Boilerplate Contracts and the Bible

Camels in NYC by Doug X

I was watching a video about the meaning of Exodus in the Torah as one does (link below) and something struck me as amazing!

In this lecture Christine Hayes talks about the cultural background of the story (the way scholars do) of the covenant and says that it has a great deal of similarity to suzerain contracts of the times, down to the curses called down for parties that default on the agreement.

The covenant Yahweh established with Israel at Mount Sinai exhibits striking parallels with Hittite suzerain/vassal treaties,[9] which had six basic features: 1) a preamble that identifies the suzerain; 2) a historical prologue that recounts the previous relationship between the parties; 3) covenant stipulations to which the vassal must agree; 4) provisions for periodic reading and safekeeping of the covenant ; 5) witnesses to the covenant; and 6) blessings and curses should the vassal either keep or fail to keep the covenant.[10] The Sinaitic covenant contains all six of these characteristics.

Now while that is interesting as a cultural phenomenon, it’s interesting to me…