Studies in Biblical Law

Immediately acknowledged as a classic when it was first published, Cambridge: At the University Press, 1947. viii, 328 pp. David Daube [1909-1999], a renowned and formidably learned scholar who held doctorates in biblical law and Roman law, was a Lecturer in Law at Cambridge University (1946-1951), Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford University (1955-1970), and a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley (1970-1981). An orthodox Jew, he received a thorough education in Hebrew, Aramaic and Talmudic law. This book collects five of his more important essays written while he was a Lecturer in Law at Caius College, Cambridge: "Law in the Narratives," "Codes and Codas," "Lex Talionis," "Communal Responsibility" and "Summum Ius-Summa Iniuria." "Driven from Germany in 1933, David Daube was one of that group of Jewish scholars who introduced new standards of scholarship to the universities of Britain. In an active scholarly career spanning more than six decades, he mastered three distinct fields: he began in biblical and Talmudic law, and Roman law, but his work on the Old Testament and Rabbinic sources led him more and more to the study of the Jewish background to New Testament texts and doctrines. As a victim of anti-Semitism, he saw this as his way of contributing to a greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity.... it is impossible for any one person to survey Daube's contribution as a whole, far less to judge its enduring impact. What can be said, however, is that in each of his chosen fields his work was almost always original and often brilliant." --Alan Rodger [1944-2011], Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom