Hate and Enmity in Biblical Law

This book explores patterns of hate-driven feuding in kinship-based and segmentary societies and applies these insights to biblical law, defining the fundamental categories of enmity, love, revenge, honor, and shame in the context of feuding and illustrating legal actions such as giving false witness. It proposes that we should understand hate between individuals as a legal construct that becomes visible when lived out as private enmity, a social status that exhibits distinct hallmarks.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 16 June 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Enmity between individuals was a pervasive phenomenon throughout the ancient world. This book employs the method of legal anthropology to investigate patterns of hate-driven feuding in kinship-based and segmentary societies and applies these insights to biblical law. It defines the fundamental categories of enmity, love, revenge, honor, and shame within the context of feuding and illustrates specific legal actions, such as giving false witness, as expressions of hateful relationships. Adam suggests that we should understand hate between individuals as a legal construct that becomes visible when lived out as private enmity, a social status that exhibits distinct hallmarks. In kinship-based societies, private hate or enmity was publicly declared and known to one's own kin and beyond. Private enmity was enacted in feud-like patterns, with opponents having the flexibility to choose various measures to harm their opponent. Acting out hate was reciprocal, often escalating and expanding into one party's attempt to kill the other and initiate a blood feud. Furthermore, private enmity was "transitive" in the sense that opponents at enmity naturally expected solidarity from kin and friends.

Adam employs textual analysis to illustrate how the legal construct of hate informs biblical law, ranging from the Covenant Code to Deuteronomic and Priestly Legislation, including the Holiness Code. He also demonstrates how hate forms the backdrop of conflict settlement. Ultimately, by tracing back through the category of private hate and enmity, this book unpacks the meaning of the quintessential command to "Love your neighbor!"

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780567681898