ISBN: 978-2-87457-100-8
14,50 €
REF. RANT15_RO

An Alternative Reading the Law of the Hebrew ‘Slave’ (Deuteronomy 15:12-18)

 = Paper = 



by Benedetta ROSSI and Philippe GUILLAUME, in Res Antiquae 15, 2018.

An alternative approach to the so-called ‘law of the Hebrew slave’ in Deuteronomy 15:12-18 is presented, reading the verb מכר in verse 12 as a qal rather than as a nip‘al. Instead of fusing brothers and Hebrews into a vague category of ‘members of the Israelite community’, four parties are identified: two brothers and two Hebrews (man or woman) involved in a web of antichretic loans. As laws and transaction records leave much of actual practice in the dark, Neo-Babylonian contracts (CUSAS 28 nos. 4-5 and unpublished BaAr 6 no. 9) as well as Jacob’s status in Paddam-Aram are called upon to illustrate the position of the Hebrew and Hebrewess vis-à-vis the brothers involved in the transaction.


Keywords: Deuteronomy 15, Hebrew, antichresis, Jacob, Genesis 31, Law codes
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