Overview

Being the first legal corpus in the biblical canon, Exodus 19-24 is a law collection that belonged to a people living under the shadow of empire. Using an integrated approach of postcolonial studies and historical-comparative analysis, this important study analyzes the relationship between the laws given to the Israelites on Mount Sinai and cuneiform law collections. Dr. Anna Lo skillfully integrates postcolonial understandings of the colonized people to explore how the similarities and differences reflect the imperialized authors' wrestling with the imperial legal metanarrative and subjugation of their time. This investigation into the dynamic of acceptance, ambivalence, and resistance invites attention to this selection of Scripture as a work of conservative revolutionists. Dr. Lo's thorough work provides an important way forward for scholars to consider responses of the imperialized to empires in the past as well as to reflect on their own response to hegemonic domination today.

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9781839738807

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Reviews

Engaging deeply with both ancient texts and modern theories, Anna Lo shows how biblical authors of early Israelite laws dealt with the pre existing legal traditions of the ancient Near East. She emerges with significant wisdom on an important topic for the church: how inspired authors wrestled with imperial pressures and influences. For anyone interested in the tensions between oppression and liberation in a postcolonial context, this important new study is a must-read. Christopher B. Hays, PhD D. Wilson Moore Professor of Old Testament and ANE Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, California, USA Imperial powers tend to pay attention to laws and laws tend to facilitate imperialism. Anna Lo captures this relationship in her careful examination of biblical legal codes. She shows both the conservativism of local elites and their resistance to imperial domination through their development of laws as modeled by empires. This book paves the way for future work on biblical legal texts and postcolonial studies. Steed Vernyl Davidson, PhD Professor of Hebrew Bible, McCormick Theological Seminary, Illinois, USA Lo offers us a rare find - an extensive study of the Book of the Covenant in Exodus that takes seriously both legal data and sociological theory. Her nuanced presentation is sensitive to the range of viewpoints current in scholarship, and she stakes out her own position by drawing on methods from postcolonial studies and applying them to her investigation in an impressively careful and judicious manner. Lo's contribution is a most welcome addition to the ongoing discussion. Bruce Wells, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin, USA Chung Man Anna Lo's book is a marvelous postcolonial study of the laws in Exodus 19-24. Many readers have wondered about the puzzling way these laws combine visionary insights and oppressive constraints. In a general sense, Jesus explains why they do: the Torah combines God's creation vision with his making allowance for human hardness of heart. Chung Man Anna Lo gives us a concrete twenty-firstcentury take on that dynamic. John Goldingay, PhD Senior Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary, California, USA

Author Information

CHUNG MAN ANNA LO has a PhD in Old Testament Studies with an emphasis in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary, USA. Her interest is in the interpretation of the Old Testament under its ancient context as well as the application of the biblical text in the church today. She has served the Cambodian Christian community since 2003. She was a faculty member of Phnom Penh Bible School (PPBS) in 2005-2011, teaching biblical, spiritual formational, and ministerial courses. She is now a visiting instructor at PPBS.

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