Abstract:
One usually expects ethical themes in the Pentateuch’s legal sections,
for example in the Book of Covenant, the Holiness Code,
Deuteronomy, and the Decalogue. However, one also encounters
material for ethics in some narrative parts of the Pentateuch, first of
all in the Patriarchal Traditions of Genesis. With this article, I
would like to demonstrate the ethical value of the Patriarchal narratives
by explaining three stories of conflict between the patriarchs
and their brothers or relatives. Israel finds its identity and vocation
very often in the Hebrew Bible when overcoming conflicts with
inner or foreign rivals. Thus in three stories of conflict told in the
Book of Genesis, I have tried to find how the narrators established
moral standards for Israel and how they helped the people of Israel
to find the right way of living together and the ideal way to resolve
inner conflicts. In that respect Israel could find its position among
the nations and its own identity.
