Abigail and Nabal: What Really Happened?
The long history of ancient Near Eastern laws limiting women's access to marital property offers a new perspective on Abigail's bold actions in 1Sam 25:4–42 and on her husband Nabal's reaction. Why was Nabal so affected by what Abigail told him? A contributing cause may lie in looking...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2023
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte
Year: 2023, Volume: 29, Pages: 133-146 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Abigail Biblical character
/ Law book
/ Bible. Samuel 1. 25
/ Mishnah
/ Talmud
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament HD Early Judaism TC Pre-Christian history ; Ancient Near East XA Law |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The long history of ancient Near Eastern laws limiting women's access to marital property offers a new perspective on Abigail's bold actions in 1Sam 25:4–42 and on her husband Nabal's reaction. Why was Nabal so affected by what Abigail told him? A contributing cause may lie in looking at restrictive laws, attested over many centuries that represented deeply rooted customs. Examples are found among the Old Babylonian and Middle Assyrian laws; and the later continuity of these restrictions is seen in formal law statements preserved in the Mishnah (for Palestine), Talmud (for Babylonia), and Syriac-Roman lawbooks (Syria). While these explicit restrictions are not preserved among the extant biblical laws, the argument here is that similar, restrictive norms were nevertheless also operative in Israelite society and can be reconstructed into the background of the narrative, based on textual clues within the text. |
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| ISSN: | 2747-4461 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte
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