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犹太-基督教价值观和法律资源中人的绝对价值 [The Absolute Value of the Human Person in Judeo-Christian Values and Legal Sources]
Hess, Richard S.
Hess, Richard S.
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Abstract
This study explores the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity in order to examine the important role that these sources have served in the development of ethics and morality in Western civilization. The essay explores the value of the human person and seeks to demonstrate the manner in which this addresses two areas of Old Testament law: slavery and homicide. It begins with the image of God as discussed on the first page of the Old Testament. The essay examines how this idea gives unique value to every person in the world, not just those of a particular class or ethnic group. It argues that the image of God forms the basis for commands authorizing capital punishment for murder of another human. Regarding slavery, this essay suggests that it is the work of slaves, rather than their actual bodies, that is owned by a master. Thus this resembles indentured servitude more closely than it does chattel slavery. In the matter of homicide, an attempt it made to demonstrate that the murder of another person ranks first in position and therefore importance where collections of social laws appear in the Old Testament. The study also compares the legal traditions both within (e.g., the Code of Hammurabi) and without (e.g., the Hittite Laws) the religious contexts of contemporary ancient Near Eastern cultures. Again, looking at slavery and homicide, significant differences appear. In the non-biblical legal traditions, slaves have no rightsand are treated as property. In these same ancient Near Eastern legal collections, the importance of the human person (in terms of homicide laws) differs from that found in the Bible. Thus the homicide laws in most of the Near Eastern legal collections do not occur at the beginning of the legal text, but much later. This suggests that they possess a lesser importance. The only exception is the Hittite laws where, as in the Bible, they appear first. However, even here there is an important difference. Whereas the homicide laws in the Bible demand capital punishment for murder, those in the Hittite laws require only a fine of money to be paid. This is true despite the use of capital punishment in the Hittite laws for other more trivial legal violations. The conclusions observe some similarities between the Bible and these neighboring cultures, but also significant differences. These differences are traced through the emergence of legal traditions in the Western world, especially as attested in constitutions and charter documents of the last two and a half centuries.
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2013-01
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With permission of the license/copyright holder