Judges, early IsraeliteBRUCE WELLS

The texts of the Hebrew Bible are the primary

sources of our knowledge for judges in ancient

Israel prior to the Hellenistic period. One non-

biblical text from Iron-Age Palestine refers to

a legal dispute and is addressed to an official

identified by the Hebrew term sr. Although a sr

could hold judicial authority, the text is likely

an extra-judicial plea (Dobbs-Allsopp 1994).

Biblical texts prefer the term spt: (“judge”) foridentifying officials with the authority to adju-

dicate trials. Yet other officials also held such

authority, even if not marked by this term:

gods (Ex 22:8), kings (1 Kgs 3:16–28), royal

officials (Isa 1:23), city elders (Deut 21:18–21),

members of an “assembly” (Hebrew ‘dh; Num

35:24), and priests (Deut 17:8–13). In all cases,

those presiding over trials functioned as judge

and jury and, in some instances, as judge, jury,

and prosecution (1 Sam 22:11–19).

State andmilitary officials whomay also have

held judicial authority include the st:r (Deut

16:18), the r’s and qs:yn (Mic 3:1, 9), and the

sr. The latter appears in one version (Ex

18:13–27) of an etiology about the origins of

Israel’s judicial system. In another version of the

same story (Deut 1:9–18), the term used for the

men appointed to judicial posts is not sr but spt:.The sr was a royally appointed administrative

official who had the right to adjudicate trials

(Jer 26:10). It is not clear whether the spt:also served an administrative role. In early

Israelite legends (Judg 2:16–19), the term spt:carries a military connotation that eventually

disappears. It is also not clear how the spt: func-tioned within the Israelite judicial system vis-

a-vis local officials such as the city elder (zkn).

The legal texts of Deuteronomy, from

the mid-seventh century BCE, describe some

cases that are decided by city elders and

some by judges. Scholars disagree on the

import of these texts. Some have argued that

an important goal of Deuteronomy’s authors

was the professionalization of the judiciary:

professional judges would assume all judicial

responsibilities formerly held by city elders

(Levinson 1997: 124–7). Others have claimed

that judges and elders could have held judicial

authority congruently within the same judicial

system (Willis 2001: 33–88; Wells 2010).

Two post-exilic biblical texts also refer to the

appointment of judges. The text of 2 Chroni-

cles 19 depicts the Judahite king Jehoshaphat

appointing judges throughout all his king-

dom’s cities, with the high priest ultimately

over all religious matters and the governor of

Judah over all secular matters. The text may

not reflect historical reality, however, given its

tendentious context and language (Knoppers

1994). Finally, the text of Ezra 7 contains

a letter purportedly written in the fifth century

BCE by the Persian king Artaxerxes, who grants

Ezra the authority to appoint “magistrates”

(Aramaic, spt:) and “judges” (Aramaic, dyn)

in the Transeuphratene province (Ezra 7:25).

There is debate over the authenticity of this

letter and whether the intention would have

been for Ezra to appoint Israelite or Persian

judges (Fried 2001).

SEE ALSO: Israel and Judah; Law, ancient Near

East; Oaths, ancient Near East; Ordeals,

ancient Near East.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W. (1994) “The genre of the

Mes:ad H˙ashavyahu ostracon.” Bulletin of

the American Schools of Oriental Research 295:

49–55.

Fried, L. S. (2001) “‘You shall appoint judges’: Ezra’s

mission and the rescript of Artaxerxes.” In

J. W. Watts, ed., Persia and Torah: the theory of

imperial authorization of the Pentateuch: 63–89.

Atlanta.

Gertz, J. C. (1993) Die Gerichtsorganisation Israels

im deuteronomischen Gesetz. Gottingen.

Knoppers, G. N. (1994) “Jehoshaphat’s judiciary

and ‘the scroll of Yhwh’s Torah.’” Journal of

Biblical Literature 113: 59–80.

Levinson, B. M. (1997) Deuteronomy and the

hermeneutics of legal innovation. New York.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 3646–3647.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah01105

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Otto, E. (2003) “Recht im antiken Israel.” In

U. Manthe, ed., Die Rechtskulturen der Antike: Vom

Alten Orient bis zum romischen Reich: 151–90.

Munich.

Wells, B. (2010) “Competing or complementary?

Judges and elders in biblical and Neo-Babylonian

law.” In R. Achenbach and H. Neumann, eds.,

Reichsrecht und Lokalrecht: Zu Konkurrenz und

wechselseitigem Einfluss divergenter Rechtsord-

nungen im Alten Orient. Wiesbaden.

Willis, T. M. (2001) The elders of the city: a study

of the elders-laws in Deuteronomy. Atlanta.

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