The Interpretation of Legal Traditions in Ancient Israel

This article argues that each of the three discrete law collections in the Pentateuch (the Covenant Code, the Holiness Code, and the Deuteronomic Code) possesses a distinctive approach to interpreting legal traditions. The article focuses on the interpretation of longstanding traditions that circulated in the broader ancient Near East. It looks at how the pentateuchal collections respond to expressions of these traditions in other biblical and cuneiform texts. It maintains that the Covenant Code discloses a traditional mode of interpretation, the Deuteronomic Code engages in an interpretive approach of redirection and expansion, and the Holiness Code promotes the interpretation of redefinition.