The Body as Property Physical Disfigurement in Biblical Law [Paperback]

The Body As Propertyindicates that physical disfigurement functioned in biblical law to verify legal property acquisition, when changes in the status of dependents were formalized. It is based on the reality the cuneiform script, in particular, was developed in Sumer and Mesopotamia for the purpose of record keeping: to provide legal proof of ownership where the inscription of a tablet evidenced the sale, or transfer, of property. Legitimate property acquisition was as important in biblical law, where physical disfigurements marked dependents, in a similar way that the veil or the head covering identified a wife or concubine in ancient Assyrian and Judean societies.

This is primarily substantiated in the accounts of prescriptive disfigurements: namely circumcision and the piercing of a slave's ear, both of which were required only when a son, or slave, was acquired permanently. It is further argued that legal entitlement was relevant also to the punitive disfigurements recorded in Exodus 21:22-24, and Deuteronomy 25:11-12, where the physical violation of women was of concern solely as an infringement of male property rights.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1:1 The Research Context and Questions
1:2 Methodological Pre-Requisites
1:3 Access to Cuneiform Law
1:4 This Profile of the Comparative Method

CHAPTER TWO: THE PRIESTLY REQUIRMENT OF CIRCUMCISION
2:1 Egyptian and Western Semitic Precedents
2:2 Circumcision and the Covenantal Promises to Abraham
2:3 As Cut or Excision in Genesis 17:14
2:4 A Substitution Rite for Child Sacrifice?
2:5 The Development of Circumcision as a Divine Seal

CHAPTER THREE: TALION IN BIBLICAL LAW AND NARRATIVE
3:1 Definitions and Parameters
3:2 Talion: The Divine Prerogative
3:3 The Requirement of Fil“-