[Book review] J. Cornelis de Vos and Hermut Löhr (eds) with the assistance of Juliane Ta Van, “You shall not kill” : the prohibition of killing in ancient religions and cultures (Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements 27)

Abstract

The ten indexes at the back of this book testify to the erudition and solid scholarship that exudes virtually from every page of this wonderfully produced publication. Indeed, both the editors and the publishers are to be highly commended. The former tell us that the central question of the twelve chapters, each of which had originally been presented as a paper at a conference held in Münster in 2011, is to examine ‘whether and how biblical and non-biblical killing prohibitions function as a norm in antiquity’ (p. 11). The aim of this work is thus crystal clear and its chronological scope is quite vast since it embraces the biblical (both the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New Testament) period, ancient Judaism, the period of Imperial Rome, the Church Fathers as well as the ancient Near East. The Preface, the List of Abbreviations and the editors’ Introduction are followed by twelve major contributions (eight in English and four in German) the majority of which tackle the above-mentioned central question within the respective period under discussion. A few (as will be pointed out below), although per se interesting, do not tackle the projected aim of the book.