LAW AND NARRATIVE IN EXODUS 19-24

The kidnapping and selling of Joseph into slavery (Gen 37:28) is similarly seen in a new light when read in conjunction with the book of the covenant. There kidnapping (literally, "stealing a man") was punishable by death whether or not the victim were sold into slavery (Exod 21:16). This law underscores the heinous nature of what Joseph's brothers did.

g. The two tablets of stone for the Decalogue. In Exod 24:12, Moses is told to receive tablets of stone on which would be written the law and commandments. Later these tablets are said to be two in number that were inscribed front and back (Exod 31:18; 32:15), and upon them were the ten "words" (Exod 34:18; Heb. debarim; often here rendered "commandments"), that is, the Decalogue. Artistic portrayals of the Decalogue have concentrated on the fact that there were two tablets and assumed that the first five "words" (or "commandments") were on the first tablet, whereas remaining laws were on the second tablet. Which commandments included by an artist depends on whether one is following Jewish, Catholic, or Reformed numbering. In terms of content, it is widely recognized that the Decalogue begins with cultic laws that deal with Israel's relationship with God and then go on to laws on how they were to relate to other human beings. Could it be that the first tablet contained the religiously oriented laws, whereas the second had the more ethical commandments?

Youngblood may well be correct in thinking that all these constructs are wrongheaded, and that the two tablets may have been meant to represent two copies of the Decalogue as a covenant treaty, one for Israel as vassal, and one for God as suzerain.45 Even then, however, one might raise the question of which parts are on the obverse and which are on the reverse. Speculations along these lines have been around since the third-century AD Mekhilta.46

Although the question of which commands occur on which tablets (and which on each side) cannot be definitively answered, the nature of that speculation is determined by the structure of the laws, and so all this illustrates how the law can influence the interpretation of the narrative.

III. CONCLUSION

Law and narrative must be read together in order to obtain the fullest and most accurate interpretation of both. The practice of many traditional exegetes and critical scholars of reading laws apart from their narrative context in the final form of the text distorts to some degree the meaning of both law and narrative.

The discussion above has tried to show that the Decalogue and the book of the covenant must be read as part of the narrative in which God graciously establishes a personal relationship with Israel through the covenant. This explains the prevalence of "I-Thou" language in the laws. The laws must also be seen as the narrator's way of painting the merciful but just character of Yahweh for the reader. The fact that the laws are given as speech from Yahweh as a character in the narrative serves to lend authority to these laws and motivate Israelites to obey them, not as laws of men, but as Law of God. Moreover, the chiastic and non-chronological structuring of the laws and narratives of Exodus 19-24 produces meanings of the whole greater than the individual parts; in particular, giving a privileged position to the Decalogue, indicating the priority of covenant over law, and placing the concept of fear of Yahweh at the heart of that covenant.