Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 52:2 (NA 2001)
Article: The Relevance Of Creation And Righteousness To Intervention For The Poor And Needy In The Old Testament
Author: Richard W. Neville

TynBul 52:2 (2001) p. 307

The Relevance Of Creation And Righteousness To Intervention
For The Poor And Needy In The Old Testament1

Richard W. Neville

This study originated with an interest in explaining the fact that intervention for the vulnerable elements of society in the Old Testament is frequently associated with the roots צדק and שׁפט. It eventually led to a broader interest in the basis of intervention for the poor and needy in the OT. Both the spatial and temporal constraints of the dissertation meant it was necessary to narrow the area of study considerably. The original interest in the relevance of the roots צדק and שׁפט to intervention for the poor and needy was retained. To this was added a study of the relevance of human creation to the ethic of intervention for the vulnerable in the OT.

Part One of the dissertation investigates the theme of the relevance of human creation to intervention for the poor and needy, and consists of nine chapters. The first six are concerned with human creation as it is presented in Genesis 1, and the last three are concerned with the creation of human beings in the womb.

Genesis 1 records the creation of man in God’s image and this idea is echoed in Genesis 5 and 9. These three texts exhaust the biblical references to the concept of man as created in God’s image. Nevertheless, the fact that man was created in God’s image is potentially a powerful basis for advocating the proper treatment of human beings. Surprisingly, Genesis 9:6 is the only Old Testament text to explicitly invoke man’s creation in God’s image to establish a principle governing the treatment of human beings. This is enough, however, to justify an examination of Genesis 9:1–6 in an attempt to understand the nature of the connection the writer makes between human creation and the treatment of human beings.

TynBul 52:2 (2001) p. 308

In order to understand Genesis 9:6 it was also necessary to come to some kind of understanding of Genesis 1:26–28 and Genesis 5:1–3. In order to understand how human creation could serve as a basis for the proper treatment of human beings, it was necessary to understand how the writer of these texts (all as...