Law Before The Law » (1st Edition)

This book is a study in the law that exists before the beginnings of law. It looks at one foundational moment, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Drawing upon nearly two thousand years of Hebrew commentary, often scattered and fragmentary, The Law Before the Law seeks to reconstruct imaginative understandings of how Hebrew commentators visualized what existed prior to receiving the commandments.

Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xv
Abbreviations     xvii
Why Legal Prehistory Matters     1
In the Beginning was the Nomos     39
Did the Patriarchs Know the Torah?     83
The Giving of the Commandments at Marah     135
Law as Collective Memory     175
Conclusion: The Once and Future Law     211
Bibliography     217
Index     229
About the Author     237