Chapter 12 Chapter 11 Why the Genesis World Is Lawless

The book of Genesis can be seen as a metaphor for the bumpy experience of most legal systems, between the extremes of lawlessness and lawfulness, and the journey does not follow a straight line.As we saw in Genesis, with progress comes regression, then progress, sometimes one step forward and two steps back, and then forward like Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution Take a big leap; sometimes the direction of the jump is backwards, like Germany in the Nazi era and the Soviet Union in the Stalin era; sometimes the steps you take can’t be seen as forward or backward, and there is even no conclusion on what counts as progress .No system of the world has developed along the same lines, yet we can see several common themes, and these appear in the story of "Genesis".

In the world of Genesis, laws are mostly natural laws, without active purpose.An action and its response are derived from the nature of man and the Creator, not according to written guidelines.If law calls itself a "law of nature," it must be as arbitrary, uncertain, unpredictable, ambiguous, and open to multiple interpretations as human or divine nature.The difference in human nature is just like the appearance of everyone in the world.In the book of Genesis alone, we see Cain the brother-killer, Abraham the human rights fighter, and Jacob the family man.These roles are not consistent and each person takes on many different aspects throughout their life.Cain started out as a cold-blooded murderer and later became the founder of a city; Abraham argued and pleaded with God for strangers, but later refused to plead for his son; The strategist, and finally the loving father who bestows the most insightful and helpful blessings on his offspring.

The characters in Genesis, like people throughout history, do not share any unique nature, or even share common traits.This world has produced Moses, Jesus, Great Hillel and Schweitzer, but it has also produced Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan.Therefore, it cannot be attributed to a single outlook on life.Even the nature of God in Genesis is not uniform.He is a God who is irritable, vengeful, demanding, and narrow-minded, but also a God who is tolerant, merciful, protects life, and can even repent and start anew. What is clear about the laws of nature in the Bible cannot be deduced from the varied nature of human beings in Genesis or their Creator.Biblical stories have the characteristics of an open text, which is not suitable for deriving dogma with unified principles and clear items.These multifaceted stories definitely do not present a single concept. If anyone wants to extract some evidence from these stories to support a certain conclusion, it can be said that they do not understand the complexity and wisdom of these stories.For example, the story of Cain and Abel is cited by both those who support and those who oppose the death penalty, and they both call upon God to support their arguments on this controversial issue.Similarly, both sides of the debate on the issue of homosexuality also cited the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah as their own evidence.

Even so, we can draw conclusions from the Genesis story.The conclusion is that there must be a set of codes of conduct that everyone agrees on and can enforce, plus procedural safeguards to prevent arbitrary or unfair use of the law.All the scriptures in the Bible after Genesis, as well as the persistence of the Jews in the past to justice and axioms, are all dealing with such needs.In the law codes of the Bible, we not only get broad principles and expressly regulated codes of conduct from the Ten Commandments (some should be done, some should not be done), but also a guideline, that is, to actively pursue justice and axioms , although that seems to be an unattainable Holy Grail.

Originally, all "laws" were time-sensitive.The powerful class can command the powerless class at will, and threaten it Not only did it fail to deliver what it said it would do, it was also unpredictable.Yes, the unpredictability of punishment can be seen as a source of power.God's first threat to Adam was "the day you eat that fruit, you will die, yes, you will die." However, after Adam made a mistake, God imposed a series of punishments that did not match his words and deeds.God's failure to follow his word and his unpredictable nature is also shown in Cain's punishment for killing Abel.These are punishments tailored to the circumstances. Such punishments are not prescribed in advance in legal provisions, but are determined on the basis of developing, but often incomplete, concepts of justice and axioms.

In addition, there is another characteristic of the time-based punishment, that is, the pendulum phenomenon, under-reaction will be followed by over-reaction until the appropriate middle ground is found.Trial and error are unavoidable in the pursuit of justice and axioms in a timely manner.God, who created the universe in just six days, found it difficult to institute a system of justice to rule over the human race he had created. It is not surprising, then, that God—the source of justice in the days of Genesis—overreacted to the faults of Adam, Eve, and Cain for being so lenient; God decided to destroy In the whole world, there is only one family and one pair of each kind of creature. The great God in "Genesis" not only learned from his mistakes, but also announced one thing in the Bible, that is, "he does not know everything" God regrets creating human beings and wants to change his original blueprint; Then he felt that he was overreacting, so he promised that he would not wipe out the good and the bad together again (at least not by the flood). Finally, God understood that the punishment method tailored to the current situation was not effective, so he set up a set of rules to deal with it. Jurisdiction over all mankind, and one of the most important ones is "kill for life"

Perhaps the development process of most legal systems has evolved from rules tailored to current conditions and inappropriate punishments to expressly established rules and punishments of appropriate severity.Generally speaking, individual cases will gradually form a small piece of the "common law" puzzle, and these small puzzles will eventually be pieced together into a specific legal model.Then this model is formalized and becomes some form of law, and finally it is made public in writing or aloud. The late Lord Chancellor Hugo Black (Hugo Black) once told a story: A king wrote laws and regulations in such a thin handwriting that his courtiers could hardly decipher them.This allowed the king to alter the decree at will to suit his whim.Justice Black's colleague on the Supreme Court, Felix Frankfurter, also used a different imagery to express the same idea.He compared America's rigorous judicial system to a legal system in which "kadi sitting under a fig tree" judges each person according to his likes and dislikes.In these two vivid metaphors, both Blake and Frankfort attack legal systems that rule more by men than by laws.

All are equal before the law regardless of status.The laws governing the people are published in advance, so that it is known what actions are punished and what actions are rewarded; so that it can be determined who will benefit from it and who will be punished by it. It is a pity that it is impossible to establish a set of laws that can deal with all behaviors.No matter how detailed the laws and regulations are written, there are always loopholes or places that cause controversy, and these can only be repaired on a case-by-case basis.Due to the existence of these loopholes, we sometimes inevitably need the assistance of the rule of man.The wise King Solomon is a model of the rule of man judicial system.But history tells us that don't expect every king to be as wise as King Solomon.That's why we have a group of legislators (members of Congress) who make general laws, and a group of people who apply the law (judges) to apply them in specific situations.The foundation of any legal system is to strike the most appropriate balance between the rule of law and the rule of man.

The way to achieve balance in the contemporary American legal system is to establish a system of mutual checks and balances among the three departments of legislation (making regulations), law enforcement (enforcing regulations), and judiciary (interpreting regulations).All Americans are governed by a written Constitution, a Bible-like code that combines clear-cut laws (such as the age of thirty-five to hold the presidency) and open-minded codes of conduct (any No one should be deprived of the "due process" and "equal guarantees" stipulated in the law. Under the Constitution, there are statutory laws at all levels such as federal laws, state laws, and city laws. These laws must conform to the Constitution; on the other hand, the President Enforcers such as governors, mayors, etc., enforce these statutes. As for the role of the courts, it is to interpret and apply the laws, and finally review them by the Supreme Court to determine whether they meet the constitutional requirements.

From this point of view, the American system has many similarities to the biblical system.At the apex of the biblical system is naturally the scriptures of the Bible.The Bible is like a constitution, which cannot be contradicted by any lower law unless it is amended through due process.Christianity claims they have corrected the Old Testament with the New Testament.Therefore, the explicit provisions of the Old Testament scriptures regarding unclean food have been abolished.Interestingly, when Jesus "amended" the original "Constitution", he used a phrase familiar to lawyers and judges, "Don't think that I have come to break the law...I have not come to break it, but to fulfill it. "In the Jewish tradition, the Torah can never be revised, but it can be interpreted in accordance with class rules.According to this tradition, God handed down the oral Torah along with the written Bible to Moses, who then passed it on to Joshua and the seventy rabbis, who then passed it on to others to continue the tradition.Finally, it was handed down to those who "compiled the "Mishna"", and then it was studied by future generations and interpreted according to the "Thirteen Rules of Interpretation" agreed by the "Great Tribunal".According to such hierarchical rules, each generation must obey the more authoritative opinion of the previous generation, because the previous generation is closer in time to the source of the scriptures, but each is bound by the agreed method of interpretation.There is a famous legend in which a rabbi contradicted God despite his voice from heaven: "We do not care about the oracle from heaven, because you wrote the law on Mount Sinai." The story tells We, who have the authority to interpret the current law.

It’s also a story that’s not uncommon in history: Supreme Court justices in the case of “Marbury v. Madison” (Marbury v. Madison) asserted that they have the power to strike down any law or statute that is unconstitutional.It's like a modern version of that legend.Just as the rabbis emphasized that they had the right to interpret the law, the justices also emphasized that they had the right to interpret the time-honored constitution according to the needs and realities of the time.I have heard justices argue that the framers of the Constitution included open-ended words in order to make the Constitution perpetually open to new interpretations.Today, the hottest debate is whether the justices should be bound by a "voice from heaven" by claiming to know the vague "original intention" of those constitution framers; The legal code can adapt to the changes of the times.I've also heard rabbis make the same argument about the Bible. In the process of "Genesis" from authoritarian arbitrariness to justice and axioms, these long-lasting seeds of controversy have been contained.The path of the pursuit of justice has been tortuous since ancient times, and always reflects the inevitable twists and turns of the human journey.In the book of Genesis, we see the regulation of the times, then some crude legal codes to follow, then more adaptive regulation, and then the common law gradually develops.Interspersed in such a process are bargains, contracts, deeds, tests, tests, turns of events, and other conditions associated with the formation of legal institutions.At the same time, we see challenges to authority, violations, deceit, broken word, negotiation, legal artifice, and all sorts of phenomena in how people interact with the legal system. The out-of-control crime rate, the great flood, the promise of no more floods... After a ridiculous prelude, God made a covenant with Abraham, which changed the status of both parties: God became a constitutional monarch and bound himself with laws , and gave his people Abraham the special status of a covenant partner.God then, as if discovering the limits of this new legal arrangement, imposed two seemingly contradictory experiments on Abraham. Abraham passed the first test with ease, and established this principle in the common law of Judaism: If God violates justice and axioms, we not only have the right but also the duty to argue with God.God later ordered: "Justice and axioms, justice and axioms are what you should pursue." (Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof.) The literal translation of tirdof in the original text is "following closely", which means to pursue endlessly and continuously mean.However, the axiom of justice is not a concept that can be achieved and will not change, but an imperfect process.Just like "struggling for freedom, you will suffer failure at any time", so the pursuit of justice and axioms is a never-ending task.The repeated tzedek here can be understood not only as the justice and axiom of human beings, but also as the justice and axiom of heaven. Chutzpah k'lapei shemaya means that human beings not only show a firm stand when they demand justice and axioms for the earthly residents, but also insist on the God who rules the heaven.God willingly accepts the limits of his absolute authority, and he once boasted to an angel: "My children speak better than I do!" There is a limit to these restrictions, however.Man can argue with God, but cannot refuse to obey his direct orders.Just like a soldier can argue with the commander about the battle plan, but he cannot refuse to obey the orders issued in accordance with military law.Therefore, in order to test Abraham's adherence to this principle of the covenant, God gave him the most difficult direct command for any man, that is, to sacrifice his beloved Son as a burnt offering.Here we see a head-on conflict between a binding legal norm on the one hand and a decree according to the times issued by the legislator God himself on the other. Abraham’s special status as a contractual partner is actually a double-edged sword—God gave Abraham special rights (he can argue directly with God); but he also has some additional obligations to God, that is, he cannot refuse God issues direct orders to him personally, even if the order violates the general rules God has established for others.Kierkegaard pointed out that a paradoxical belief "puts" that single individual ... above the universe.Abraham represents faith, (and) his strength to act comes from an absurd quality; and this absurd quality is precisely because he is a human being, and his status is higher than the universe.Abraham's special status as a "Knight of Faith" is not only beneficial, but also a burden. The role of status, which can be seen throughout the book of Genesis, is highlighted in Lot's story, where God spared his family at least in part because he was a close relative of Abraham.Later, the influence of status became less and less important than a person's behavior and intentions. This is also a model of the development of the legal system. Reading Genesis as a legal history before the establishment of a formal legal system helps explain why the book is full of criminals, crimes, deceit, vengeance, punishment, and other evils.Law is derived from evil and the process of dealing with it, and the common law is based on human error rather than right action.It's a series of stories about how humans deal with each other's missteps.Open any legal code, from the oldest Anglo-Saxon codes, the vast volumes of Roman law, the controversial cases in the Talmud, to the rulings of the Supreme Court, and you will read many grievances.The common law of justice is always based on injustice.A just act never elicits the same degree of reaction as a violation of a just axiom, so it is not so paradoxical that justice axioms were born out of the grievances of Genesis. In fact, comparing Genesis with the Christian Bible and the Islamic Koran, the differences between the three are not so difficult to understand.The latter two books deal less with legal developments than Genesis, so there is no need to focus on the grievances experienced by the protagonists of the stories.By the time of Jesus, the law had already been practiced for a long time. From Jesus' point of view, that set of laws had even become rigid, requiring kindness, grace, and flexible application of the law.By doing good and righteous works, Jesus showed a way to transcend the rigidity of the Jewish law. The same argument can be made for Muhammad, who was five hundred years after Jesus.Because the Koran is a relatively recent system in terms of law, it is based on the Jewish and Christian scriptures, and naturally deals with a broader level than the New Testament.And Muhammad was able to lead by example by not revealing the human frailties shown by the characters in Genesis. This interpretation also helps to eliminate the differences between the God of Genesis and the God of later theological classics.Since God is the ultimate lawgiver, the embodiment of all laws and justice, and Genesis is the starting point of the initial development of law, the God of Genesis is a God in development, a God like the early The legal system generally errs and admits to the God of error, learning by trial and error.The God in the later Christian Bible and the Islamic Koran is a nearly perfect God, just as his law is more perfect, and his heroes are also more perfect heroes. The mortals in Genesis also gradually understand the concept of justice and axioms through trial and error.In the Garden of Eden, the idea of ​​justice and axioms was neither possible nor required to exist.God ruled in Eden as a well-meaning despot rules over his obedient people, or as a shepherd over his docile flock.Since Adam and Eve have not yet tasted the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they do not need the so-called justice and axioms, nor do they need shame. Shame is a heart that can admit mistakes when they do wrong, and is a prerequisite for justice and axioms.Once human beings eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and know how to distinguish between good and evil, they understand that they have freedom of choice.However, such freedom contains a possibility, and this situation will indeed happen, that is, human beings may choose the evil side.If there is no price to pay for doing evil, it is very likely that human beings would rather do evil than do good, because the immediate benefits of doing evil always far outweigh the rewards of doing good. Therefore, when God looked down on the lawless world before the flood, he would see that "mankind on the earth was full of evil, and his thoughts were only evil things all day long." So this is the time for law and order.After the great flood, God established the first law. Whoever sheds human blood, his blood must be shed. It is worth mentioning that the first law prohibiting murder in the Bible depends on the status of the person involved, and it cannot be applied everywhere. God said, "Whoever kills Cain will be punished seven times." punish. The irony is that the first man protected by the statute from the danger of killing was himself a murderer for fear of reprisal. The law that God announced to Noah later allowed human beings to still freely choose between good and evil, but at this time, the choice came with consequences.In other words, God's first two experiments failed.His first experiment, the Garden of Eden, was a world without knowledge of good and evil.It was an idyllic world where human beings were absolutely obedient to God's will, with no need for justice, shame or laws.However, human beings, created in the image of God, resisted this ignorant bliss. They thought about life carefully, preferring the right to choose between good and evil, so they deserved to be expelled from the Garden of Eden.Because knowledge is really incompatible with the poetic Garden of Eden. God's second experiment is a world that can be chosen, but does not have to bear the imaginable consequences, so there is no so-called justice and axiom at all.God wants human beings who already know the difference between good and evil to choose the good and reject the evil without the promise of rewarding the good or the threat of punishing the evil.Unfortunately, he soon discovered that the evil instinct, that is, yetzer ha—ra is too powerful, and it is not enough for human beings to have the ability to choose. God's third experiment is also a world that can be chosen, but this time one has to bear the consequences of the choice, that is, a rudimentary law has been formulated, and anyone who violates it will bear serious consequences.God's covenant with Noah started the experiment.In the end, God found that the simple contract he made with Noah, although supplemented with a few basic laws, was still not enough to govern the intricate relationship between God and mankind, and between people. Abraham established a tighter covenant and taught the covenant partners to act justly and righteously.This incident became the starting point for the birth of common law in Genesis. During this process, God swabbed the patriarchs so that their descendants would know how to uphold justice.Like a good teacher, he threatens to eradicate the innocent and the guilty alike, challenging and stimulating the conscience of the students.And Abraham's Response to This Threat Chapter 11 "Genesis" Why the World Is Lawless 173 Rather than that, it would be better if both the guilty and the innocent were spared death.Abraham's reasoning may have been flawed, but his intuitive perception was true.Later, such views will be developed more fully, but here is a good start! The mystery of Genesis is that it accurately reflects the history of civilizations in an era when legal systems were not yet formed. "Genesis" shows us a world without laws, but it is not a completely lawless world.In one sense, Genesis is the genesis of the common law, bringing together a barrage of tailored commands, threats, punishments, rewards, tests, reprisals, blessings, curses, bargains, promises, deceit, change of mind, consequences and life stories, all combined to form the basis of many written laws in subsequent books of the Bible.Indeed, all the great jurisprudence of these laws is to be found in Genesis; All are covered in the form of stories rather than in the form of columns.As we shall see in the next chapter, the story of Genesis occupies an extremely important position in the interpretation and establishment or failure of later legal provisions.

---

Notes: