Subject: Re: israelite monotheism and isonomia
From: Richard Landes (rlandes@bu.edu)
Date: Sun Sep 19 2004 - 20:21:31 EDT
At 07:57 PM 9/19/2004, you wrote: >Landes writes: " the mosaic code seems set up to establish and maintain a >society of free peasants who eat meat, and to their fill. this is >definitely not the norm of most agricultural societies." >However, if the code as originally set down from Upstairs, is what is >being discussed, the society is one of warrior/nomads, when transformed >during the flight from Egypt and the preparation for 40 years for the >incursion upon Canaanite society. That would be their original norm, >perhaps. that's not what the law code is aimed at sustaining. the founding violence seems to have little to do with the regulations for warfare and treatment of neighbors subsequent to this conquest. the forty years clearly operates as a transitional period. even the earlier patriarchal period has virtually no nomadic warfare. as for coming from on high, that's the narrative. it had to be adopted by a people in order to work, and may well have emerged from them. >Jascha Kessler > >On Sep 19, 2004, at 7:54 AM, Richard Landes wrote: > >> the mosaic code seems set up to establish and maintain a society of >> free peasants who eat meat, and to their fill. this is definitely not >> the norm of most agricultural societies. >Jascha Kessler >Professor of English & Modern Literature, UCLA >Telephone: (310) 393-4648 >Telephone/Facsimile: (530) 684-5120 > > http://www.jaschakessler.com/ > http://www.xlibris.com >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sat Sep 25 2004 - 23:50:09 EDT