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So That We Might Be Kept Alive: Towards a Bioethical Hermeneutic of Old Testament Law

June 18, 2016

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The laws of the Old Testament have been used (and misused) in the field of Christian bioethics. This paper explores the hermeneutics of OT laws in Christian bioethics. To pursue this end, the study shall briefly survey contemporary OT hermeneutics that appropriate OT texts for ethical ends. To do so, a spectrum of hermeneutic positions is proposed describing scholarly opinion regarding the usefulness of OT laws within Christian ethical discourse—from “not useful” (e.g. Cyril Rodd) to “necessarily undergirding Christian ethical discourse” (e.g. Christopher Wright). The merits of each position is evaluated. The hermeneutic proposals of the latter position are then explored in order to distill interpretive principles for ethical appropriation of OT laws. The study also briefly surveys a sampling of representative writings within Christian bioethics with a view toward the hermeneutics employed. This survey will also evaluate these interpretations and interpretive procedures against the more robust hermeneutic approaches of the previous section. A second phase of the paper offers a constructive reading of two sample OT law texts, applying these texts to contemporary bioethical issues.

Keywords:
Biblical studies; Biblical ethics