Book Reviews 177 programs, such as Feldman's "Josephus' Portrayal of the Hasmoneans Compared with 1 Maccabees," which extends his prolific series of analyses of Josephus' historiographical goals and methods. In addition, several papers are concerned with aspects of the common themes of the study of Josephus: investigations of his biography; his attitudes toward Rome and the Jewish people; and his thought (cf. Bilde, p. 247). While there is nothing wrong with such studies, as Bilde comments: "these interests should not be allowed to dominate Josephus research completely. W~ need studies of specific texts and well-defined topics" (p. 247). It is gratifying to note, then, that some of the colloquium papers do take up these kinds of issues, including topics which are addressed for the first time, such as Bilde's own study of "The Geographical Excursuses in Josephus." In sum, the book constitutes a valuable contribution to Josephan studies. Anyone interested in scholarship on Josephus will want to read it. David S. Williams Department of Religion University of Georgia Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law: Revision, Interpolation and Development, edited by Bernard M. Levinson. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 181. Sheffield, England: The Sheffield Academic Press, 1994. 207 pp. £27.50/$41.00. The Biblical Law Group of the Society of Biblical literature is an annual forum for scholarly dialogues involving biblical and Near Eastern law. The papers in the volume under review grew from the 1991 meeting of the group, at which discussion centered on a presentation by Raymond Westbrook. Westbrook's writings are at the center of a revival of Ancient Near Eastern law studies in the last decade, and he speaks from a solid background in both biblical and cuneiform studies. His arguments, which are often provocative and controversial, stimulate others to. reformulate and examine their positions. Eight biblical and Near Eastern scholars here present their responses to Westbrook's central thesis. The title of Westbrook's essay, "What is the Covenant Code?" echoes the title of the seminal article by the late F. R. Kraus, "Was ist der Codex 178 SHOFAR Spring 1996 Vol. 14, No.3 Hammurabi?" 1 which pointed to the formal structural similarities between the law collections and the scientific omen collections. Kraus emphasized the scholastic heritage of the Laws of Hammurabi and minimized its legislative or juridical practical applicability. Kraus's landmark essay, published thirty-five years ago, redirected the study of Mesopotamian law; Westbrook now challenges the conventional wisdom and channels the course of the arguments anew. Westbrook argues, in this essay and more fully elsewhere,2 that the scholastic heritage and background of the Near Eastern law collections3 demand the assumption of an Ancient Near Eastern "common law" involving a common tradition, a coherent set of legal principles, and a static, fIXed homogeneous system. His arguments (here directed specifically to the Covenant Code in Exodus 21:1-22:19) are subtle and alluring, and the synchronic approach he advocates allows some new insights. But his arguments for the superiority of a synchronic analysis yielding a uniform law system are colored by a peculiar view of the Ancient Near East: "From the mid-third millennium to the end of the Bronze Age,"-Le., from the first widespread use ofwriting about 2500 B.C.E. until about 1100 B.C.E.- "the Near East saw no major advance in technology nor any radical change in social or political structure. Intellectual expression was dominated by Mesopotamian 'science', a form of logic severely handicapped by an inability to define terms, create general categories, or reason vertically from the general to the particular" (pp. 27-28). It should be obvious to any student of the Ancient Near East that this dismissal of a millennium and a half as politically, intellectually, and technologically stagnant is not supportable. Furthermore, Westbrook's insistence on a "common law" throughout the millennia and throughout the geographically vast area allows him to create a single picture-in a four-dimensional connect-thedots process, using various data (a lawsuit, a contract, a provision in a law IF. R. Kraus, "Ein zentrales Problem des altmesopotamischen Rechtes: Was ist der Codex Hammurabi?" Genava 8 (1960...
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Jan 1, 2005
J Cale Johnson 
