Table Of ContentETHICS IN ANCIENT ISRAEL
Ethics in Ancient
Israel
JOHN BARTON
1
3
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In Memory of Ernest Nicholson
Foreword
I have worked on ethics in relation to the Old Testament since my doctoral
dissertation, ‘God and Ethics in the Eighth-Century Prophets’, presented in
1974. My supervisor for that was John Austin Baker, who first aroused my
interest in the subject when he set me an essay on ‘Old Testament Ethics’ as
myOldTestamenttutorin1967.Iremainverygratefultohimforallhetaught
meaboutthisandmanyotherareasoftheology.
Writing this book was made possible by a Leverhulme Major Research
Fellowshipfrom2010–13,whichboughtoutallmyteachingandadministra-
tion for that period, and it is a pleasure to express my gratitude to the
Leverhulme Trust for their generosity. I am also hugely grateful to Dr John
Jarick,whodeputizedformesoablyduringthatperiod.
Warmest thanks to Tom Perridge, Lizzie Robottom, and Karen Raith at
Oxford University Press for all their work on the book, and to the Press’s
anonymousreadersforhelpfulandconstructivesuggestionsforimprovingit.
HollyMorsecompiledthebibliographyandindex,andIammostgrateful
toherforundertakingthistask,atthesametimeboringanddemanding.
The work of a number of my former doctoral students who have worked
withmeonethicalthemesovertheyearshasmadeabigimpressiononmany
oftheargumentshere:amongthemIwouldmentionespeciallyProfessorPaul
Joyce,DrAndrewMein,DrSungminMinChun,andDrCarlyCrouch.
Quotations from the Bible are from the New Revised Standard Version
(NRSV), Anglicized Edition, unless otherwise specified. After some thought,
Ihavefreelyusedthename‘Yahweh’fortheGod/godworshippedinancient
Israel.Thereisacase,outofreverenceforJewishsensitivitytousingthename
of God, for eschewing it altogether, or printing it in the at least slightly
reverential, ‘unvocalized’ form YHWH. But in a book about ancient Israel,
forwhichtheOldTestament/HebrewBibleishistoricalevidenceratherthana
sacredtext,Ithinkitbettertowritethenamestraightforwardlyintheformit
isgenerallythoughttohavetakeninthetimebeforeitspronunciationbecame
taboo, just as one writes Zeus, Enlil, Chemosh, or Thoth. At the same time,
there are clearly many places in the Hebrew Bible where the name is not
treatedexactlyasapersonalname,butmoreasasynonymforthesingleGod
in whom at least some in ancient Israel believed, and hence I have also used
‘God’,withacapitalG,wherethatseemsappropriate,justasthebiblicaltexts
oftenuse’elohim.
There are many quotations from German sources, and a few from French
ones,andinaccordwithOxfordUniversityPresspolicytheseappearonlyin
viii Foreword
Englishtranslation.Exceptwherethequotationsareattributedtoapublished
Englishtranslation,theyaremyown.
I dedicate the book to the memory of Ernest Nicholson, my colleague and
close friend for over thirty years, who died as it was being completed. He
supported me in more ways than I can say, and he and Hazel have been the
best of friends. The influence of his own superb work will be very clear to
many readers, but it is his personal kindness that I and so many others will
rememberevenmore.
JohnBarton
OrielCollege,Oxford
December2013
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the following for permission to include material from previ-
ouslypublishedarticles:BloomsburyPublishingplcforexcerptsfrom‘Virtue
intheBible’,StudiesinChristianEthics12/1,1999,pp.12–22and‘Prophecy
andTheodicy’,inJ.J.AhnandS.L.Cook(eds),ThusSaystheLord:Essayson
the Former and Latter Prophets in Honor of Robert R. Wilson, New York &
London: T & T Clark International, 2011, pp. 73–86; Cambridge University
Press for excerpts from ‘Imitation of God in the Old Testament’, in
R. P. Gordon (ed.), The God of Israel, 2007, pp. 35–46; and Ergon Verlag
for excerpts from ‘Evil and the Dark Side of God in the Old Testament’, in
P.FiddesandJ.Schmidt(eds),RhetorikdesBösen/TheRhetoricofEvil,2013,
pp.1–22.
Description:Ethics in Ancient Israel is a study of ethical thinking in ancient Israel from around the eighth to the second century BC. The evidence for this consists primarily of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha, but also other ancient Jewish writings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and various anonymo
