Above, we see Matthais Stom's 1638 depiction of Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham (Gen 16:1-3). The episode is filled with ethical issues. I explore Old Testament ethics in the publications below.
![]() Several chapters of This Strange and Sacred Scripture have an ethical focus. One of the first chapters examines how Genesis' creation stories offer ethical critiques of ideas in both ancient and modern times. Another chapter looks at how the Old Testament can be a positive moral source when its characters do so many terrible things. I also look at topics like violence, gender, and unusual legal commands.
![]() In From Fratricide to Forgiveness, I provide an overview of prior works on Old Testament ethics, exploring their usefulness for looking at the book of Genesis.
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![]() My entry “Biblical Ethics (Old Testament)” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the
Bible and Theology (ed. Samuel E. Balentine; New York: Oxford, 2015) provides a concise introduction to the field of biblical ethics from an Old Testament standpoint. Available here.
I am also working on the following essay: “Creation and Its Complication: Ethics of Genesis.” Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics. Edited by C. L. Crouch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
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