Zusammenfassung / Summary
In the absence of Israelite documents of practice, contracts from the wider ancient Near East have much potential to illuminate the “traditions” surrounding certain biblical laws. In particular, the corpus of “marriage adoption” contracts from Nuzi can illuminate the origins and interpretation of the biblical law regarding the slavewoman in Exod 21,7-11, a text that is rife with ambiguities. When the biblical law is read in the context of the Nuzi contracts, it becomes clear that Exod 21,7-11 is rooted in knowledge of analogous Israelite contracts.