The Laws of the Imperialized
Understanding Exodus 19-24 as a Response to Imperial Legal Traditions
Published on 30. April 2024
306 pages
978-1-78641-004-7 (ISBN)
Description
Being the first legal corpus in the biblical canon, Exodus 19-24 is a law collection that belonged to a people living under the shadow of empire. Using an integrated approach of postcolonial studies and historical-comparative analysis, this important study analyzes the relationship between the laws given to the Israelites on Mount Sinai and cuneiform law collections. Dr. Anna Lo skillfully integrates postcolonial understandings of the colonized people to explore how the similarities and differences reflect the imperialized authors' wrestling with the imperial legal metanarrative and subjugation of their time. This investigation into the dynamic of acceptance, ambivalence, and resistance invites attention to this selection of Scripture as a work of conservative revolutionists. Dr. Lo's thorough work provides an important way forward for scholars to consider responses of the imperialized to empires in the past as well as to reflect on their own response to hegemonic domination today.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Chung Man Anna Lo
The Laws of the Imperialized
Understanding Exodus 19-24 as a Response to Imperial Legal Traditions
Book
04/2024
Langham Academic
€35.40
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Content
- Intro
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Topic
- Methods and Historical Context (Chapters 1-2)
- Scope and Key Arguments (Chapters 3-5)
- CHAPTER 1 Responses of the Imperialized to Empires
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 Characteristics of Colonized Peoples' Discourse in General
- 1.2.1 Hybridity as a Key Characteristic
- 1.2.2 Motivation Behind, Outcome of, and Approaches of Hybridity
- 1.2.3 Hybridity of Colonized Elites
- 1.3 Legal Discourse of the Colonized
- 1.3.1 Importance of Law to the Colonized
- 1.3.2 Hegemony and Resistance in the Legal Discourse of the Colonized and their Elites
- 1.3.3 Colonized Peoples' Responses to Colonizers' Legal Discourse
- 1.3.4 Continuity and Discontinuity of Colonizers' Legal Discourse
- 1.4 Implications for Analysis of Exodus 19-24
- 1.4.1 Musa W. Dube's Analysis of Exodus as an Imperializing Text
- 1.4.2 Gale A. Yee's Postcolonial Analysis of Exodus 19-20 and Related Passages
- 1.4.3 Shiju Mathew's Postcolonial Womanist Reading of the Book of the Covenant
- 1.4.4 R. S. Wafula's Postcolonial Analysis of Exodus
- 1.5 Chapter Conclusions
- CHAPTER 2 Relationship of Exodus 19-24 to Cuneiform Law Collections
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Meta-Traditions, Direct Dependence, or Response of the Imperialized?
- 2.2.1 Key Concerns in Previous Studies
- 2.2.2 Recent Focus on the Criteria for Determining the Relationship
- 2.2.3 Trace of Attention to Authors' Social Location and Complex Characteristics
- 2.2.4 A Postcolonial Understanding and Propositions of this Study
- 2.3 Relationship of the People of Israel and Judah to Empire
- 2.3.1 Dating of Exodus 19-24
- 2.3.2 The Assyrians and the People of Israel and Judah
- 2.4 Purposes of Exodus 19-24
- 2.4.1 Law Used in Court
- 2.4.2 Scribal Exercise
- 2.4.3 Judicial References
- 2.4.4 Wisdom-Moral Teachings
- 2.4.5 Propaganda with Religious Features
- 2.4.6 Multiple Purposes
- 2.4.7 Legal Discourse of the Imperialized
- 2.5 Authors' Social Lo cation and Positions toward the Empire
- 2.6 Chapter Conclusions
- CHAPTER 3 Slaves and Women in the Ordinances (Exodus 21:2-22:16)
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 Ordinances on Slaves
- 3.2.1 Priority of the Ordinances
- 3.2.2 Release and Permanent Servitude
- 3.2.3 Physical Assault
- 3.2.4 Other Possibly Related Ordinances
- 3.3 Ordinances on Women
- 3.3.1 Assaults against Parents (Exodus 21:15, 21:17)
- 3.3.2 Physical Assault against Pregnant Women (Exodus 21:22-25)
- 3.3.3 Seduction of Unbetrothed Maidens (Exodus 22:15-16)
- 3.4 Chapter Conclusions
- CHAPTER 4 Yhwh, the Marginalized, and Enemies in the Commandments (Exodus 20:23-21:1 and 22:17-23:33)
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Services to Yhwh or the Gods
- 4.3 Care for the Marginalized
- 4.4 Fighting against Enemies
- 4.5 Chapter Conclusions
- CHAPTER 5 Yhwh, Moses, and the People in the Narrative (Exodus 19:1-20:22 and 24:1-18)
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 Gods, Human Leaders, and the People in the Pronouncement of the Law
- 5.3 Chapter Conclusions
- CHAPTER 6 Conclusions
- 6.1 From the Colonized in Modern Contexts to the Imperialized in Israel and Judah
- 6.2 The Wrestling of the Imperialized
- 6.3 Implications
- Bibliography
