You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's 5 minute Bible
My topic today his one which bored me stiff as an undergraduate student many years ago
But one that I have increasingly come to see is really important
and could help us to do some
interesting stuff
with deep theological consequences.
I hope that, despite my topic, I won't bore you
(Do let me know if I have!)
what i want to talk about is the distinction between casuistic
and apodictic formulations of legal material in the Bible
Doesn't that sound exciting?
just the words put you off
two big complicated words that we don't understand
or at least I didn't before they were explained to me. My guess is that many of you don't
either
At first sight, it seems like a prime example of how scholarship has lost touch
with the needs of real Bible readers
but, like I said, the distinction has deep theological consequences
and I'm going to suggest to you, in the next podcast in this series,
the Jesus seems to fulfill
Old Testament law in part by rephrasing
the casuistic law as apodictic
but for now we'll need to begin with the boring stuff and introduce what scholars
mean by distinguishing casuistic from apodictic material
in the laws of the Old Testament
So, what is a casuistic law?
well, casuistic comes from the Latin for a case
and quite simply it's
law that deals with cases
basically what we
think of when people say 'law'
there's a nice example, talking about oxes
in Exodus chapter twenty one
Exodus twenty-one verse twenty-eight
"When an ox gores a man or a woman to death
the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten
but the owner of the ox shall not be liable."
That's nice and straightforward, isn't it?
It tell you, if 'this' happens, then 'this' is what you do.
And the way it's phrased enables you to ask supplementary questions
so you might come back and say
Hey, but what if the ox has been
accustomed to goring people in the past
and the owner has been warned
but hasn't done anything about it
what if it then kills a man or woman?
well read verse twenty-nine
somebody obviously did ask that question: "If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the
past
and its owner has been warned but has not restrained it
and it then kills a man or a woman
the ox shall be stoned
and it's owner also shall be put to death
with casuistic law, case-based law
we are allowed to ask supplementary questions Hey, but what if...?
but suppose
the owners
had a ransom imposed on him
well verse thirty in that case then the owner shall pay whatever is imposed for the
redemption of the victims life
and verse thirty-one goes on to explain
how much it should be if it's a boy or girl
and verse thirty-two deals with the case where it might have been a slave who was
gored
in which case it's only 30 shekels you have to play
but the ox still gets stoned
you see
with casuistic law, with case law, it's phrased as: if these circumstances
then this consequence
and it's quite alright
to us supplementary questions
what the circumstances are slightly different like this
and the answer is is, well in that case
the consequences are slightly different like that
that's how casuistic law works
on the other hand
if you look in the chapter before, at the bit about oxes opposing about oxes
today
there in the ten commandments in chapter twenty verse seventeen we read
"You shall not covert your neighbor's house
You shall not covert your neighbor's wife or male or female slave or ox or donkey
or anything that belongs to your neighbour
that once phrased differently
no: Here are the circumstances
now: Here are the consequences
and it's not appropriate to ask supplementary questions about this one
this one gives us a target to aim at
the aim is to be the sort of people who
don't covet
any of that list of things or indeed anything else that belongs to a neighbor
we're the kind of people who are happy with what we've got
and not always wanting what other people have got
it's a target to aim for
casusitic law gives you a rule to obey
and gives you all sorts of consequences and circumstances and you can look for
loopholes and you can try and plug loopholes
Apodictic law
gives you a target to aim for
and it's not appropriate to ask about particular circumstances and there is no
way that with that kind of a target you can
look for a loophole, because
the question is quite simple: Are you aiming at that target or aren't you?
If you are aiming at that target, good and well. If you're not
then, sorry, but it's not good enough.
That's the difference between
casuistic law and apodictic law in a nutshell
So hopefully, I've got you all rearing to go and wanting to know
just how that, is important in the real world
but for that you'll have to wait for the next podcast
bye for now
see you soon