"Are there Legal Texts in the Hebrew Bible that Evince a Concern for Animal Rights?"

Much has been written about animal rights in the four decades since the appearance of Peter Singer's classic monograph Animal Liberation (1975) and not a few studies consider - often in passing - what biblical texts have to contribute to debates about animal rights. These studies are, however,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biblical interpretation
Main Author: Olyan, Saul M. 1959- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2019]
In: Biblical interpretation
Year: 2019, Volume: 27, Issue: 3, Pages: 321-339
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Animal rights / Bible. Exodus 23,10-12 / Bible. Levitikus 25,2-7 / Sabbath commandment / Old Testament
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
NCG Environmental ethics; Creation ethics
Further subjects:B Hebrew Bible
B Leviticus
B Deuteronomy
B Biblical Law
B Book of the Covenant
B Animal Rights
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Summary:Much has been written about animal rights in the four decades since the appearance of Peter Singer's classic monograph Animal Liberation (1975) and not a few studies consider - often in passing - what biblical texts have to contribute to debates about animal rights. These studies are, however, almost exclusively the work of non-specialists. I begin to address this dearth of professional scholarship on this topic by exploring what four biblical laws - Exod. 23:10-11, 12; Lev. 25:2-7 and Deut. 5:12-15 - might suggest about the legal standing of animals. As legal scholar Gary L. Francione states, "[W]e normally use [the term "rights"] to describe a type of protection that does not evaporate in the face of consequential considerations." In this article, I consider whether the four biblical laws in question meet this standard.
ISSN:1568-5152
Contains:Enthalten in: Biblical interpretation
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685152-00273P01