A Just Society: Biblical Prose I
by the Rev. AJ Ochart
Scripture
Sermon Notes
This week we continue the Summer Sermon Series, ‘How to Read the Bible’ based on the Bible Project series by the same name.
This week is the penultimate (second to last) sermon in the How to Read the Bible series, where we will consider the third most common literary style found in our scriptures, prose or discourse. Much like narrative and poetry, we encounter prose and discourse all over the place in the world around us. We read prose in things like a newspaper article, Wikipedia page, or non-fiction writing. Discourse is the more persuasive version of this, less “just the facts ma’am” and more “let me convince you of my perspective.” We encounter discourse in opinion pieces and in political, theological, or philosophical writing.
This week, we will specifically look at the biblical prose that we call “Law.” Again, we have a passing understanding of law in our world, especially when pulled over or having to fill out paperwork. However we don’t usually snuggle under the blanket with a cup of tea and ‘Section 1983 Litigation’ or ‘Federal Income Taxation of Corporations and Stockholders’. The way that law reads and functions in the modern context is very different to the way that it did in the ancient world (though you may still not want to snuggle up with it).
Our modern Law is what is called “Statutory,” in which the written law code is itself the authority, it is (ideally) the objective standard of what justice is. Statutory law lays out every conceivable situation either through specific statute, or a preservation of ‘case law’ (situations in which the standing laws were applied to a unique case, creating ‘precedent’ for future judgements). In our system, the Law is (ideally) created by the Legislative branch of the government, and interpreted by the Judicial branch. This form of Law is also extensive, for instance the Internal Revenue Code (Tax Law) created by congress would take up about 6,871 pages, if you included the regulations, rulings, guidance, and judicial decisions that interpret and apply those statutes, it would take up around 75,000 pages.
Ancient law, however is what we call ‘Common Law’ in which the written Law is a reflection of an understanding of ‘justice’ outside of itself. As such, this type of law is not binding in the way that statutory law is, and does not claim to cover every possible outcome. This type of law provides examples of the types of judgements that should be made in order to illustrate the ways that justice should be applied. Sometimes it is harsh (for instance, the suggested penalty for disobeying your parents is death), but there is no evidence that this was taken as more than hyperbole. This type of law also does not require the type of specificity that statutory law has (for instance, there is a specific law about dealing with an oxen who kills someone, but the same logic could be applied to a bull). One way to understand the distinction is to remember that ‘Torah’ the word we translate as ‘Law,’ could also be translated as ‘instruction.’
These laws in the narrative of the Hebrew scriptures are presented as terms of a Covenantal relationship between God and their people. It is less about ‘these are the things I don’t want you to do, or else’ and more like ‘to have and to hold, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health.’ The Law, and larger Torah presents a picture of what a just society should look like. This picture is reflected on, deepened, and applied to the leaders of Israel and Judah by the prophets later in the Hebrew Scriptures. This image is held up by Jesus of Nazareth, who opposed the religious leaders of his day who were treating this wisdom instruction as statutory ‘Law’. This divine picture of righteousness and justice continues to call us to a new way of thinking about the relationship we have with our Creator, those around us, and creation itself.
If you would like to explore the topic of Biblical Prose more, please see the following notes (As before, these notes on prose/discourse will be used for this week and next week, so you have some time to go through it).
