1. The Sinai-Type Covenant n Preamble--I am Yahweh your God n Historical Prologue--who brought you out of the land of Egypt (very brief) n Stipulations--10 commandments (comprehensive, ordered) n Witnesses? n Blessings and Curses--? n Deposit and Periodic Reading--?

2. Types of law n Apodictic –You shall not…. –Cursed be the one who…. –X shall be put to death n Casuistic

3. Ancient Near Eastern Laws n Ur-Nammu (Sumerian) 21 c n Eshnunna 20c n Lipit Ishtar 19c n Hammurabi 18c n Hittite laws 15 n Middle Assyrian Laws 14c

4. Law Codes in the OT n Covenant Code Exodus 21-23 (pre monarchy) n Deuteronomic Code Deuteronomy 12- 26 (7th c.) n Holiness Code Leviticus 17-26 (+/- 600) n Priestly code (scattered throughout Exodus-Numbers; exile and later)

5. Date of Covenant Code n No commerce n No central judiciary n No class distinctions n Settled life; not nomadic or urban. n Older than D, H, P; relatively early, but in land

6. Laws on slavery n 6 years service; 7th year free. men only? n Why would master give a wife to a male slave? Altruism? n Protection for female slaves--they cannot be sold to foreign people n changes in Deuteronomy –Men and women freed –presents given at time of emancipation –slave brought to door (not before God)

7. The Goring Ox n When and why is the owner liable? n Note classism in Babylonian laws-- different punishment for free man, slave, aristocrat n Why is there no claim possible in CH 250 (ox without previous history of goring); cf. Exod 21:28 (ox stoned)

8. Do not boil a kid in mother’s milk n Effect on Jewish diet n close nurturing connection of mother animal and young animal n mixing of life and death? (beestings = first milk given by a cow after calving) n Canaanite practice?

9. Law of Talion n a replacement for fine and/or unlimited retribution (for its time a tremendous reform) n Jesus reverses it--turn the other cheek (Matt 5:38-42) n Rabbis abrogated it since body parts of different people are not equal