Constitutional Law
Part 2: “What Were They Thinking?”
Digression: “A History of Government in 6 Revolutions: From the Paleolithic to Philadelphia”
106. Learning from the Law Codes: Jews in Exile
Panel 1: A map of the Levant, with the region once known as Judah in brown, with a brown arrow pointing to it. Jerusalem is marked by a black dot, with a red arrow pointing to it.
NARRATION:
“Back home” was Yehud—a province of the Neo-Babylonian Empire—and its main city Uru-Shalayim.
Or, as they later came to be known:
Judah
and
Jerusalem.
-=-
Panel 2: A view of part of the globe looking west from Jerusalem across the Dead Sea. A great arrow curves from Judah across the distant horizon to Babylon.
NARRATION: Yehud had rebelled against the empire and lost. The Babylonians had responded in the time-honored way, by marching the ruling elites off to Babylon—exiling every man, woman, and child in the king’s lineage… the aristocratic lineages…the priesthood… the whole power structure.
BABYLONIAN VOICE 1:
It’s really quite civilized.
BABYLONIAN VOICE 2:
This way, we sever their ties to family gods and ancestral lands.
BABYLONIAN VOICE 3:
We sever the authority that came from local and civic gods.
BABYLONIAN VOICE 4:
And thus we neutralize any future threat—without severing all their heads!
-=-
Panel 3: A group of finely-dressed Jewish exiles, standing and seated in a room filled with cushions of rich fabric. Bronze shields hang on a wall. Ornate open-air floor-to-ceiling windows look out on a deep-blue night sky.
NARRATION: The exile only lasted about 50 years, though. Then in 539 BC the Persian Empire conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and told all the captive peoples they were free to return home. Most stayed put.
JEWISH EXILE MAN 1:
Leave civilization? Go back to the sticks?
JEWISH EXILE MAN 2:
Are you nuts?
JEWISH EXILE MAN 3:
I’m a captain of the imperial chariots.
JEWISH EXILE WOMAN 1:
My family is all respected scribes and officials.
JEWISH EXILE MAN 4:
I’m making a fortune importing gold and spices and fabrics!
JEWISH EXILE WOMAN 2:
Life is good here!
-=-
Panel 4: A man and a woman work on a small farm in ancient Judah. In the distance are their adobe house, a palm tree, and new arrivals cresting the hill. The man wipes his brow as he notices the new arrivals.
NARRATION: But some did repatriate to the (now Persian) province of Yehud. This was not popular with the locals.
RETURNING EXILE:
Ah, home again in Zion, and-
OI!
Get off the land of my forefathers!
FARMER:
Your forefathers?
-=-
Panel 5: Narration box.
NARRATION:
They had learned many things in Babylon that would help them re-assert political authority.
One was the bygone practice of law codes that had legitimized the rule of ancient kings.
Borrowing heavily from the Code of Hammurabi (and some older Mesopotamian codes, plus a few local traditions) they wrote down the “Covenant Code” found in Exodus 20:23-23:19.
-=-
Panel 6: Bearded Yahweh, seated on a throne, robed, and wearing an Egyptian-style Shmoo-shaped crown, holds out his hands in benediction.
NARRATION:
But this time, instead of exalting a king as the right ruler…
The Covenant Code exalted a god as sovereign!
And an upstart local god, at that—a god called Yahweh.
JEWISH EXILE MAN 3 (from the panel below):
Sounds like crazy talk to me.
-=-
Panel 7: The group of finely-dressed Jewish exiles from panel 3. Jewish Exile Man 3 is spinning his finger by his temple in a “that’s crazy” gesture.
JEWISH EXILE MAN 1:
Gods may hint, or advise, but they never command.
JEWISH EXILE MAN 2:
Gods don’t rule over people.
JEWISH EXILE WOMAN 1:
So who is this “Yahweh” fellow?
JEWISH EXILE WOMAN 2:
And how come he gets to be sovereign?
-=-
Panel 8: Average Joe, as a talking head, flanked by ancient Hebrew-type scrolls.
JOE:
Let’s find out!
Along the way, we’re going to see how these people of Yehud invented monotheism…
And law as we know it…
…both entirely by accident!
Hmm…I’m feeling some deja vu here.
I have to say, as a practicing Lutheran, reading through the “Yahweh Origin Story” from your Terrorism comic was a real tough pill to swallow. And now here we are again, getting to hear the same story again, and I really don’t want to hear it. You’re just like my great uncle at Christmas, saying “Gather ’round, children!”, except instead of it being the warm hearty tale of Luke 2, it’s a cold and empty bowl of “Your religion is just as made up as the next!”
I guess you could stay I’m still in the denial stage of grief.
As a lifelong Catholic, I’m sorry about that. I’m not trying to shake anyone’s faith!
But that history in the terrorism comic was focused on explaining the context that led to the Sicarii, and was shaped with that purpose. This bit is how the early cult of Yahweh led to the concepts of monotheism and especially “law as we know it,” so it’s been shaped I hope in a very different way. Also there’s a bit that might help strengthen some people’s faith, but— I’m getting ahead of the story.
I recall my little mind being blown the first time I heard a priest say we’re not supposed to take the Old Testament literally or as even being historically accurate—that it was about making a point, that the people who wrote it wrote symbolically and metaphorically in a way that was understood by their 4th and 5th century Judean audience, and that they weren’t trying to create an accurate account of what had really happened a thousand or two thousand or four thousand years before they’d been born. I think he was an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, but all were clear that that’s what Catholic doctrine is (as opposed to what one priest I think unfairly called “the lies nuns tell children,” while he was bemoaning that too many people never get beyond that stage to learn what their own religion teaches). And the Jesuit priests struck me as simultaneously the most learned and scholarly, and practically atheists, yet their faith was strong.
With respect to the scholarship behind this section of the comic, that first priest might say something like “God is still God the Father, the eternal Creator… Sure, at some point people started calling Him by this Yahweh fellow’s name, but so what? We could call him Allah or Bill or Maude, and that still wouldn’t change who He is.”
I’d never tell anyone how to feel, but instead of grieving, might this not be an opportunity to have some deep discussions with your own priests? You might find that rewarding!
I recall my mind being blown the first time I brought up Job with my confirmation pastor, and his response was, “Well, I don’t believe Job really happened. It’s just a story.” Because I was born and raised in a “Thou shalt not deny the Bible” type of faith. The Earth was ~6000 years old, humanity began with Adam and Eve, and dinosaur bones were put in the dirt to test our faith. To meet a faith leader who said the Bible didn’t happen the way it says it did was like pissing on my leg and telling me it’s raining.
But my IQ is too high to accept faith blindly. I’m still a believer, but as I’ve grown I’ve had to reach deep down to escape the shallow, “I believe, because everyone around me does also” groupthink upbringing of my youth. I grieve the loss of innocence and simplicity of these years. Back then, the message was, “Don’t question. Have faith.” Now I question all the time. I have to. And it does hurt to hear testimony that says, “The Bible is a made-up story,” because it says the infallible is indeed fallible. And once it’s accepted that some of the Bible is not true, it begs the question question whether any of it is true.
Just because the stories aren’t factual doesn’t mean their message isn’t true. They weren’t intended to be taken literally, they were meant to make a point. Just like Jesus’ parables weren’t meant to be taken literally.
The problem isn’t the 90% of the Xtian message that is about human flourishing and mutual love, it’s the 10% that enforces a belief in the supernatural and encourages people to tell other people what to do. If you reject all the supernatural parts and stop trying to control personal nonharmful human behavior because of your interpretation of a book of stories, guess what … you’re a secular humanist.