Episode #58
Sandra Jacobs, *The Body as Property: Physical Disfigurement in Biblical Law*. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
This monograph posits that physical disfigurement played a role in biblical law to validate legal property acquisition, especially when the status of dependents was officially recognized. It is grounded in the fact that the cuneiform script originated in Sumer and Mesopotamia for the purpose of record-keeping: to serve as legal proof of ownership, where the inscription on a tablet recorded the sale or transfer of property. In biblical law, the legitimacy of property acquisition was vital, with physical disfigurements signifying dependents, akin to how a veil or head covering denoted a wife or concubine in ancient Assyrian and Judean cultures. This is primarily supported by the narratives of prescriptive disfigurements: specifically, circumcision and the piercing of a slave's ear, both of which were mandated only when a son or slave was permanently acquired. Additionally, it is contended that legal entitlement was pertinent to the punitive disfigurements noted in Exodus 21:22-24 and Deuteronomy 25:11-12, where the physical violation of women was regarded solely as a violation of male property rights.
