Thread by @JoelBaden

#Leviticus 19:9-18

Holiness laws, part 2

Here's a pretty terrific collection of ethical laws, in no obvious order, and many of them borrowed from other texts. It's like a greatest hits of ethical legal statements. And, oh yeah, it culminates with the golden rule.

It's probably worth saying that the golden rule is known as such only because of Jesus (or, for my Jews, Hillel). There's nothing in H, or anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible, to denote it as any more special or important than any other law.

Is it more special? It's certainly broader, and in that sense more useful. But it doesn't override any others - or if it does, that's an interpretive choice, not one dictated by the Bible itself. In an alternate universe, another law could have become "the golden rule."

So we should just keep in mind that "the golden rule" isn't a biblical thing (at least, it isn't a Hebrew Bible thing). It's a name given to a law that was deemed central in the history of interpretation, but not in the text itself. It's not a real thing.

I want to quickly just point out where all these laws come from, so we get a sense of the curatorial work being done here. Leaving the edges of the field and the fallen fruit of the vineyard for the poor and stranger (19:9-10) - that's Deut 24:19-22.

Not stealing, or lying, or swearing falsely by YHWH's name (19:11-12)? That's awfully Decalogue-like, which suggests that H is taking the Decalogue and breaking it up and interweaving it with other laws. Which says something about the status of the Decalogue for H.

Note that here, again, H translates the Decalogue into its own language and terms. The language of not dealing falsely with one another in 19:11 is borrowed not from the Decalogue, but from the ritual law of P, in Lev 5:21. Same with swearing falsely in 19:12 - see Lev 6:5.

Defrauding and robbing one's neighbor (19:13) - some of the language is from P, from Lev 5:21 and 23, but some isn't, like תלין, to keep overnight, which never appears in P, but is in both E and D laws. And Deut 24:14 seems an obvious source here.

Fair judgment (19:15), that's right out of the Covenant Code, Exod 23:1-3. Lots of borrowing here. But - also some innovations, and pretty famous ones, too.

Stumbling blocks in front of the blind? Don't hate your neighbor? No vengeance or grudge? THE GOLDEN RULE? All pure H.

H has, in other words, gathered together ethical legal statements from prior texts, and added to them its own (usually even broader) pronouncements, and collected it all under the label of "holiness" and "I am YHWH." It's a nice collection - and we're not done with it yet.