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Obwohl die Institution der alttestamentlichen Asylstdte in ihrer Funktion klar umrissen scheint, nmlich im Fall der unabsichtlichen Ttung eines Menschen Schutz vordem Blutrcher zu bieten, ergeben sich bei nherer Textbetrachtung doch etliche Problemanzeigen. Nicht nur differieren die entsprechenden Texte in den Bchern Exodus, Numeri, Deuteronomium und Josua erheblich voneinander, sondern es stellt sichauch die Frage, warum nicht Bestimmungen erlassen wurden, die eine voreilige Blutrache verhindern und damit das komplexe System der Asylstdte berflssig machen, diezudem durch ihre numerische Limitierung und geografischen Distanzen kaum den ihnen zugedachten Zweck erfllen konnten. Diese Studie versucht, auf methodisch gesicherter Basis den fiktional-programmatischen Anteil der entsprechenden Gesetze herauszuarbeiten und auf diese Weise plausibel zu machen, dass die alte Institution der Schutzsuche und Asylie am heiligen Ort unter dem Einfluss anderer Themenund Aussageintentionen geraten ist, die hauptschlich mit der Funktion heiliger Orte, den mit ihnen verbundenen Interessen und mit geografischen Punkten zu tun haben, die das gesamte beanspruchte Land abstecken. Auf diese Weise kann die Strukturlinie evident gemacht werden, die von einem Text zum nchstfolgenden fhrt. Die fiktionalen Textanteile ermglichen dabei nicht nur die Kanon-Werdung der Texte, sie werden auch zu einer Realitt, welche die Inkommensurabilitt des menschlichen Lebens als einen nicht hintergehbaren Wert des alttestamentlichen Zeugnisses hervorhebt.

The book examines the laws in the Pentateuch that govern trial-court witnesses and their testimony (for example, the requirement of at least two witnesses and the prohibition of false testimony). Through a detailed comparison of these laws

with Neo-Babylonian trial records, the author proposes new solutions to longstanding interpretive problems posed by the biblical texts. This is the first studyof pentateuchal law to make such extensive use of this Neo-Babylonian material.The book argues that these records from Mesopotamia shed important light on thebiblical laws and demonstrate how rules, like those contained in the pentateuchal codes, may have operated within an ancient Near Eastern judicial system. The features shared by the biblical and Neo-Babylonian material include legal terminology, evidence requirements, a preference for empirical evidence over religiousrituals for resolving disputes, and the treatment of wrongful prosecution. The author concludes that these features are more pronounced in the Neo-Babylonian than any other period, although they may have developed over time and found theirway into the biblical codes even before then. The book contains fresh analysis of a number of Neo-Babylonian as well as biblical texts.

The book focusses on the origin and transformation of the priestly festival calendar. Since the epoch-making work of Julius Wellhausen at the end of the nineteenth century the differences between the various ancient Israelite festival calendars (JE [Ex 23:14-19; 34:18-26], D [Deut 16:1-17], P [Ex 12; Lev 23; Num 28-29]) have often been explained in terms of a gradual evolution, which shows an increasing historicisation, denaturalisation and ritualisation. The festivals were in Wellhausen's view gradually detached from agricultural conditions and celebrated more and more at fixed points in the year. This study tries to show that thechanges in the priestly festival calendar reflect a conscious effort to adapt the ancient Israelite festival calendar to the semi-annual layout of the Babylonian festival year. The ramifications of the change only come to the fore after a careful study of the agricultural conditions of ancient Israel - and Mesopotamia

- makes clear that passover and the festival of unleavened bread were originallycelebrated in the second month of the year. The first month of the year envisaged by the priestly festival calendar for the celebration of passover and the festival of unleavened bread in turn mirrors the date of one of the two semi-annualBabylonian New Year festivals. The two Babylonian New Year festivals were celebrated exactly six months apart at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. In order toadapt the ancient Israelite festival calendar to the Babylonian scheme with twoNew Year festivals a year, the date of passover and the festival of unleavenedbread had to be moved up by one month. The consequences for the origin of passover, the festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks and the festival of

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huts are charted and the relations between the various ancient Israelite festival calendars are determined anew.