The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes.

• Author: Barmash, Pamela
• Position: Book review

The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes. By BRUCE WELLS. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur Alt-orientische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte, vol. 4. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2004. Pp. x + 226. [euro]64.

In this monograph, Bruce Wells analyzes testimonial evidence in biblical law, clarifying a topic hitherto dealt with only superficially, and he does so with great adroitness and skill. Wells makes use of Mesopotamian trial records, generally an underutilized source in the study in biblical law, compared to the use of Mesopotamian law collections, and demonstrates the benefits of this innovation. The comparative study of biblical and Mesopotamian law is well established in the discipline of biblical studies, but recourse to trial records sheds light on what was actually practiced in the legal arena. While not even a handful of records from actual cases have been excavated from ancient Israelite sites, a wealth of records from Mesopotamia have been recovered, in which the courts hear accusations, take testimony, examine documentary and physical evidence, demand more witnesses, and render verdicts. The value of these records for reconstructing ancient legal practice is priceless. While Wells deals primarily with Neo-Babylonian texts, the monograph also contains a wealth of citations to Sumerian and Akkadian legal texts. Wells is also sensitive to methodological concerns, including the rarely noted problem of using narrative to reconstruct law: how do we know whether narrative reflects real law? How much is a narrator modifying law for dramatic or literary purposes?

Wells gives a detailed analysis of Leviticus 5:1, which concerns the reluctant witness who fails to come forward to give testimony, and on this, Wells makes an important insight. He argues that the guilt that the reluctant witness experienced was not psychological feelings of remorse or pangs of conscience. Rather, the reluctant witness (and the other transgressors addressed in Leviticus 5:1-6) had experienced a tangible sign that he was guilty of some wrongdoing and was being punished, whether the tangible sign was illness or a misfortune. These adverse circumstances prompted the sufferer to go to a priest in order to perform the necessary ritual. Wells cites the parallel to the Surpu incantations and argues that what differentiates these statutes from the ones in Leviticus 4 is that they are not transgressions performed through inadvertence but sins of omission committed by...