Essay su Deuteronomio 21:78

Another memorable addition to Israel’s law corpus, the case described here stands in stark contrast to the way things are done in contemporary society For us, an unsolved murder is a matter of intellectual curiosity, a puzzle to be unraveled on a television screen; in biblical Israel, innocent blood had to be atoned for by the entire group when the perpetrator went unfound. In the biblical view (as in that of other ancient societies), crime or wrongdoing was seen as completely disruptive, a threat to the well-being of the very cosmos. Here atonement is made via a public confession and the death of an animal—not with the usual “decontaminating” use of sacrificial blood but with a death that symbolically atones for the death of the murder victim.

The situation of the female captive recalls the opening chapters of the Iliad, where it forms a key motif. Here, though, rather than the pride and anger of great warriors being at stake, it is the woman’s humanity that is central. She is allowed to mourn her family, and retains her dignity to the extent that she cannot be sold as a slave if her husband eventually rejects her.

A tension that is played out in the Jacob and Joseph stories in Genesis, the conflict between two wives and their sons must have been a troubling reality in the polygamous ancient Near East. This could be conventionally solved by a father’s selection of the “firstborn,” but note the brake put on the father’s absolute control (Frymer-Kensky 1992a).

Part of creating any ordered society involves continuity between the generations. Even so, this law seems to us to be “cruel and unusual punishment.” It becomes more understandable in the context of Deuteronomy’s transfer of power from parents (who have a choice here to report their son) to elders, that is, to society at large (see Marcus). The behavior of this son is regarded as a threat, not only to his family, but to the entire community (Frymer-Kensky 1992a). The law may also be, in its intensity, a reflection of the God-Israel relationship (see Psalms 78:8, Jer. 5:23) (Greenstein, personal communication).