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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Leviticus 25’S History Of Inspiring Freedom As A Moral Challenge To Literary-Historical Interpretation, James Watts
Leviticus 25’S History Of Inspiring Freedom As A Moral Challenge To Literary-Historical Interpretation, James Watts
Religion - All Scholarship
Though Leviticus 25’s description of the Jubilee sounds unrealistically utopian to many biblical scholars, the Jubilee ideal has stimulated many movements for freedom and economic reform in the last 500 years. It most famously motivated enslaved people to resist and abolitionists to challenge the institution of slavery. Today it continues to inspire reform movements for land redistribution and fair housing, for sovereign debt relief, and for developing environmentally sustainable economies. The contrast between scholarly assessments of the chapter’s meaning in its literary and ancient historical contexts and its proven power to inspire movements for freedom that were unimaginable to its …
The Historical Role Of Leviticus 25 In Naturalizing Anti-Black Racism, James Watts
The Historical Role Of Leviticus 25 In Naturalizing Anti-Black Racism, James Watts
Religion - All Scholarship
Leviticus 25:39–46 describes a two-tier model of slavery that distinguishes Israelites from foreign slaves. It requires that Israelites be indentured only temporarily while foreigners can be enslaved as chattel (permanent property). This model resembles the distinction between White indentured slaves and Black chattel slaves in the American colonies. However, the biblical influence on these early modern practices has been obscured by the rarity of citations of Lev. 25:39–46 in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources about slavery. This article reviews the history of slavery from ancient Middle Eastern antiquity through the seventeenth century to show the unique degree to which early modern …
Drawing Lines: A Suggestion For Addressing The Moral Problem Of Reproducing Immoral Biblical Texts In Commentaries And Bibles, James Watts
Religion - All Scholarship
Some verses of Leviticus express norms that explicitly conflict with the legal and ethical teachings of contemporary Jewish and Christian denominations, and also with the laws of modern nations. Among them are texts mandating that readers treat some other people in ways now widely regarded as immoral, cruel, inhumane, and exploitative—texts that call for and / or have historically justified genocide, indiscriminate capital punishment, slavery, and the subjugation of women by men. National and international law today declares most of these behaviors illegal and subject to criminal prosecution. The moral problem for commentators and publishers is that, by publishing bibles …