A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

 977

the day: the best possible legal scenarios presented as a combination

of pronouncements and case law.^6

1.1.2.1 The Book of the Covenant

This is generally considered the earliest of the biblical law collec-

tions. There is considerable agreement that it was originally an inde-

pendent collection, which was later inserted into the book of Exodus

as one of the sources with which the book was composed. There is,

however, disagreement as to whether the text of the collection is

itself the result of the modification of earlier collections.^7 The col-

lection itself contains a section of regulations with human sanctions

(Exod. 21:1–22:16) and others under divine jurisdiction; significantly,

the laws under human jurisdiction include those that we would con-

sider “religious” law. The similarity of many of the cases to the

Mesopotamian legal collections in both form and content indicate

that the Book of the Covenant is part of the same legal tradition

and that it built upon the same corpus of cases that were studied

in Mesopotamian law.^8 The Book of the Covenant, like other bib-

lical law corpora, often provides legal remedies for the cases that

are distinctively biblical.^9

1.1.2.2 The Priestly Codes

These are actually two separate groups. The regulations found in

Leviticus 1–15 and Numbers 1–9 (often called P) concern primarily

ritual regulations and matters of purity and impurity. The Holiness

code of Leviticus 17–27 (H) includes social legislation along with rit-

ual prescriptions. The date and development of these collections are

a matter of enormous dispute. Some of the laws in P and H may

be very ancient; others are considered post-exilic. The relation between

these two groups of priestly regulations is also a matter of discussion.^10

(^6) See Westbrook, “Biblical and Cuneiform Law Codes.”
(^7) See Westbrook, “What is the Covenant Code?” and the various responses to
him in Levinson, ed., Theory and Method...
(^8) The earliest such study was Paul,Book of the Covenant... See, most recently,
Malul, The Comparative Method.. .; Lafont, “Ancient Near Eastern Laws.. .”; Greengus
“Legal Tradition,” and “Biblical Law.”
(^9) This issue was first discussed by Greenberg, “Some Postulates.. .” It has occa-
sioned numerous reactions, notably by Jackson, “Reflections.. .,” and was revisited
by Greenberg in “More Reflections...”
(^10) The general consensus of scholarship has been that H is ancient and P either
westbrook_f27-975-1046 8/27/03 1:36 PM Page 977