Studies in the Semiotics of Biblical Law

Copertina anteriore
A&C Black, 1 nov 2000 - 338 pagine
This book explains and illustrates a variety of semiotic issues in the study of biblical law. Commencing with a review of relevant literature in linguistics, philosophy, semiotics and psychology, it examines biblical law in terms of its users, its medium and its message. It criticizes our use of the notion of 'literal meaning', at the level of both words and sentences, preferring to see meaning constructed by the narrative images that the language evokes. These images may come from either social experience or cultural narratives. Speech performance is important, both in the negotiation of the law and the narratives of its communication. Non-linguistic semiotic phenomena, utilizing other senses and involving such notions as space and time, also need to be taken into account. For the early biblical period, at least, conceptions of law based upon modern models need to be replaced by the notion of 'wisdom-laws'. Amongst the issues addressed in the course of the argument are the structure of the Decalogue, the role in the law of (Greenberg's) 'postulates', 'covenant renewal' and 'talionic punishment'.
 

Sommario

Abbreviations
8
INTRODUCTION
11
Chapter 1 SOME SEMIOTIC THEORIES
21
Chapter 2 SPEECH ACTS AND SPEECH BEHAVIOUR
42
Chapter 3 WISDOMLAWS
70
Chapter 4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL DRAFTING
93
Chapter 5 THE WRITTEN MEDIA OF LAW
114
Chapter 6 THE TEMPORALITY OF THE LAW
144
Chapter 7 POSTULATES AND VALUES
171
Chapter 8 LAWS INTERNAL RECOGNITION
208
Chapter 9 COVENANT RENEWAL AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
231
Chapter 10 TALION
271
Bibliography
298
Index of References
318
Index of Authors
328
Copyright

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Informazioni sull'autore (2000)

Bernard Jackson is Alliance Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester.

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