Wednesday, 21st November 2007
Dr Christophe Batsch (University of Lille)
WARFARE AND LAWS OF WAR IN ANCIENT JUDAISM
Warfare in antiquity was a common social activity and, as such, was part of the ritual and religious world vision of each society. The laws and rites of war are therefore an expression of that vision. As far as ancient Judaism is concerned, we must dismiss the idea of a 'holy war', a historiographical anachronism arising from nineteenth-century European scholarship. The laws and rites of Jewish war are expressed in the Hebrew Bible, mainly in Deuteronomy 20. What are they and what do they mean? By whom, when, where and how were these laws and rites applied? Textual evidence can be found in the account of the Maccabean uprising and the subsequent evolution of what can now be called a warfare 'halacha' or rules of warfare as expressed in the Mishna and Talmud. These deal with such questions as the purity status of the war camp as well as that of the Jewish warriors and the priests, princes and officers at the head of the Jewish army; the issue of warfare on the Sabbath; the involvement or not of women in war, the question of war 'cherem' or anathema and 'qenah' or zeal.
Dr Batsch currently teaches in the Department of Hebrew at the University of Lille. His book, La guerre et les rites de guerre dans le judaïsme du deuxième Temple, was published in 2005. He has published widely on apocryphal literature from Qumran and is part of the team translating the Qumran Intertestamental Texts into French.
Reception: 6.15 p.m. Terrace Room, UCL Lecture: 6.45 p.m. Gustave Tuck Theatre, 2nd floor, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1 (Jointly with the Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL) [Back]