1-9 107 Restitution to the Goel, Num. 5:8 138 vii viii Contents Part Two THE LEVIRATE AND GOEL INSTITUTIONS IN THE BOOK OF RUTH 5. THE DATE AND PURPOSE OF THE BOOK OF RUTH 143 The Date of the Book of Ruth 143 Arguments for a Pre-Exilic Date 143 Arguments for a Post-Exilic Date 146 Argument from Purpose 147 Argument from the Place of the Book in the Canon 152 Argument from Language 154 Argument from the Social and Legal Customs 157 The Purpose of the Book of Ruth 163 The Interesting-Story Purpose 164 The Exemplary Purpose 165 The Theological Purpose 166 The Davidic-Ancestry Purpose 168 The Legal Purpose 170 6. NAOMI AND THE LEVIRATE 173 7. NAOMI AND THE GOEL 181 The Discovery of a Goel, Ruth 2:20 181 The Approach to Boaz, Ruth 3:1-9 188 Preparations for the Visit, Ruth 3:1-4 188 The Appeal of Ruth, Ruth 3:7-9 192 The Response of Boaz, Ruth 3:10-15 201 EXCURSUS: THE INITIATIVE OF NAOMI 8. BOAZ AND THE GOEL The Administration of Law at the Gate, Ruth 4:1, 2 209 The Sale of the Property, Ruth 4:3 211 The Double Responsibility, Ruth 4:5, 10 222 The Refusal of the Goel and the Ceremony of the Shoe, Ruth 4:6-8 249 Contents ix 9. OBED 255 Naomi's Goel, Ruth 4:14 255 Naomi's Son, Ruth 4:16, 17 260 Boaz' Son, Ruth 4:21 265 Part Three GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 10. SUMMARIZING CONSIDERATIONS ON THE LEVIRATE INSTITUTION IN ISRAEL 271 Representative Views 271 Recapitulation and Conclusion 287 11. SUMMARIZING CONSIDERATIONS ON THE GOEL INSTITUTION IN ISRAEL AND ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BOOK OF RUTH 292 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS 299 BIBLIOGRAPHY 303 Introduction IN recent years attention from different quarters has been devoted to the subject of the goel.1 in Israel. Several important publications can be named. In 1940 Stamm published his work Erlösen und Vergeben im Alten Testa- ment, which established that the verb lxg was a term taken from the sphere of family law, as over against hdp which belonged to the domain of commercial law.2 In 1947 the stimulating work of Daube, Studies in Biblical Law, was pub- lished, in which considerable attention was devoted to the study of the goel concept and to the verb lxg. Daube made additional contributions to these topics in his later writings; in particular in his 1956 work, The New Testament and Rab- binic Judaism, and in the work published in 1963, The Exo- dus Pattern in the Bible. He presented very penetrating studies of the goel and opened serious discussion on the sub- ject of Yahweh as the Divine Goel. He suggested that the specific functions of the human goel in Israel were applied in some instances to Yahweh, although he acknowledged that there were many general references to Yahweh as Goel where specific nuances could not be inferred. By studying the spe- cific functions of the goel, Daubecame to the conclusion that "lxg primarily suggests the return of men or things into their own legitimate place. The word simply denotes the 1. Throughout the course of this study the active participle of the verb lxg, "redeem," will be transliterated simply with the word goel and the noun hlxg, "redemption" with the word geullah. 2. J. J. Stamm (p. 45) concludes: "hdp ist ein Terminus des Handelsrechtes, welcher einfach den Loskauf durch Stellung eines Gegenwertes ausdrückt. lxg ist ein familienrechtlicher Begriff, der stets eine vor dem einzelnen Rechtsgeschäft zwischen dem Loskaufenden und dem Losgekauften bestehende, durch die Zuge- hörigkeit zu einer Sippe gegebene, Beziehung voraussetzt." Stamm dealt with Jahweh as Goel in pp. 31-44 and made one passing remark on the goel in Ruth (cf. p. 28). 1 2 Introduction rightful getting back of a person or object that had once belonged to one or one's family but had been lost."3 Daube proposed therefore that lxg means "to recover." Jepsen concurred in the main with Daube in his article written in 1957. He wrote: "Go'el war der, der Besitz, Freiheit und Leben der Sippe und ihrer Glieder wiederherste len sollte. Ga'al bedeutet danach: das, was eine Sippe an Leben, Freiheit und Besitz verloren hat, wiederherstellen.. Die Mittel der Wiederherstellung, der ge'ullah, sind verschie- den: Blutrache, Heirat, Rückkauf . immer aber ist das eine Ziel, die verlorene Lebenskraft der Sippe wiederzugewinnen."4 An opinion in general agreement with that of both Daube and Jepsen was Snaith's, who in 1961 argued that "primarily the root [lxg] is used with reference to the enforcement, the restoration of a right or claim that has lapsed. Generally, whenever person or property is freed by purchase, the verb is G'L if it is reverting to the original owner. The idea of reversion is essential to the root.”5 The goel is the agent involved in securing this reversion to the original owner. An article evoking wide interest on this subject was that of Johnson, who in 1953 advanced the idea that the basic idea underlying the varying activities of the goel was that of protection.