An Emerging Account of Biblical Law: Common-Law Tradition in the Old and New Testaments

In this paper I expand the scope of my arguments in "Paul and the Law" to address the biblical law tradition as a whole.

Abstract: This paper will examine recent scholarship on the topic of bib- lical law in order to demonstrate that biblical law is best under- stood as a common-law tradition. After outlining long-standing questions in regard to the nature of law in the Hebrew Bible, I will argue for a complementarian rather than supersessionist view of law, following the work of Berman. The complemen- tarian perspective entails a common-law account of the nature of the law tradition as opposed to the ubiquitous and presupposed statutory view. I will then further develop Berman’s argument by appealing to Jackson’s semiotic hermeneutic for interpreting bib- lical law. As supporting evidence, I will examine several biblical texts where scholars have demonstrated the explanatory power of non-statutory interpretation. To flesh out the implications of the common law approach, I will discuss the pivotal role of judges using distinctions described by Reaume. Finally, I will provide evidence for the claim that this common-law view is applicable not only to the Hebrew Bible but also to the New Testament. These texts and scholarly viewpoints together provide compell- ing evidence that the biblical law tradition is a common-law tra- dition that operates not by the force of codified legislation but rather through the agency of judges shaped by the values of the tradition that is maintained in both major corpora of biblical texts.

"Biblical law is better understood as a common-law tradition rather than a statutory system. As such, it does not consist of codified laws but rather a rich tradition of judgements, coextensive with and subject to ongoing judicial pronouncement. Critically, this common-law tradition is not restricted to the Hebrew Bible, but continues to be exploited by New Testament authors as a resource for moral and ethical reasoning in order to justify their decisions about how to resolve the conflicts and dilemmas of their situations. Not only do Jesus and Paul exploit this tradition, but in so doing they maintain it, bringing it to bear on new and challenging circumstances." (p. 188)

Wishart, Ryder A. “An Emerging Account of Biblical Law: Common-Law Tradition in the Old and New Testaments.” McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry 18 (2017) 160–92.

This paper is available at the Journal's website, so just follow this link.