Exiled from Light: Divine Law, Morality, and Violence in Milton's Samson Agonistes

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 917
Author(s):  
Barry Spurr ◽  
Derek N. C. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Christine Hayes

In the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. This book untangles the classical and biblical roots of the Western idea of divine law and shows how early adherents to biblical tradition—Hellenistic Jewish writers such as Philo, the community at Qumran, Paul, and the talmudic rabbis—struggled to make sense of this conflicting legacy. This book shows that for the ancient Greeks, divine law was divine by virtue of its inherent qualities of intrinsic rationality, truth, universality, and immutability, while for the biblical authors, divine law was divine because it was grounded in revelation with no presumption of rationality, conformity to truth, universality, or immutability. The book describes the collision of these opposing conceptions in the Hellenistic period, and details competing attempts to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance. It shows how Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish writers, from the author of 1 Enoch to Philo of Alexandria, were engaged in a common project of bridging the gulf between classical and biblical notions of divine law, while Paul, in his letters to the early Christian church, sought to widen it. The book then delves into the literature of classical rabbinic Judaism to reveal how the talmudic rabbis took a third and scandalous path, insisting on a construction of divine law intentionally at odds with the Greco-Roman and Pauline conceptions that would come to dominate the Christianized West. This book sheds critical light on an ancient debate that would shape foundational Western thought, and that continues to inform contemporary views about the nature and purpose of law and the nature and authority of Scripture.


Author(s):  
T. M. Rudavsky

Chapter 9 is concerned with social and political behavior. Even in the context of moral philosophy, Jewish philosophers discuss issues within the wider context of a rational scientific perspective. This chapter begins with specific moral codes developed by Jewish thinkers, focusing in particular upon the works of Ibn Gabirol, Baḥya ibn Paquda, Maimonides, and Crescas. Can there be ethical dictates independent of the commandments? The rabbis already worried whether there existed a domain of “right behavior” that pre-dates, or exists independently of, divine commandment. Does Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean apply to divine law? Furthermore, can all humans achieve intellectual perfection? Is the road the same, and open, to all? And is there only one road to ultimate felicity, or are there many routes? The chapter ends with a discussion of whether human felicity can be achieved in this life, and whether the prophet best represents the ideal model for such achievement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-183
Author(s):  
David Hawkes ◽  
Joe Lockard
Keyword(s):  

1906 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Albert S. Cook
Keyword(s):  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document