War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East: Military Violence in Light of Cosmology and History (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft)

The monograph considers the relationships of ethical systems in the ancient Near East through a study of warfare in Judah, Israel and Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. It argues that a common cosmological and ideological outlook generated similarities in ethical thinking. In all three societies, the mythological traditions surrounding creation reflect a strong connection between war, kingship and the establishment of order. Human kings' military activities are legitimated through their identification with this cosmic struggle against chaos, begun by the divine king at creation. Military violence is thereby cast not only as morally tolerable but as morally imperative. Deviations from this point of view reflect two phenomena: the preservation of variable social perspectives and the impact of historical changes on ethical thinking. The research begins the discussion of ancient Near Eastern ethics outside of Israel and Judah and fills a scholarly void by placing Israelite and Judahite ethics within this context, as well as contributing methodologically to future research in historical and comparative ethics.

The monograph considers the relationships of ethical systems in the ancient Near East through a study of warfare in Judah, Israel and Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. It argues that a common cosmological and ideological outlook generated similarities in ethical thinking.
In all three societies, the mythological traditions surrounding creation reflect a strong connection between war, kingship and the establishment of order. Human kings’ military activities are legitimated through their identification with this cosmic struggle against chaos, begun by the divine king at creation. Military violence is thereby cast not only as morally tolerable but as morally imperative.
Deviations from this point of view reflect two phenomena: the preservation of variable social perspectives and the impact of historical changes on ethical thinking.
The research begins the discussion of ancient Near Eastern ethics outside of Israel and Judah and fills a scholarly void by placing Israelite and Judahite ethics within this context, as well as contributing methodologically to future research in historical and comparative ethics.

The monograph considers the relationships of ethical systems in the ancient Near East through a study of warfare in Judah, Israel and Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. It argues that a common cosmological and ideological outlook generated similarities in ethical thinking, with kings℗þ military activities made morally imperative by their identification with a cosmic struggle against chaos. The research begins the discussion of ancient Near Eastern ethics outside of Israel and Judah and fills a scholarly void by placing Israelite and Judahite ethics within this context Frontmatter 1 Contents 9 1. Introduction 13 Part I Ideology, cosmology and ethics 25 2. Ideology and the confrontation of cultures 27 3. Assyrian cosmology 33 4. Judahite and Israelite cosmology 41 Part II Ethics and society 45 5. Ethics of the Assyrian élite 47 6. Ethics of the Judahite and Israelite élite 77 7. Ethics of the non-élite 109 Part III Ethics and history 129 8. Developments in Assyrian ethics 131 9. Developments in Judahite and Israelite ethics I 168 10. Developments in Judahite and Israelite ethics II 186 11. Conclusions 203 Backmatter 209 Biographical note: Carly L. Crouch, University of Cambridge