In Western academic contexts, the idea of laws of nature is often
regarded as having originated among the pre-Socratics, Plato, and the
Stoics. But this view is historically incorrect. Legal interpretations
of cosmic phenomena go back to the ancient Near East, where such
understandings also emerged in the Hebrew Bible. The authors analyzes
texts relevant to this topic, developing a fresh approach to portrayals
of ‘laws of nature’ from antiquity. Konrad Schmid draws attention to
some blind spots of Western history of science and to biblical texts
mentioning laws of heaven , laws of heaven and earth or ordinances
imposed on the moon and the stars. Such concepts can be compared to the
Mesopotamian concept of a supreme god establishing like a legislator the
rules of cosmic order. That background is elucidated in detail by F.
Rochberg, whose contribution considers the Mesopotamian trope of the
divine judiciary and its extension to the physical world, and discusses
the question whether the case-law formulation of Akkadian omen
statements (protasis-apodosis, if P, then Q ) should be understood as
evidence for a law-like understanding of cosmic order. W. Horowitz
starts from Gen 9:12-17 to study the Akkadian terminology and ominous
interpretations of the rainbow, which can be either benefic or malefic.
F. Naether in a broad survey demonstrates that in Egypt, too, divination
operated with law-like notions; she reviews texts which discuss natural
phenomena without necessarily relating them to divine agency, and
identifies early attempts to a philosophy of nature. D. P. Wright, who
offers a detailed study of law and creation in the Priestly-Holiness
writings of the Pentateuch, highlights the differentiation established
between universal conditions in creation, on the one hand, and knowledge
(on sacrifice, the calendar, purity and holiness, the name of Yahweh and
his kabod) made specifically available to Israel as Yahweh’s chosen
people, on the other. J. L. Cooley analyzes Isa 2:1-4 against the
background of ancient Mesopotamian divination, concluding that the
biblical oracle provides a counter-narrative to Mesopotamian traditions
regarding the effectiveness and antiquity of its divination tradition.
M. Albani argues that in 1 Henoch the focus on astronomy and astral
regularity forms the basis of an ideal calendar of 364 days, whose
constance should serve as an antidote to anomia experienced in
Hellenistic-period Enochic Judaism . J. Hufner, professor emeritus of
theoretical physics, reviews some elementary astronomical principles
discovered in antiquity, such as periodicity, increasing use of
mathematics, and of models to apprehend the planetary system. C.
Uehlinger summarizes common views and divergencies between the various
materials surveyed, stressing the problematic status of the concept of
nature with regard to ancient Near Eastern materials and pointing out
the longevity, all but obvious after all, of the legal metaphor which
still operates in contemporary discourse on the laws of nature.
