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1 Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.,towards Old Testament Ethics (Zondervan Publishing House:Grand Rapids, 1991) .p2

The document discusses Old Testament ethics and morality. It notes that Old Testament morality is connected to the religion and theology it is associated with. While it has deontological aspects, it can best be characterized as a responsibility ethics where people are free but responsible to obey God's commands. The commands in Leviticus emphasize following God's decrees and obeying commands. This captures the true spirit of Old Testament ethics.

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Arun Stanley
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179 views

1 Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.,towards Old Testament Ethics (Zondervan Publishing House:Grand Rapids, 1991) .p2

The document discusses Old Testament ethics and morality. It notes that Old Testament morality is connected to the religion and theology it is associated with. While it has deontological aspects, it can best be characterized as a responsibility ethics where people are free but responsible to obey God's commands. The commands in Leviticus emphasize following God's decrees and obeying commands. This captures the true spirit of Old Testament ethics.

Uploaded by

Arun Stanley
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ETHICS:

Old Testament morality is never different from the religion and the
theology of that religion to which it is in connection with therefore
according to William B. Greene the irreligious men are immoral
men and the immoral men are the irreligious men. 1 It envisage of
duty as what God tells man to do and considers virtue as
obedience to Gods command yet people are both free and
responsible to obey therefore if tried to characterize Old
Testament ethics under the philosophical ethics for our
understanding although it sounds more of deontological in nature
it could be more of responsibility ethics as the people are both
free and responsible to obey as we see in Lev.26.3, 26.14, 18, 21,
23 ,27 all begin with the phrase If you follow my decree and are
careful to obey my command . This brings out the true spirit of
the Old Testament Ethics

BIBLICAL RESPONSE:
When we consider a God who proposes to bless all nations
through Abraham we tend to question all the conquest that Israel
undertook and the passages that we come across in the Bible to
justify the claims that many of us understand from the plain
readings of the word of God that the Bible uses violence .There is
mention of the promise to bless six times and yet the Canaanites
suffer at the hands of Israel who had to be their source of their
blessing
The first to note is that the blessing mentioned in the Bible is for
eschatological purpose and the judgment that is imposed was not
by the peoples choice where as they were instrumental in what
God intended Gods ultimate purpose to bless all nation does not
1 Walter c. Kaiser, jr.,Towards Old Testament ethics (Zondervan Publishing
House:Grand rapids,1991).p2

exempt anyone to the act of judgment including the Israelites


Gods overarching commitment to bless Israel did not prevent
God from taking action on a particular generation of Israel within
history.2
Similar to a parent reprimanding the children from going wrong.
The conquest of Canaan described is just one event of a long
history many others instances has no divine sanctions the
incident cannot be interpreted as purging of that race rather a
moral punishment for the degraded society. The wickedness of
Canaan is recognized far back in the book of Geneses 15:16 Lev.
18&20, Duet.9.5, 12.29-31 explains the level of their fall they go
to the extent of sexual promiscuity ,perversion ,child sacrifice and
so on .3There is a mention of the land itself will vomit this
happens not only to the Canaanites being displaced but Israel too
faces the same when she fails to execute justice to the people of
her land therefore there is no promotion of a single race to the
level of superiority or no war or violence is promoted in the book
of the Bible .The exile of the people of God who claim exclusivist
as chosen community under Abrahamic covenant the only one
who has claim over the promises of blessing who claim to be
strong proves the fairness of Gods justice to all humankind .The
Biblical understanding of the self is to be a blessing to others. The
Abrahamic covenant brings the understanding that Israel exists
for others and she is only a channel.
The use of the Hebrew bible could be both abusive or productive
it all depends on how we reread the Abrahamic covenant or of
how we see the promise of land, Nation, Name ,You shall be a

2 Christopher J. H. Wright,Old Testament Ethics For The People Of God, (Inter varsity
Press:Leicester,2004).p473
3 Christopher J. H. Wright,Old Testament Ethics For The People Of God, (Inter varsity
Press:Leicester,2004).p476

blessing does this represent only Israel (self) or it includes all the
families of the earth
The traditional understanding of the church has been the church
compound mentality derived from this verse but Israels existence
is basically for setting an example for others, a channel of Gods
blessing it is not for the self to be in blessed state on top of all
others. The understanding of the Tribe also denotes to the self like
being separated, better, stronger, large in number, self sustained
and so on but the biblical understanding is to be a blessing to
others
The traditions in conflict in the Hebrew Bible are Conquest and
liberation, slaves in Egypt and masters in Canaan. The biblical
understanding of libration is social justice. The Israelites
themselves, of course, began their national history as an ethnic
minority in Egypt, suffering all the horrors of political, economic
and social oppression, culminating in state sponsored genocide
(ex. 1). For that reason they were told to pay particular attention
to the vulnerability of ethnic minorities in their midst (Ex. 22:21)
since the Israelites were liberated there were different kinds of
moral code of conduct and ethics they were meant to be
liberators for liberation and not for oppression. The understanding
of Peace differs from Hebrew Bible than to what we understand in
modern terms. To us peace may mean living without conflict but
in the Old Testament context it means to do Gods will to fulfill the
law which in turn means to feed the hungry, to take stand with
the poor, to pay wages on time not to hold money to self, share
ones possession with others, not to charge interest for debt .
Debt accumulates, leading to loss of land, and drives people into
deepening cycles of poverty.
The charging of interest
exacerbates the problem (Ex. 22:25) so do royal taxation,
confiscation
and
conscription.
Economic
and
social
powerlessness to gatherer in the situation graphically described.
Debt could lead to slavery. On the other hand, the mechanisms to

relieve debt could be abused, or people could be refused loans


because of their imminence of the date of cancellation. Lenders
could abuse their power by unscrupulous demands. Employers
could exploit the most vulnerable section of the workforce the
casual day laborers - delayed payment of wages. 4conflict in
opposition may lead to different kinds of oppression like ideology,
religious stand , classism, ordination ,racism, intolerance,
patriarchy, matriarchy, castism, power idea language and so on
but the Hebrew Bible emphasizes not on abusive pattern of life
rather peace and justice which is the core message imbibed init .

4 Rev .Dr.Praveen Paul ,classnotes expanded and explained from 9/11.1610/11/2016.

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