Professor studies judicial systems of Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible has been a source of knowledge and a written set of spiritual guidance for the Jewish population for millennia, but can it be a document that is historically true and may even offer some insight on legality of the laws in ancient Israel?

Bruce Wells, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theology, presented such an outlook during the latest installment of the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Colloquium in the Presidents' Lounge last Thursday. Wells' lecture, entitled "What Do the Gods Know? Courtroom Evidence in Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia", argued the validity and accuracy of the Hebrew Bible as a legal text. He also discussed what sort of significance and impact it had on the functioning of ancient societies.

Wells specifically addressed how the discovery of hundreds of legal documents that were found in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) will greatly influence what type of critical treatment other ancient religious texts get. He has been given the opportunity to study these texts, written on clay tablets and containing several early trial records, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wells plans to write a very detailed analysis of his findings, particularly the similarities and differences between the legal systems of Mesopotamia, the neighboring nations of Israel and Judah, and the Hebrew Bible. Since the documents were written around the same time, there should be some evidence linking the two together.

The talk mainly offered some more recent discoveries and theories that Wells has developed while working with these texts

Wells has just published an article containing some of his hypotheses in "Maarav: A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literature." His article, "The Covenant Code and Near Eastern Legal Traditions: A Response to David P. Wright," covers a lot of the topics mentioned in the discussion. The issue of "Maarav" came out this past February and is available in the Drexel Library.

This program gives students several opportunities to learn about current scholarly events that may not come up in everyday conversation with their peers. These issues, though relatively unknown in a college setting outside of the classroom, are very pertinent, and today's youth should be more informed about such matters. The series serves as a supplement to the standard curriculum and academia at St. Joe's.

Piotr Habdas, Assistant Professor of Physics, will present the next discussion, a lecture entitled "Squishy Materials" on April 12.