Some of the Other Works of the Torah: Boundaries and Inheritance as Legal Metaphors in the Hebrew Bible and Hellenistic Jewish Literature Author: Daniel Jon Vos Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108730 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2020 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. SOME OF THE OTHER WORKS OF THE TORAH: BOUNDARIES AND INHERITANCE AS LEGAL METAPHORS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE AND HELLENISTIC JEWISH LITERATURE Daniel Jon Vos A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the department of Theology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Graduate School March 2020 © Copyright 2020 Daniel Jon Vos SOME OF THE OTHER WORKS OF THE TORAH: BOUNDARIES AND INHERITANCE AS LEGAL METAPHORS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE AND HELLENISTIC JEWISH LITERATURE Daniel Jon Vos Advisor: David S. Vanderhooft, Ph.D. In this dissertation, I explore the metaphorical value of law in the Hebrew Bible and Hellenistic Jewish literature. While the study of biblical law and Hellenistic Jewish halakah is well established, less attention has been paid to the intentional use of legal diction to create legal metaphors—metaphors that draw upon legal language for the sake of generating new ethical and theological insights. My argument is based upon Roger White’s theory of metaphor which states that a metaphor juxtaposes two otherwise unrelated vocabularies in order to produce new meaning. Thus, I draw upon comparative study of ancient Near Eastern law as a means of understanding the register of biblical Hebrew legal diction concerning land tenure and inheritance. With the legal background established, I investigate three sets of metaphors, one drawn from the prohibition against violating established property boundaries and two drawn from the legal domain of inheritance: the inheritance of wisdom and the inheritance of glory. These legal metaphors demonstrate the profitability of attending to legal diction. The boundary metaphor demonstrates that when attempting to describe the good or virtuous life, law served not only to provide a description of obligations, it also shaped the way in which early Jewish communities understood reality itself. The inheritance of wisdom metaphors demonstrate that sophisticated comparisons could be drawn between legal concepts and scribal learning, particularly when wisdom was thought of as a document. The inheritance of glory metaphors demonstrate the way in which semantic shifting impacts the meaning of a metaphor. TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents............................................................................................................ iv List of tables ..................................................................................................................viii List of figures................................................................................................................... ix Abbreviations................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... xi Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.0 Chapter 1: SOME OF THE OTHER WORKS OF THE TORAH ............................ 3 1.1 BOUNDARIES AND INHERITANCE AS LEGAL METAPHORS ......................................... 7 1.1.1 Investigating a Lacuna in the Scholarship of Biblical Law .....................................8 1.1.2 The Scope of this Dissertation............................................................................ 11 1.1.3 Studying Property and Inheritance as Metaphors in a Broad Textual Corpus ......... 12 1.2 METAPHOR AS A METHODOLOGICAL TOOL ................................................................... 13 1.2.1 Recognizing Metaphor: Kittay and White ........................................................... 15 1.2.2 Two Challenges in Recognizing Biblical Legal Metaphors Subsection ................. 17 1.2.3 Metaphorical Systems ....................................................................................... 20 1.2.4 Analyzing Metaphor.......................................................................................... 21 1.3 THE OTHER USES OF THE LAW............................................................................................. 24 1.3.1 Law in Narrative ............................................................................................... 26 1.3.2 Legal Structures for Religious Thought .............................................................. 29 1.4 OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION ........................................................................................ 29 1.4.1 Chapter Two ..................................................................................................... 30 1.4.2 Chapter Three ................................................................................................... 30 1.4.3 Chapter Four..................................................................................................... 31 1.4.4 Chapter Five ..................................................................................................... 32 1.4.5 Chapter Six....................................................................................................... 32 2.0 Chapter 2: BOUNDARIES AND INHERITANCE IN LAW: LAW AS A BACKBONE FOR METAPHOR .......................................................................................33 2.1 WRITING BIBLICAL LAW ......................................................................................................... 33 2.2 ESTATES AND THEIR DISPOSITION .................................................................................... 39 2.2.1 Granting an Estate ............................................................................................. 41 2.2.2 Excursus: Roland Boer and the Redistribution of Property in Ancient Israel.......... 42 2.2.3 Purchase and Sale ............................................................................................. 47 2.2.4 Redemption ...................................................................................................... 49 2.2.5 Inheritance........................................................................................................ 51 2.2.6 Seizure ............................................................................................................. 53 iv 2.3 HOLDING AND INHERITANCE: THE VALENCES OF LANDHOLDING VERBS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE ............................................................................................................................. 55 56 ......................................... ירש and נחל :Early Biblical Land Tenure Terminology 2.3.1 as (Succession to an) Inheritance ....................................................... 58 ירש 2.3.1.1 as Conquest ..................................................................................... 61 ירש 2.3.1.2 63 ........................................................... ירש Conclusions on the Origins of 2.3.1.3 63 ............................................................... נחל The Origins and Legal Valences of 2.3.2 2.3.2.1 Could *nḥl Designate an Inheritance?...................................................... 64 2.3.2.2 *nḥl According to Levine ....................................................................... 69 2.3.2.3 Summary Concerning Levine’s Earliest Stratum of Hebrew Land Tenure Terminology ..................................................................................................... 71 72 .......................................................................... אחז/ אחזה :Priestly Land Tenure 2.3.3 in Land Tenure ............................... 77 החזיק Late Priestly Land Tenure? The Use of 2.3.4 2.3.5 Other Verbs of Seizure ...................................................................................... 80 80 ........................................................................................................ לקח 2.3.5.1 82 ........................................................................................................ תמך 2.3.5.2 83 .........................................................................................................חסן 2.3.5.3 2.3.6 Conclusion regarding the Origins and Specific Valences of Land Tenure Terms.... 85 2.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 86 3.0 Chapter 3: BOUNDARIES LEGAL AND METAPHORICAL: TRACING THE FIGURATIVE USAGE OF THE LEGAL PROHIBITION AGAINST VIOLATING BOUNDARIES ..................................................................................................................87 3.1 ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LEGAL CONCERNS OVER VIOLATED BOUNDARIES 89 3.1.1 What is a Boundary? Boundary Terminology in Kudurrus .................................. 91 3.1.2 The Middle Assyrian Laws and the Punishment of Boundary Crimes ................... 94 3.1.3 The Wisdom of Amenemope and Violated Boundaries in Proverbs ...................... 96 3.1.4 Summary .......................................................................................................... 99 3.2 FIGURATIVE BOUNDARIES