This chapter examines the biblical prophetic texts that refer to legal matters and thus raise important questions about what the authors of these speeches and texts had in mind with these references and how they relate, chronologically and theologically, to the laws of the Pentateuch.

This chapter covers rabbinic interpretations of biblical law and the different hermeneutical strategies used by the rabbis in these efforts. Rabbinic law in some cases can circumvent biblical law and in others demand greater attention and consequence than its scriptural counterpart.

This chapter examines the narrative scheme surrounding each collection and how the god Yhwh is drawn as a character in each source, speaking in an array of cadences and registers that conjure their associated types of speakers. Rather than biblical law making Israelite law into divine speech, biblical literature presents all forms of divine speech as fully compelling law.

This chapter looks at the legal texts from ancient Greece and Crete and connections they may share with biblical law. The Greek laws offer rich comparative material for legal problems in a geographically and culturally adjacent area and contribute to a better understanding of the social interactions and administrative structures in and around the Mediterranean.

This chapter considers the debate over biblical law and the so-called wisdom literature (mainly Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes), as well as questions about whether biblical law derives from early wisdom sayings or vice versa. It also shows how we lack information necessary to answer other related questions.

The introduction presents key ideas and terminology and answers several questions that will help readers understand the other chapters in the volume. It also explains important distinctions around the concept of biblical law and the pitfalls of reading it from a modern perspective.

This chapter introduces the biblical law collections or codes: the Ten Commandments, the Covenant Collection, the Priestly Collection, the Holiness Collection, and the Deuteronomic Collection. It examines whether they come from a particular source, whether they should be considered mainly legal or literary works, and whether later collections sought to revise or reinterpret earlier ones.

This chapter looks at the interpretations of biblical law produced by early Christian writers and how they sought to distinguish themselves from what they saw as a Jewish approach to the Hebrew Bible and to biblical law in particular.

This chapter describes the law collections from the region such as the Laws of Hammurabi and the other types of extant legal documents such as contracts and trial records. It also explains how this evidence helps us understand the historical context of biblical law and how comparative analysis contributes to its study.

This chapter explains the legal metaphors used in the poems and prayers in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. It shows how these metaphors reflect an understanding of God and his relations to humanity that is grounded in a legal, even litigious, perspective. It shows how and why individuals would appeal to the divine court in their quest for justice.

This chapter examines the texts surviving from Qumran and the surrounding area and how their tradents understood the nature of biblical law. It will identify and describe the interpretive strategies reflected in the scrolls for both harmonization and creative reuse of biblical law.

This chapter explores how biblical law is treated in the gospels, in Paul, and in other New Testament texts. It shows how recent scholarship has demonstrated that Jesus and Paul treat the law in more positive fashion than they are usually given credit for.

This chapter examines laws governing witnesses at trial and their testimony as well as other rules related to legal procedure. It also looks at how these topics figure in a number of psalms and in prophetic literature, since the relationship of individuals and even entire nations to Yahweh is often depicted in legal terms.