LAW AND NARRATIVE IN EXODUS 19-24

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2004 by Sprinkle, Joe M

The narrative context also affects the reading of particulars. Exodus 20: 22b states, "You yourselves have seen how from the sky I have spoken with you." This is a double allusion. First there is an allusion to Exod 19:18-19 "Mount Sinai was all in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in fire. . . . Moses would speak and God would answer him with thunder." There is no contradiction between Exod 20:22's "from the sky" and Exodus 19's indication that God spoke from the mountain, as a simplistic reading might suggest.29 Rather, "from the sky" means "from the mountain whose top is in the sky." The people at the base of the mountain would be looking skyward when they looked to the top of Sinai. Second, there is probably also an allusion to the Decalogue. As T. D. Alexander observes, the words "I have spoken with you" can be connected with the giving of Decalogue, for the other cases where the people are addressed by God in Exodus 19-24 are mediated through Moses.30 Thus, contrary to certain source-critical theories that take the Decalogue as a secondary insertion into the narrative,31 the author of Exod 20:22 assumes the presence of the Decalogue (Exod 20:1-17).32

This connection to the narrative then affects the interpretation of the next verse: "You are not to make in my case either a god of silver, nor even a god of gold are you permitted to make for yourselves" (Exod 20:23). This verse, which expands on the Decalogue's prohibition of images (Exod 20:4-5), makes a logical connection between how God revealed himself at Sinai and how they are to worship him. The logic between Exod 20:22 and 20:23 is as follows: "Because, as you have seen, I spoke with you as an invisible voice from the sky, I was indicating to you that no earthly image of me is appropriate." This interpretation is implicit here, but is made explicit in Deut 4:15-16a: "Because you saw no form when Yahweh spoke to all of you on Horeb from the midst of the fire, be careful that you not act corruptly and make for yourselves an image."

b. The slave laws. Another way in which the laws of Exodus 20-23 relate to the narrative context is found in the emphasis on slaves. Why, for instance, are the first non-cultic laws of the book of the covenant about slaves (Exod 21:2-11), and why do slaves get mentioned so often elsewhere in the laws (Exod 20:10 [Decalogue]; 21:20-21, 26-27, 32; 23:12)? This is not the case with other ancient Near Eastern law collections. Slave laws end rather than begin the Laws of Hammurabi (§§278-82), and the Laws of Eshnunna place its most substantial slave laws at the end (§§49-52). Middle Assyrian laws only rarely deal with slaves at all. Why then this prominence concerning slaves in the book of the covenant?

The answer lies in the narrative context. Exodus 21 begins with slave laws for the same reason that the prologue of the Decalogue mentions slavery (Exod 20:2): it relates to a central theme of the narratives of the book of Exodus, the release of Israelite slaves from Egyptian servitude.33