The Ethical Teaching of the Old Testament

THE purpose of the present discussion is to survey the field of Old Testament ethics, and to present some general considerations with reference to the ethical teaching. It is not the aim to consider concrete cases, except as they are related to the general considerations. Difficulties will not be considered merely as isolated facts, but with a view to the determination of some general principles concerning them. Considerable attention must necessarily be paid to the relation of Old Testament ethics to New Testament ethics; but the comparison of Old Testament ethics with other ancient systems of ethics, as well as with the ethical discussions of the present day, will only be made incidentally. While the present paper thus, to some extent, considers the Old Testament ethics as a system, it must be kept in mind that the ethical teaching of the Old Testament is in reality very unsystematic. This is due chiefly to the practical nature of the Old Testament ; the ethical teaching on different occasions was intended primarily to meet the needs of those particular times. It must also be remembered that the use of terms commonly employed in ethical discussions might easily give the impression that the Old Testament is more philosophical than is really the case. These terms are used here simply for convenience, for the sake of comparison, and do not ordinarily represent ideas formally presented in the Old Testament. Of course, in an exhaustive discussion of Old Testament ethics the subject must be treated historically, with a consideration of the development within the Old Testament. This would involve a discussion of the dates of different parts of the Old Testament. The present discussion is by no means exhaustive, and so will only occasionally attempt to consider this development. This