Lex Talionis in Exod 21:22–25: Its Origin and Context

Lex Talionis in Exod 21:22–25: Its Origin and Context

Yung Suk Kim

Was the biblical lex talionis to be applied by equal retribution or in a figurative sense? What was its origin? How or for what purpose was the lex talionis practiced in ancient Israelite life? This article argues that lex talionis in Exod 21:22-25 should be understood figuratively in the ancient village life context and that the development of the lex talionis should be understood as a complex process, depending on the corresponding social, economic structure of the time. Comparative considerations between the lex talionis in Exod 21:22-25 and other relevant ANE texts are advanced.

Marginality

In his book Marginality: The Key to Multicultural Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995), Jung Young Lee states that his marginal experience is the basis for his contextual theology. Furthermore, Lee affirms that marginality is a new source of power (self-affirmation) despite its negative connotations. Lee goes on to argue that Christian theology, the mission of the church, a habit of thinking, personal commitment, and all our hearts and minds must be based on the new marginality of self-affirmation. A new marginal person is one who relentlessly hopes for harmonious justice beyond one's identity, defiantly resisting all abusive systems and evil in the world.

To support his thesis about new marginality, Lee rejects the one-way, classical definition of marginality that emphasizes the negative sides of marginality such as alienation, rejection, struggles, and so forth. This classical definition is the product of "centrality" according to which marginality is a situation of "got stuck" or "in-between." But Lee defines marginality from a marginal perspective, which upholds a "both/and" and "in-beyond" approach. For example, Lee declares that he is both an American and an Asian. The "Both/and" approach is a self-affirmation of both Asian and American.


He also talks about a new marginality person who stands "in-beyond," which means standing beyond "in-between" and "in-both" (Asian and American). That is to say, such an "in-beyond" person transcends the current time and space to form a new identity, which is formulated both in "in-between" and "in-both" worlds. Lee states that this kind of "in-beyond" thinking leads to living up to "the harmony of difference," as God's creation itself is of plurality and differences.


Lee continues to explore marginality to the extent that marginality should be the center of Christian theology. For instance, God becomes marginal through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Marginality is God's choice of loving humanity. Jesus was also marginal, being rejected and crucified by the people. In other words, Jesus lived "in beyond," affirming the world that rejected him. Likewise, Lee suggests that the church, seminaries, and all our Christian works be a community of marginality that lives up to the love and servanthood of Jesus. The author envisions the whole church and Christian institutions to embrace a holistic "in-beyond" approach.


Lee does an excellent job and he reclaims a Christian theology of marginality. Jesus came not to be served but to serve (Mt. 20:28). As Jesus was a marginal person, so were Christians. Christians' power comes out of serving others. Another strong point is regarding the identity of the minority. Marginal experiences are certainly negative but are not hopeless altogether. Lee suggests that we transform our marginal experiences to form a new identity of hope and love beyond the current conditions of the world. Lee also made a big contribution to the understanding of multicultural society. A pluralistic, multicultural society needs multiple centers and margins. Lee seems to encourage all of us to play an active role in making a better society. He also reminds us of the mystery of creation that reflects the diversity, plurality, and differences in our culture. Everyone has his or her place of margin, because, according to Lee, margins and centers are not fixed; rather, they are dynamic and moving. A multicultural society is a kind of web in which every unit of society has its connection to one another, modifying its place constantly.


Lee's book has had a great impact on my study, as I feel confident about my role as a biblical theologian in a multicultural society. Through my upbringing, education, and experiences in Korea, and elsewhere (including Latin America and the USA) I came to view the world through the lens of critical diversity or imagination. When I lived in a small rural village during my childhood, I liked to play with things in nature and grasped the harmony of differences. Not a single thing is the same as the other in nature: Different colors of leaves, different trees, different flowers, different stars, different birds, and so forth. While we are different from each other, we also share a common humanity. We are still the same human being. In nature, dandelion is different from the rose but it is still a beautiful flower. God made all of us good and beautiful.

Santa Biblia

In his book Santa Biblia, Gonzalez claims that the interpretation of the Bible should be balanced in terms of a variety of perspectives. Thus the Bible cannot be interpreted unilaterally by the so-called center group (the dominant culture, middle class, academic circle, etc.); Rather, it is to be the source of hope and strength for the powerless and the poor by reading the text interactively (true dialogue between reader and the text). In other words, the Bible should be read with a perspective; the text speaks to the reader but also the reader speaks to the text. The text should address us where we are: our contexts. Thus, reading of the Bible should be contextual (Gonzalez 16, 17).
On this basis of contextualization, the writer affirms that the Hispanic perspective can give the Christian community a new insight into the reading of the Bible. The new insight will be the importance of a variety of views by which the wholeness of the church (universal church) can be seen better than each group of perspectives sees. Furthermore, he reclaims the true gospel message's transforming power in a way that marginal paradigms (marginality, poverty, mestizaje, exile aliens, and solidarity) should play a role in the Christian community. In this approach, he eventually tries to solve the problem of marginality by reaffirming the power of marginality which has been embedded in the Bible stories. The writer's wish is that the Bible be the source of hope and strength to all who want to live out the true gospel in solidarity with the marginalized.

Gonzalez supports his claim about the importance of Hispanic paradigms in several ways. First, he believes that there is no such objective knowledge that can illumine the truth (15). The marginal view is another angle to be reclaimed. In this way, many distortions about biblical interpretations can be corrected, and the overlooked things are reclaimed: For instance, when Jesus' parables and the Sabbath law of the Ten Commandments are viewed from "the perspective of the poor," they have a new meaning: reversal of society's justice like "give and take," thereby reclaiming deeper level of justice by giving due return to all (58). Likewise, he points to the right to work and justice of God: fair distribution to people who need for their lives (61-64).

Second, the author takes examples of marginal stories in the Bible. To take a few of them: Abraham's call, Ruth's choice, Joseph's life in Egypt, and Paul's Gentile mission. The history of Israel began with the call of Abraham. He had to leave for an unknown land as an alien but with faith in God and with hope for the unseen future. Since then, God has remembered the aliens and strangers and moved them toward a more inclusive community (89). Gonzalez affirms that the Bible itself is the story of people of the voiceless but with voices. Their voices were calling God's name. In the midst of difficulties and despair, God was with them. Their powerlessness was their opportunity to call God. In return, God gives them hope and energy to overcome hardships.

Finally, Gonzalez leads us to the very history of Christianity and Jesus. He states that the history of Christianity is "the conversion of Christianity" as suggested in the encounter of Peter with Cornelius (51). At the center, Peter realized a new meaning of the gospel through his encounter with the marginalized person, Cornelius. In other words, he insists on the so-called "border approach" - the encounter of "two cultures and two worldviews" (86). At this point, the writer even portrays Jesus as mestizo Jesus (90). In a sense, he seems to state that to be a good Christian implies that each has to live out "mestizaje" in one's daily life, in ways that on one hand, each lives in solidarity with the poor, the powerless, and the marginalized, on the other hand, each needs to reaffirm one's own "mestizaje" in the very being of Christian (87).

This book gave me new insights into the biblical interpretation that the process of interpretation involves a perspective that can contribute to the larger community of faith. There is one universal church as one body of Christ, but there are many members in it with many perspectives and many different stories. But diversity is an essential factor in enriching others and the whole church by opening ourselves to listen to other views. In this sense, communication among Christians and ecumenical efforts toward more inclusive communities is crucial.

Another insight is the need to strike a balance between theology and practice. Being disciples means living out the Christian gospel - good news to everybody - by seeking good news from the Bible and living it out in everyday life.

The last insight is that the mission takes place at the borders. Mutual interaction in those places is very important. This border mission implies that we all need to seek out those who occupy a different place on the Christian landscape and be ready to change ourselves as the new understanding of our faith challenges us. Gospel or good news is permeated through this border area because God is closer to the people of struggle who desperately need help and hope for the future. New history and new beginnings take place at the border. I need to participate in that border in solidarity with the marginalized. I have a strong conviction that my "sitz-im-leben" - similar experiences as the Latinos/Latinas - will be used for making my border mission happen.

I have to point out small weaknesses in this book, though. It is the danger of relativism. If all theologies are perspectival and contextual, all are good in their contexts. What is the central place or criteria to affirm a kind of universal truth in the world? Human perspectives are emphasized too much. This being the case, the question is where does God stand? My question is about God's place in our different perspectives. Had Gonzalez developed this point of divine initiative, he would have avoided the problem of his overemphasis on the human perspective. That is to say, the Holy Spirit's work through our ministry should have been elaborated in order that each perspective can be valid.

Another problem is that Gonzalez did not explicitly show the importance of community in his development of the perspectival view of the Hispanic paradigms. Though he posed general Hispanic paradigms from the whole Hispanic community, one thing he overlooked is how each perspective can be checked and filtered through the larger communities. In other words, it is about how the Hispanic view can be balanced among the universal church. What other perspectives are available to see a complete picture of the landscape, and how can we get closer to them? Even though he suggested the contrasting and dominating views in the discussion of the Hispanic paradigms, if he had elaborated on other views that could show the other part of the landscape the Hispanic lens could easily miss, I would have had more sense of balance in this book.

A new textbook writing

I am writing a new textbook for the critical, comprehensive study of the Gospels for graduate/seminary students that I serve in my second career. I put all my mind and energy into this, using 16 years of my teaching experience. Here I am still functioning. I must do what I can now because I face a sheer reality that I must go down someday.

Commentary on 1 Peter 3:18-22 (Working Preacher)

The author of 1 Peter addresses “the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood” (1 Peter 1:1-2). The exiles of the Dispersion are gentile Christians in Asia Minor who need encouragement and comfort in their harsh lives on the margins of the Roman Empire. The author assures them of the sustenance and success of Christian life rooted in Christly examples as well as God’s grace.

Continue to read.

Lectionary commentary on 2 Cor 4:3-6 (Working Preacher)

 

Second Corinthians 4:3-6 is part of the defense letter of Paul’s gospel (2 Corinthians 2:14—7:4).

In 1-2 Corinthians, he consistently and vehemently argues that the good news is:

• God-centered (for example, God’s faithfulness in 1 Corinthians 1:9; God’s mercy in 2 Corinthians 4:1)
• Christ-demonstrated (1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15) and
• Christian-imitated (1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; 2 Corinthians 8:8-15).

While God is the starting point of the good news, Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church (1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus revealed God’s wisdom and strength through his challenge to the wisdom of the world.

For more, continue to read.

Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10 (Working Preacher)

Reconciliation is the central theme in 2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10.

Paul urges the Corinthians to be reconciled to God, following the way of Christ and his faithfulness. Since they are reconciled to God through Christ, they should remember what Christ has done for them and represent him in their ministry of reconciliation. As ambassadors for Christ, they must know and thank Christ’s life-risking faith as well as God’s grace. They are also expected to go through all hardships (2 Corinthians 6:4-5), cultivating necessary virtues (2 Corinthians 6:6-7), trusting the extraordinary power of God in all circumstances (2 Corinthians 6:8-10). 

FOR MORE, CONTINUE TO READ.

Clarity about tzedakah and mishpat

-Tzedakah (צְדָקָה) means "righteousness." This word deals with "relational" or "inter-personal" characters. In the HB, God is righteous, and God's righteousness is important.
-Mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט) means "fairness" or "justice" in human lives, especially in the matters of social justice. This word also means a judgment and involves a legal claim. Other judgment-related Hebrew words are shapat, din, or riv. For more, go here.

The way of heaven

"The Way of heaven reduces what is excessive and supplements what is insufficient. 

The humanistic way is different. It reduces the insufficient and increases the excessive."

(Dao De Jing 76)

(Handwritten by Yung Suk Kim)

Review of Marcus Borg, Jesus: a New Vision

 
In his book Jesus: A New Vision, Borg advocates a new image of Jesus: a person filled with the Spirit who sought to transform the social world of first-century Palestine by the politics of compassion (an alternative consciousness) against culture's conventional wisdom and the politics of holiness.

Borg's scholarly study and reflection on the historical Jesus began by rejecting the two dominant images of Jesus. The first, popular image of Jesus is a divine being who came to the world to die for the redemption of sinners and then ascended to heaven. The second image is the eschatological prophet, who mistakenly predicted the end of the world in his own time. Borg rejects the first image because it portrays Jesus through the faith lens of post-Easter Christians. Such portrayal is distant from the historical Jesus' life and death. He also refuses to take the second image of skepticism about the historical Jesus because it depicts Jesus only as the eschatological prophet -- who failed to bring about the end of the world. Against these two images, Borg emphasizes the importance of the historical Jesus viewed from a new angle of knowing what Jesus was: a Spirit-filled person in the charismatic stream of Judaism.

To support his thesis that Jesus was a Spirit-filled person who sought to change the religious social world of first-century Palestine, Borg works on the two organizing principles: Spirit and culture. Borg claims that the world of the Spirit is real and Jesus had deep, intimate relationships with the Spirit. The author does not stop here but relates this reality of the Spirit with culture. That is to say, a Spirit-filled person could not remove himself from the culture in which he lived.

In discussing the world of the Spirit, the author states that the reality of the Spirit has been present not only in the biblical tradition but also in the social, and scientific studies of paranormal experiences (universal primordial tradition). In the biblical tradition, Israel's story itself was the story of the interaction between the world of the Spirit and the world of ordinary experiences. The Spirit of the world became part of their lives. Moses and the prophets were also Spirit-filled mediators. In social, and scientific studies of paranormal experiences, cross-culturally, the world of the Spirit has been also accessed by the charismatic who entered it and experienced the world of the Spirit.

Borg says that the biblical tradition of Spirit-filled mediators is very significant to understanding the historical Jesus. The reality of another world (the invisible world of the Spirit) was not unusual to those people of the ancient world, unlike the modern people who disregard the reality of the invisible world simply because it seems to be unscientific, superstitious, or psychotic.

Borg also argues that Jesus stood in the ecstatic, mystical tradition of biblical and Jewish religion. He lists the examples of this trait demonstrated by his internal life: his prayer life, the visions he experienced, and his sense of intimacy with God. All his life was full of ecstatic, mystical experiences with the Spirit. He was a person of the Spirit. A corollary was that Jesus as a Spirit-filled person evidenced his life of the Spirit by the mighty deeds of exorcisms and healing. Exorcism and healing are good examples that demonstrate his charismatic power that flowed out of his deep encounter with the Spirit.

In discussing Jesus' relation to the culture, Borg shows a contrast between the politics of holiness and the politics of compassion. The social world of first-century Palestine was under the pressure of Roman occupation and was operated by the politics of holiness, which separated the pure from the impure, and insiders from outsiders. But Jesus was challenged with the politics of compassion, this prevailing holiness-ridden culture, and the conventional wisdom of that social world, which centers around "family, wealth, honor, and virtue, all shaped by a religious framework" (81). This self-oriented culture was a focus of transformation. Jesus was filled with God's compassion to change his social world into a transforming community of compassion filled with love, acceptance, and inclusiveness.

Borg, then, using four social, and religious types, portrays Jesus, as a sage, revitalization movement founder, prophet, and challenge. First of all, Jesus, like Sage, was both radical and subversive. Jesus critiqued the conventional wisdom of the Jewish social world by asking his people to turn to God rather than to their religion of holiness politics. Spirit-filled Jesus called his people to center themselves on God and to change their hearts and minds so that they see things in a new way: the narrow way, the way of "dying to the self" in place of the broad way that seeks wealth, power, honor, and this-worldly securities.

Second, as revitalization movement founder, Jesus focused on the renewal of Israel rather than creating a new religion, in the midst of a crisis in the Jewish social world: "the growing internal division within Jewish society, and the deepening of the conflict with Rome" (142). Jesus? renewal movement is summarized by his "alternative community with an alternative consciousness" rooted in the Spirit (142). His alternative consciousness is to reverse the dominant consciousness of conventional wisdom through his vision of transforming Israel. Jesus calls his people to change their consciousness of holiness politics. Borg states that the revitalization movement stayed in the frame of Judaism. He put this rightly: "Jesus remained deeply Jewish, even as he radicalized Judaism" (141).

Third, as a prophet, Jesus similarly assumes the job of traditional prophets who indict, threaten, and call to change. Borg points out that "the purpose of the prophets was not to reveal the future but to change it" (154). The author also points out that Jesus was not really speaking about the final judgment or about the kingdom of God that would come very soon. But Jesus' concern was just to change the present lives of his people by speaking out prophetic utterances to bring about a real change of heart to God-centered.

Finally, Borg pictures Jesus as a challenge; Jesus risked his life and went to Jerusalem to issue the call to change, and "to make a final appeal" to his people at the center of their national and religious life (172). Borg states that the death of Jesus would be the result of his sojourn in Jerusalem, not the purpose of his journey. Jesus was killed because he sought to transform his own culture, in the power of the Spirit.

This book sheds a fresh light on the understanding of the historical Jesus. A new image of Jesus as a Spirit-filled person is very relevant to the contemporary church and moderns as well. The first significance or relevance is that the reality of another dimension (the world of the Spirit) is really beyond the visible world. Moderns are so caught up with the first dimension of the material world that they cannot consider things to be real if they do not see them. They are so boastful of the power of human reason. In fact, modern technology and science force us not to believe in the power of the Spirit because human reason is so elevated. But the realization of another dimension of the world gives rise to a new understanding of humanity, who was supposed to have genuine encounters with the Spirit. In the mainstream church where I belong, this reality of the unseen but powerful world of the Spirit is not fully recognized. I think we need to grasp the importance of personal encounters with the Spirit in one way or another in our church. In this way, we can strike a balance between the bodily and spiritual life.

Another relevance to today's church is that real spirituality is not distant from compassion with which society can be changed to the culture. In other words, the Spirit-filled person should work for the sake of a community to transform the dominant way of culture in which Christians are called to live out Jesus' life (Spirit-filled life with compassion). Unfortunately, however, many Christians think of spirituality as the subjective reality of experiences that has nothing to do with compassion to change the social world of our time and culture.

Still, another relevance to our churches is the distinction between knowing about God and knowing God. Knowing God through experiences can be a living reality. A Christian life can be enriched by the actual living relationship with God (the Spirit). Knowing about God is not sufficient to live out the life of Spirit-filled compassion. Compassionate work can be done in a personal, intimate relationship with the Spirit.

If I find a small weakness in this book, Borg could have dealt with the elements of culture or Judaism as to how they shaped Jesus' identity. The other small weakness is that Jesus' humanity is not much addressed because of too much focus on the world of the Spirit. If Borg had had a balance between the Spirit and the humanity of Jesus, the picture of Jesus would have been more realistic or appealing to us.