Finding Justice in Ancient Israelite Law: A Survey of the Legal System of the Israelites during the Post-Exodus, Pre-Exilic Period

Abstract

The ancient Israelite tradition (for present purposes, spanning the period immediately post-exodus up until the exilic period) manifests itself in many of the prevailing theories of law and justice underlying the archetypal Western legal system. This article strives to proceed unencumbered by cultural-temporal bias to evaluate the recurring themes of structure, procedure, substance, injunction, sanction, and operation in ancient Israelite law, thereby framing that legal tradition as a cohesive whole which is notable for the parallels that can be drawn between it and the Western legal systems that we now consider ‘just’. More specifically, this article considers notions of democracy, social contract, freedom of speech, equality, rule of law, retroactive law, dissemination of law, civil and criminal procedure, development of law, natural law theory, social-welfare law (including the jubilee laws), lex talionis, and communal responsibility as a basis for punishment.