본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

Patriarchal Authority and Communal Restraint: A Social-Historical Understanding of Deuteronomy 21:18–21

  • Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies
  • Abbr : KJOTS
  • 2025, 31(4), pp.346~378
  • DOI : 10.24333/jkots.2025.31.4.346
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : October 20, 2025
  • Accepted : November 22, 2025

Kee, Min Suc 1

1침례신학대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper pursues a twofold aim: to introduce the theoretical framework of social-historical criticism and to demonstrate its interpretive value through an analysis of Deuteronomy 21:18-21, the law concerning the “stubborn and rebellious son.” Social-historical criticism is defined as a method that reconstructs the institutional realities and material foundations of ancient Israelite society, distinguishing itself from sociological or social-scientific criticism by its historical grounding and focus on concrete social mechanisms reflected in the text. Within this framework, the study investigates the social reality behind the law, demonstrating that patriarchal violence was not merely a literary motif but an actual social power embedded in the household structure. The patriarch exercised near-absolute control over property and family members, including life-and-death authority. Against this background, Deuteronomy 21:18-21 represents a legal innovation that seeks to restrain such domestic authority through communal oversight. The law mandates the joint involvement of both parents, the judicial review of city elders, and the public participation of the community, thereby transforming private patriarchal power into regulated, collective justice. The study concludes that the law’s ultimate purpose lies not in enforcing execution but in preventing it. By institutionalising procedural safeguards, the text restarins violence and redefines justice as communal rather than private. This reading reveals Deuteronomy's vision of law as a means to balance covenantal obedience with the preservation of life and illustrates how social-historical criticism uniquely exposes the dynamic between power, violence, and communal ethics in biblical law.

Statistics

  • 6 Viewed
  • 2 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2024 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search