Mosaic Law Research Articles

Religion, politics and war: Recollections on General Ndaya and Kenya’s quest for independence

The mosaic law of advocating the paying of life with life, and an “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, [and] stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21:23-25), came out clearly on 15th and 16th October 1953, as the politics of land and freedom [wiyathi na ithaka] in the colonial Kenya brought their ugly faces through a deadly violence. While the 15th October saw the Mau Mau rebels attack and kill two Roman Catholic Sisters (Cecilia Wangeci and Rosetta Njeri) at the Baricho Centre, the 16th October 1953 saw the capture of the rebel’s leader (Wanjagi wa Ndegwa, also known as General Ndaya) and his subsequent killing. In trying to understand the interface between religion, politics, and war in the African context, the research article has sampled the twin issues (the battle of River Ragati and the attacks on the Baricho Catholic Church of 1953)to alert the post-colonial Africa on the dangers of conflict among the trio.Contribution: This research article contributes to the broad scope of Theologia Viatorum journal via a multidisciplinary perspective that interfaces religion, politics, and war. It utilises a theo-historical design, and oral history techniques, such as storytelling, archival sources, personal communications with selected individuals, and through an extensive review of relevant literature.

On Scrolls, the Visual, and Visuality in Jewish Art

Abstract This article investigates the images of paired scrolling patterns recurring in the design of Jewish ritual spaces and objects. It explores a facet of non-narrative visual expression within Jewish visual culture. The chronologically and geographically disconnected depictions of similar paired scrolled patterns on Jewish artifacts exemplify the process of creating and recreating symbolic meanings based on the mimetic qualities of an image. In their various renditions and contexts, volutes in their resemblance to growing plant branches enacted visual references to the vital powers of nature as a promise for resurrection and a metaphor for the vitality of Judaism and the Mosaic law. The Jewish manifestations of symbolic scrolls emerged in surroundings that maintained classical architectural vocabulary containing volutes and shared the Christian topos of the flourishing cross visualized in its arboreal or vegetative renditions. This very act of construing of a non-narrative visual sign of a couple of spirals aims at reaffirming visual evidence as a meaningful source in its own right.

The Ten Commandments in Old Frisian: Their Form and Content

Abstract This study discusses the relationship amongst the five surviving versions of the Ten Commandments in Old Frisian, which are collectively preserved in eight manuscripts and in one incunable. These versions do not follow the Vulgate text verbatim, but rather include interferences from other texts. As the author intends to show, the compiler of the version of the Ten Commandments in the First Rüstring Manuscript aimed to produce a comprehensive list of precepts by including the Great Commandment, and had a source close to Honorius’s De decem plagis Aegypti spiritualiter at their disposal. The text in Haet is Riocht? may have influenced the vernacular rendition of the Mosaic Law preserved in Codex Aysma. Lastly, the versions preserved in the First and Second Hunsingo Manuscripts and one of the two versions attested by Codex Unia seem to be independent translations of a single Latin text, which survives in Unia.

“Skin Markings: Filtering COVID-19 Through Levitical and Black Lenses”

Kemp proposes a “3Ds of Blackness” theory, arguing that White supremacists have racialized the Genesis 4:15 “mark of Cain” to label Black bodies as dangerous, deviant, and depraved. This article offers Levitical and Black perspectives, extending Kemp’s scholarship and societal markings to include “diseased.” Exploring ancient biblical binaries of pollution/cleanness, profaneness/sanctity, defilement/purity, and comparing COVID-19 and its treatment mechanisms to skin diseases in Mosaic law, this article claims that structural racist modalities in the United States today treat Black skin as leprous and use justificatory devices to further this end through mass incarceration, poverty, healthcare, and education to keep Blacks “outside the camp.” Despite the quotidian of the relentless ferocity of these active forces, Blacks can historically and existentially claim the continuum of God’s “deliverance” as a “D” marked upon the diverse melanin-kissed shades of their skin.

Christene wat Joodse gebruike opneem: Die Hebrew Roots-leerstellings, beoordeel vanuit Handelinge 10:9-29, Handelinge 15:1-35 en Galasiërs 2 en pentekostalistiese hermeneutiek

Christians taking up Jewish Customs: The Hebrew Roots doctrines evaluated from Acts 10:9–29, Acts 15:1-35, Galatians 2, and Pentecostalist hermeneutics. Numerous Pentecostal and Christian adherents are encountering Hebrew Roots teachings, with a significant global presence, notably in the USA, Israel, Europe, South America, and South Africa. In 2012, the South had a substantial number of adherents. A prominent ministry, 119 ministries, offers an interactive map listing Hebrew Roots ministries worldwide. In South Africa, over 120 such ministries are listed, primarily in Gauteng and the Western Cape. Hebrew Roots proponents claim authenticity by reverting to Jewish and Mosaic roots, advocating adherence to Old Testament precepts, including rituals and customs. This article critically assesses these claims, focusing on key texts such as Acts 10:9-29, Acts 15:1-35, and Galatians 2, in the context of the Mosaic-Hebrew roots movement. This movement argues that non-Jewish Christians should observe the Mosaic laws integral to God’s covenant with Israel. Employing a comparative literature analysis and grammatical-historical exegesis, the study contrasts Pentecostal beliefs with those of the Hebrew Roots movement concerning non-Jewish Christians’ ethical responsibilities regarding the Mosaic laws. The article first outlines the historical evolution of the Hebrew Roots movement, emphasizing its theological foundations. Subsequent sections systematically analyse the scriptural passages, examining their influence on these movements’ doctrines through a Pentecostal hermeneutical lens. One central concern highlighted is the potential for Hebrew Roots teachings to challenge the exclusive role of Christ in salvation by emphasizing adherence to the Old Testament’s legal framework, raising questions about Christ’s divinity.Intradisciplinary/intradisciplinary implications: This research seeks to prompt a critical examination within the field of Dogmatics, specifically with regard to the precise delineation of a Christian’s obligations concerning the Mosaic Law, particularly in the context of the Decalogue.

John 8:3–11 and gender-based violence in Johane Marange Apostolic Church, Ruwa District, Zimbabwe

John 8:3–11 depicts the story of a woman who is condemned to death because she was caught in the act of adultery. The Pharisees and Scribes who condemned the woman cited Deuteronomy 22:23–24 and Leviticus 20:10 which prescribe death penalty for adultery. What begs answers through this hermeneutical study of the pericope from the lens of gender-based violence (GBV) in Johane Marange Apostolic Church, Ruwa District, in Zimbabwe, is why only the woman was picked for condemnation yet the cited Mosaic Law provides that both the man and the woman who engage in the act of adultery face capital punishment. The article interrogates the text to identify limbs or tentacles on which the decision by the Pharisees and Scribes to condemn only the woman leaving out the man stands. An exegetical study of the text is conducted to explore possible reasons behind the relegation of women to the receiving end of misogynistic socially constructed gender stereotypes. A qualitative methodological praxis fusing socio-historical method and qualitative analysis is engaged in analysing the Biblical Johannine and Johane Marange Apostolic Church Ruwa District communities, respectively. The article mirrors patriarchal tendencies in the Johane Marange Apostolic Church into the selective application of biblical doctrine between males and females depicted in the Johannine text of John 8:3–11. The article argues and concludes that, as reflected in John 8:3–11, GBV practices in Johane Marange Apostolic Church have sentenced women to sexual exploitation, rape, early child marriages and high maternal mortality rate.Contribution: The study recommends ways of cutting the tentacles of the acts of GBV being imposed on women in general, and on the girl child in particular.

Paul’s Jewish Addressee in Romans 2–4: Revisiting Recent Conversations

Abstract Several scholars (many of whom belong to the approach commonly labelled ‘Paul within Judaism’) have argued that in Romans 2:17 Paul does not address a Jew but a Gentile who believes he can ‘call’ himself ‘a Jew’ because he has been circumcised and adopted customs from the Mosaic Law. These scholars claim that identifying the addressee as a Gentile dramatically affects the interpretation of Romans by shifting a purported Pauline critique of ‘legalism,’ Jewish ‘ethnocentrism’, or ‘Judaism’ to the more accurate critique of gentile transgression and Judaizing. These scholars have rightly noted that the identification of the addressee as a Jew in 2:17 has often been assumed rather than argued. This article responds to common arguments made for a Gentile addressee, provides a positive case that the figure is Jewish, and argues that a Jewish addressee can be accommodated within an interpretation of Rom. 2–4 that does not interpret Paul’s indictment in terms of ‘legalism,’ Jewish ‘ethnocentrism’, or ‘Judaism’, but as an address to a Jewish kinsman of the sinful generation of ‘the last days’ that precedes the national restoration.

Knowledge and Truth: Romans 2:20 and the Use of the Mosaic Law in Paul

Abstract: This article focuses on Rom 2:20, which states that in the Mosaic law one has “the form [μόρφωσις] of knowledge and truth.” As a statement about what the law is and not merely about its effects under the tyranny of sin, this verse is potentially significant for discussions of Paul’s view of the law. Yet it is rarely treated in such discussions, and little work has been done on the key term μόρφωσις. In this article, I exegete the verse in its context and with attention to questions about Paul’s view of the law; this study adds philological data on the lexeme in question, concluding with reflections on the word’s significance for understanding how Paul views the law’s instructive value in Christ.

The Problem of Monogamy vs. Polygamy and Its Regulation in the Mosaic Law as well as in Later Jewish and Christian Commentaries

The essential difference between the Jewish and the Christian traditions is, that the Mosaic Law, the Torah has been regarded in Judaism as a legal and state-creating, constituent factor, i.e. as a source of law; whereas in the Christian tradition, in accordance with the strict hermeneutic specified in the epistles of the Apostle Paul, it is not binding on non-Jewish believers and is only of a teaching nature. All the other books of the Old Testament are understood by both traditions as commentaries of divine origin and authority for the correct interpretation of the Torah, while the rest of the Jewish commentary literature on the whole Old Testament from antiquity to the present is known collectively as rabbinic literature. A – Christian – commentary of the Torah is also the New Testament itself, which also has divine authority in the Christian tradition. Through the Pauline hermeneutic, the Mosaic Law could only have influenced indirectly the development of medieval European ecclesiastical and secular legal systems as wisdom literature and exemplary texts reinterpreted by the New Testament, and not as a direct source of law. This paper examines the question of monogamy and polygamy in Mosaic Law and its commentaries. The Torah suggests monogamy as an ideal state, while at the same time allowing polygamy both ethically and legally. Nowhere does the New Testament explicitly prohibit polygamy except in the case of presbyters. Therefore, there was already a debate on the issue even in antiquity, in the vast textual ocean of rabbinic tradition, but the clearly lenient Torah rules made the obligatory abolition of polygamy out of the question.

Augustine on Temporal Law and Virtue

ABSTRACT Augustine is typically interpreted as having believed that temporal laws cannot help people become virtuous and thus are not deficient for failing to do so. In this respect, he is seen as out of step with much of ancient political philosophy and a precursor to modern liberal legal theory. However, examining Augustine’s analyses of two temporal legal systems – Roman law and Mosaic law – reveals this interpretation to be false. Augustine believed that laws should help their followers become virtuous and offered a mechanism by which this happens. The standard interpretation has overlooked these concrete analyses in favor of Augustine’s programmatic claims about law. This paper therefore not only corrects a misreading and proposes a novel reading; it also suggests an alternative method for studying ancient legal thought.

The Law of the Gospel: Shifting Interpretations of a Temple Covenant throughout Latter-day Saint History

The Law of the Gospel: Shifting Interpretations of a Temple Covenant throughout Latter-day Saint History

The Enigma of the Antitheses

AbstractWhile it is easy to interpret the first and second of the Matthean Antitheses (5.21–30) as intensifications of the Mosaic law, it is difficult to interpret the remaining Antitheses (5.31–48) in this manner. In the history of interpretation, two main strategies have been adopted for dealing with these later Antitheses, the ‘rejected interpretation’ hypothesis and the revocation hypothesis. The ‘rejected interpretation’ hypothesis, however, is only plausible for the last Antithesis (5.43–8), which appends ‘and hate your enemy’ to the Levitical exhortation to love one's neighbour; in all other instances, the ‘thesis’ statement is either a biblical citation or a close paraphrase of one or more biblical passages. Although the revocation hypothesis has often been deployed in an anti-Jewish way, there is nothing intrinsically anti-Jewish about it; indeed, both biblical authors, such as the Deuteronomist and Ezekiel, on the one hand, and some rabbis, on the other, explicitly revise prior biblical laws while at the same time claiming to be changing nothing. Matthew does something similar when he introduces the revisionist Antitheses with a programmatic statement about the unchangeableness of the Law (5.17–20). The Matthean Jesus, then, is not ‘seconding Sinai’ but correcting it.

Sacred Spaces and Disability: African Women Theology of Disability as Pastoral Praxis

Generally, all religions in Africa including Christianity are numerically dominated by women, yet women experience exclusion and oppression in sacred spaces. This oppression and exclusion are worse for women and girls with disabilities due to the ableist theologies perpetuated in spaces of worship. This is enforced by the regulations that govern the physical structures and boundaries of spaces of faith. As a result, religious spatial politics is intertwined with how the body physically and spiritually conforms to the regulations of a certain religion. In conservative forms of Christianity, the regulations that govern the structures and boundaries are informed by the Mosaic law, in particular the Leviticus or holiness code that emphasises purity and holiness of the body. The naive hermeneutics of the holiness code is used to exclude a body with a disability from sacred spaces: the exclusion is visible for women and girls with disabilities, because of the feminisation of religion and ableist hermeneutics of religion. Written from an African women theology of disability approach, the aim of this article is to explore how women with disabilities negotiate their faith in ableist Christian spaces of worship and to describe African women theology of disability as a pastoral praxis that has a potential for promoting inclusion in Christian spaces.

What Are the Maccabean Insurgents Fighting For? The Theological Meaning of νομίμων in 1 Macc 3:21

In the discussed verse 1 Macc 3:21, there are two main motivations for the struggle of Judah Maccabee and his compatriots against the Seleucid army of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The text combines the struggle for the physical existence of Jews with the defence of native customs established on the foundations of the Mosaic Law. There is a clear indissolubility of life and faith in the Jewish consciousness. One cannot survive without one’s own religious tradition, which is the basis of national identity. This article aims to explore the meaning of the Greek adjective νόμιμος, -η, -ον, appearing in the analysed verse of the the book, as substantive (τὸ) νόμιμον, "custom" especially in the plural τὰ νόμιμα, "customs, usages, norms". This term will be presented from a theological and historical perspective in search of an answer to the question about its content and implied meaning in the speech of Judah to his countrymen before the beginning of the battle of Beth-Choron. This content will be both the justification of the struggle undertaken and its importance in the history of Israel in the middle of the 2nd century BC.

A „törvények uralma” a zsidó vallásjogban

In this paper, the issue of the “rule of law” is discussed within Jewish religious law (halakhah). My question is the following: how long can we talk about the rule of the Law of the Eternal – the Mosaic Law – and from when can we talk about the rule of human interpretations of the law, human conclusions and provisions drawn from it? The question is also particularly interesting because the mere reading of the Mosaic Law itself requires an interpretative approach due to the specific characteristics of the Hebrew language and the Hebrew text of the scrolls of the Torah. In order to discuss the trial issue, in my study I will examine the main features of the Written Torah, the necessity of its explaining, the creation of the Oral Torah, its categories, the most important authors, and their most basic works (Mishanh, Talmud etc.). I discuss the personalities of the legislators, – e.g., priest, judge, scribe, rabbi etc. – the nature of their authority, the most important legislative “organisations” (The Men of the Great Assembly, the Great Sanhedrin, smaller courts). The closer in time a Scripture-interpreter, decision-making generation is to the revelation at Mount Sinai, they are considered the more authoritative and unquestionable, and after the destruction of the Temple, decrees of smaller and smaller scope can be issued. At the same time, it seems that to keep the Jewish community united and to survive, the rabbis began to strictly regulate the life of the Jewish people with their decrees in ancient times already. However, in the course of history it has occurred – and is still a problem in some denominations nowadays – that human interpretations, opinions and decisions have overwritten even the original source, the Written Torah. This attitude is objected by several people, so in the course of history, trends that do not accept the Oral Torah were also created (e.g., Karaites), and mainly in the modern age, Judaism has fragmented into trends along the lines of questioning the authority of the Oral Torah. Actually, the different denominations give different answers to the question of how long the rule of the Eternal’s Law lasts, and from when we can talk about the rule of human opinions and decisions, so examining the attitude and halakhah of the different trends, the debates between these denominations can help us think more deeply about the issue.

Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature by Erin Alice Cowling

Reviewed by: Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature by Erin Alice Cowling MaryAnne Vetterling Cowling, Erin Alice. Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature. U of Toronto P, 2021. Pp. 214. ISBN 978-1-4875-2720-4. Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature provides an excellent overview of the complex early history of chocolate and its significance within the context of Pre-Columbian culture and Early Modern Spanish literature. It is about chocolate in its earliest form, as a drink made from cacao beans. In addition to its six chapters with their respective [End Page 619] introduction and conclusion, the book contains endnotes, an index, a bibliography with useful links, plus two appendices and an epilogue about a recent Spanish play (Mestiza by Julieta Soria) in which cacao beans have a significant role. The typographical errors are few although in Appendix 2, p.171 the word toras should be otras as in the original document (available online). This affects the English translation which is penalty of Mosaic Law and should rather be “other punishments.” Professor Cowling begins her book with a chapter about the history of chocolate in Pre-Columbian times and cites evidence of the important role it played before the arrival of the Conquistadores. She notes the discovery of ceramic vessels containing cacao residue from 600 B.C. and recounts references to chocolate in various extant codices to establish the importance of cacao in Pre-Columbian cultures as a ceremonial and medicinal substance. Chapter two unfolds a selection of texts written by the earliest Spaniards to encounter the New World whose accounts of chocolate consist of reports on the various ways it was used. We find out that for many of the indigenous peoples, cacao beans were an important unit of currency exchange and were also used as gifts. In addition, there are accounts of how chocolate was processed and of its properties, both medicinal and harmful. Cowling details a possible reference to chocolate in Columbus’s writings and mentions Cortés’s sampling of the drink. She also includes selections from historical documents by Díaz del Castillo, Sahagún, Acosta, and others. In the next chapter we are introduced to a number of passages from seventeenth-century Spanish literature wherein chocolate as a drink appears mainly in comedias and entremeses by authors such as Calderón, Tirso de Molina, and Salas Barbadillo, thereby showing how chocolate evolved from a drink of the rich and the socially ambitious at the start of the seventeenth century to a common commodity by its end. Cowling also deals with the economic aspect of cacao in the Old-World market as a precious commodity. Chapter four focuses on the play Santa Rosa del Perú by the Spaniards Moreto and Lanini y Sagredo, written in honor of the beatification of Saint Rose of Lima. Cowling first examines the ecclesiastical debates about the permissibility of drinking chocolate while fasting. She then offers a detailed analysis of the play and comments on Rosa’s use of chocolate to cure her illnesses, both physical and spiritual, as well as her servant’s persistent hunger and desire for the beverage. This chapter is enhanced by two illustrations, a still life by Pereda containing the instruments typically used for preparing chocolate drinks in Spain and a photo of a sixteenth-century statue in Mexico City dedicated to the “Christ of the Cacao Bean.” The following chapter presents information about controversies in historical and medical documents concerning chocolate as either a medicine or a poison. Documents by Cortijo Herraiz, Valverde Turices, Colmenero de Ledesma, and others are quoted to illustrate medical opinions about chocolate and its consumption in Spain. A passage from a French travel diary (1677) about being served chocolate at the home of a Spanish princess is included in addition to a segment from Mata’s 1747 cookbook. Woven into the chapter are also various selections from literature, the most interesting being a “Décima” published in 1729 by Cortijo Herraiz about the virtues of chocolate. Excerpts from fictional writings by Marradón, Quiñones de Benavente, and Santos, among others, demonstrate, according to Cowling, a clear trajectory...

An Iberian Covenant: Mosaic Law and Theology of Exile in Menasseh ben Israel’s Thought

An Iberian Covenant: Mosaic Law and Theology of Exile in Menasseh ben Israel’s Thought

Kant and Spinoza on the Old Covenant

Spinoza is often presented as an important source for Kant’s view on Judaism and the Old Testament. This claim is often made on the basis of the alleged affinity between the relevant ideas of the two thinkers. In this article, I agree with scholars who point out that Spinoza’s direct influence on Kant’s view of the Old Covenant can be doubted, and further argue that the substance of their ideas about the Hebrew Bible is fundamentally different. I discuss their views on biblical hermeneutics (here showing some affinity between them), the Mosaic law (its content and divinity), and especially the significance of Judaism for Christianity, where the discrepancy between Kant and Spinoza regarding the Old Covenant becomes particularly evident.

Review of Kevin DeYoung’s What does the Bible really teach about homosexuality?

In his book, “What does the Bible really teach about homosexuality?” theologian Kevin DeYoung compares his own conservative biblical hermeneutics to those of contemporary revisionists as it relates to homosexuality throughout the Bible in the following: Sodom and Gomorrah, Leviticus and the Mosaic Law – covenant, Romans 1:18-27, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1. In understanding these passages in the Bible, DeYoung concludes that homosexuality is immoral behavior, and that marriage should only be between one man and one woman. This contrasts with revisionists who argue that the homosexuality mentioned in the Bible was not the same as current same-sex relationships in committed contexts. The book is composed of two main parts. Although the book is written by a theologian, it is easy to read even in part 1 where DeYoung discusses his own biblical hermeneutics in simplest terms. Part 2 is objection handling which he does with graceful rebuttal. His conclusion is not about slamming those who might disagree with him (conservative vs. progressive), but rather exchanging potential discourse with grace while considering exegetical, historical, and theological conclusions. DeYoung includes an annotated bibliography of resources that are representative of his view, written in introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Good Life, Brave Death, and Earned Immortality: Features of a Neglected Ancient Virtue Discourse

AbstractThis article examines early Jewish ideas of virtue that are usually ignored in presentations of the history of virtue discourse. We analyze the use of the Greek term ἀρετή in the Apocrypha of the Septuagint; all the occurrences of the term are in texts that were originally composed in Greek. We argue that the discussion on virtues – ideal human qualities and ways of living – in the Apocrypha has three thematic foci: (1) training, (2) courage, and (3) suffering and itspostmortemrewards. Virtue prepares one to live well, encounter grave difficulties and even death with courage, and, finally, earn eternal life. We argue that it is implicit that virtuous Jews surpass, in ways that differ depending on the text, their more-or-less openly Greek antagonists who fail the virtue ideals that they would culturally be expected to uphold. Through their words and deeds, the exemplary Jews demonstrate that true virtue comes from a steadfast commitment to the Jewish tradition and the Mosaic law. Being a good Jew involves training that manifests itself in various desirable traits, but it also means acknowledging the divinity of the Jewish law as the basis of both the good life and thepostmortemconsequences of virtue.