Understanding Old Testament Ethics: Approaches and Explorations

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Westminster John Knox Press, Jan 1, 2003 - Religion - 212 pages

How can we best understand the different ways in which ethical issues are addressed in the Hebrew Bible? And how might that understanding usefully inform ethical decision making in our own day? These are the two key questions explored by John Barton in Part One of this study, in which he looks at how the Bible's narratives, as well as its collections of laws, oracles and wisdom writings, all contribute to our understanding of the whole. In Part Two, he focuses on the moral vision of the Prophets--especially Amos, Isaiah and Daniel--providing the reader with the fruits of his research in this area over the last few decades. The result is a book that enables students of the Bible, Ethics, and other theological disciplines to firmly grasp the main issues at stake in current scholarly debate about the ethical legacy of the Old Testament.

 

Contents

The Moral Vision of the Old Testament
1
Understanding Old Testament Ethics
15
Natural Law and Poetic Justice in the Old Testament
32
The Basis of Ethics in the Hebrew Bible
45
The Use of the Bible in Ethics
55
Virtue in the Bible
65
Amoss Oracles against the Nations
77
Ethics in Isaiah of Jerusalem
130
Ethics in the Isaianic Tradition
145
Theological Ethics in Daniel
154
The Future of Old Testament Ethics
162
Notes
176
Bibliography
196
Index of Biblical Passages
205
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

John Barton is Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford in England. His publications include The Oxford Bible Commentary, The Original Story, Understanding Old Testament Ethics (WJK), and How the Bible Came to Be (WJK).

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