Subproject 4: “Divine Laws in Ancient Greece and Ancient Israel”

This subproject aims at comparing the development of contrasting notions of divine laws as self-evident in ancient Greece and as revealed in ancient Israel, investigating possible interaction between the two spheres.

The Judaic conception of divine law differed not only from ancient Greek notions of authority, but also from the parallel conception of “divine laws” in Greek philosophy where these laws pertained predominantly to unchangeable physical and moral laws of nature. This conception spurred the study of mathematics, astronomy, and by analogy the “social order.” Heraclitus (535–475 BCE) argues that all human laws, based on divine law, do not arise merely from convention. Their foundation instead lies in a unified, rational logic (Fragments, DK B114). However, the later Stoics contend that no ruler, deity, or even philosopher needed to inscribe such “laws”: anything one had to write down did not partake in divine nature. Furthermore, in contrast to Heraclites, Sophocles views divine and human (royal) laws as necessarily antagonistic (Antigone).

This subproject devotes its inquiry to the specific quality of this parallel development and tackle the little-investigated possibility of influences in both directions. Scholars have long posited the influence of Greek philosophic conceptions on biblical literature in the Hellenistic period, primarily on the pessimistic discourses in the book of Qoholeth. However, recent interdisciplinary studies illuminating Greek–ancient Near Eastern political and trade interactions during the Persian and even earlier periods (especially through the Phoenicians) have now set the stage to pursue both comparative analysis and investigation of the reciprocal exchange of ideas as well.