Animals in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law: Tort and Ethical Laws

Breier, Idan

doi:10.5406/janimalethics.8.2.0166

Cited by 4 publications

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References 2 publications

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“…It is not always clear how the authors of these laws conceptualized animals and the rationales for human treatment of animals. Breier (2018) provides a comparison between animal-related laws in the Hebrew Bible and in other ancient Near Eastern law codes ( Code of Hammurabi, Middle Assyrian Laws, Hittite Laws ). He separates the legal materials into tort laws in which animals are the objects of legal concern and are treated (primarily) as property, and ethical or humane laws which express potential concern for the well-being of the animals themselves.…”

Section: Animals In Ritual and Legal Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hebrew Bible and the ‘Animal Turn’

Sherman

2020

Currents in Biblical Research

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Animal Studies refers to a set of questions which take seriously the reality of animal lives, past and present, and the ways in which human societies have conceived of those lives, related to them, and utilized them in the production of human cultures. Scholars of the Hebrew Bible are increasingly engaging animals in their interpretive work. Such engagement is often implicit or partial, but increasingly drawing directly on the more critical aspects of Animal Studies. This article proceeds as a tour through the menagerie of the biblical canon by exploring key texts in order to describe and analyze what Animal Studies has brought to the field of Biblical Studies. Biblical texts are grouped into the following categories: animals in the narrative accounts of the Torah, legal and ritual texts concerning animals, animal metaphors in the prophets, and wisdom literature and animal life. The emergence and application of zooarchaeological research and a number of studies focusing on specific animal species will be discussed. Sustained attention will be given to two recent works which have brought Animal Studies into the fractured fold of biblical scholarship more directly. Finally, I will suggest some future directions for the study of the Hebrew Bible in light of Animal Studies.

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Section: Animals In Ritual and Legal Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hebrew Bible and the ‘Animal Turn’

Sherman

2020

Currents in Biblical Research

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Cross-Over Diseases and Constructions of Difference: Pigs and Pandemics in Jewish Sources

Crane

2022

Rev. Rabbin. Jud.

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Concerns about zoonotic diseases and efforts to differentiate between groups intertwine at the intersection of critical animal studies, biomobility and epidemic discourses, and religious studies. Using the case in rabbinic literature of pandemics moving from pigs to humans, this study unfolds in historical stages. Period I, “Flesh” (3rd C to 12th C), considers the issues at hand: a pandemic, pigs, the question of what to do and why. Period II, “Metaphor” (12th C to 16th C), turns pigs into metaphors for sociopolitical concerns, to make strong distinctions between sets of humans. Period III, “Science” (16th C to 20th C), argues that evidence should help inform decisions of what to do in the face of a zoonotic pandemic. The conclusion, “Directions,” considers first the possibility of reverse-zoonosis, of human infecting animals, before offering reflections for several fields of study.

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Animal Studies and Ancient Judaism

Berkowitz

2019

Currents in Biblical Research

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Animal studies has its origins in philosophy but extends to all fields of the humanities, especially literature, history, and anthropology. The central concern of animal studies is how human beings perceive other species and themselves as one among them. Animal studies in ancient Judaism has generally not been undertaken in a critical mode, with notable and increasing exceptions. This article covers work from the past decade (2009–2019) that deals centrally with animals, from ancient Israel to late antiquity, spanning the Hebrew Bible, apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, library of Qumran, rabbinic literature, and material culture. Topics addressed are animal sacrifice and consumption; literary depictions of animals; studies of individual animal species; archaeology and art featuring animals; animal ethics, theology, and law; and critical theoretical approaches to species difference. The conclusion considers future directions for animal studies in ancient Judaism.

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Animals in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law: Tort and Ethical Laws

Cited by 4 publications

References 2 publications

The Hebrew Bible and the ‘Animal Turn’

The Hebrew Bible and the ‘Animal Turn’

Cross-Over Diseases and Constructions of Difference: Pigs and Pandemics in Jewish Sources

Animal Studies and Ancient Judaism

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