Reading Law as Narrative: A Study in the Casuistic Laws of the Pentateuch (review)

Abstract

Reading as Narrative: A Study in Casuistic Laws of Pentateuch, by Assnat Bartor. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010. 219 pp. $27.95. The relationship between law and narrative in Hebrew Bible has become popular, multi-faceted area of study in recent decades, and present book, which originates in Tel- Aviv doctorate, makes distinctive and valuable contribution (albeit one rather narrower in scope than publisher's description on back cover). The author is both Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Tel- Aviv University and criminal attorney; she takes her inspiration from Law and Literature movement in modem jurisprudence. But her focus is relatively narrow: not every law is susceptible to narrative reading; rather she seeks to survey miniature represented by casuistic of Pentateuch (broadly defined), where (typically) if clause indicates an event ... that results in damage to another person and [better: or?] changes prevailing state of affairs, while then clause prescribes an action . . . that is designed to restore equilibrium, as far as possible. This suggests that narrative elements reside in content of laws. However, author's primary contribution resides elsewhere. Chapter One distinguishes from embedded stories. The frame stories are those of anonymous narrator, who may embed stories of (legal activity of) named characters (including God and Moses as legislators), which may themselves tell (legal) stories regarding characters. As Bartor observes, this structure stems from theological outlook of author, and though she makes little attempt to engage with biblical theology, many of her analyses are of considerable theological interest. Chapter Two considers Lawgiver as (embedded) Narrator. The object here is not so much to analyze respective roles of God and Moses (a task particularly important for Deuteronomy) but rather to discover literary characteristics which distinguish narrators of of (Exodus 20:19-23:19), Deuteronomy, and Priestly (distinguishing for some purposes Holiness Code of Leviticus 17-26). The characteristics Bartor studies are in content of laws narrated and of legislator through signs of his own attitudes to laws described (e.g., through use of motive clauses and emotive language). The incidence of such perceptibility, she maintains, is in fact so pervasive that she has to restrict herself to examples. In discussing participation, author adopts different criteria in her account of different sources. In Book of Covenant participation is manifest through (occasional) use of first and second person forms, though this conclusion is perhaps debatable, given relatively small length of Book of Covenant. When author turns to Deuteronomy, she looks at incidence of the intensive and varied modes of integration of addressee [including external addressee, reader], and repeated reference to act of legislation (p. 35, emphasis in original). This integration serves to emphasize relationship between lawgiver and addressee. In her analysis of (pp. 59-84), Bartor is more systematic, comparing same features over different corpora. Her manifestations of perceptibility include motive clauses and use of emotive language (such as aswn of Exod. 21:22-23), both found already in Book of Covenant but greatly magnified in Deuteronomy (e.g., in use of to'evah, p. 81), which is essentially hortatory. By contrast, Priestly lawgiver is characterized by a guiding hand that organizes, defines, categorizes, or summarizes contents; like Deuteronomy, approach is didactic, but directed to professionalacademic rather than popular audience (pp. …