Katarzyna Barbara Parys

Contract, Covenant, and the Structure of Law Assignment 1

By what authority can a constitution be made?

In ancient times there is a need to a divine force in order to establish laws. Those
laws are stronger than any civil ones.

In the Bible, the laws are given directly by God. God gave not only general 10
commandments, but also detailed instructions about how the law works in almost any
given circumstances. It is interesting that the descriptive part is about how the law
works between unequal groups, like servants, woman, daughters, with the distinction in
treatment between male and female servants and members of families. The further part
describes how to solve commercial conflicts, the ones regarding living animals, what to
do in case of theft, fire, damage caused by third parts etc.

Moses climbed the mountain alone in order to get commandments and the laws
that were communicated to Israel were a direct divine message. The voice of God
appeared within dark sky, in a scary way. Israelites were obliged to live in accordance
with the given laws because if not terrible things will happen. They were living in a
constant fear of God. In the next fragment, it is stressed that given laws, meaning ten
commandments, are the fruit of covenant between God and Israel. It´s also remembered
how the commandments were given to Israel, it was a direct voice of God, and, to not be
forgotten, commandments were given also in written version, on stone tables. But the
voice and tables came directly from God.

The covenant was made between Israel and God in this way: the people were
given a divine law to follow and God promised to take care of them. But there is no
information about civil institutions responsible for fulfilling of divine laws. God is the
only just judge. In many fragments of the Bible God was saving Israelites form foreign
legislation, showed always as unjust, as we´ll see above.

The story of Bathsheba shows how David acted against the law and what the
punishment was. The story is interesting, because David actually broke the 6th and 9th
commandment. He committed adultery and he killed people in order to get Uriah the
Hittite´s wife. He tricked Uriah into a party, and he made his servant to send Uriah in
the front of the battle in order to kill him indirectly. Poor man died and David could get
Bathsheba. David´s act displeased the Lord, David was punished by death of his and
Bathsheba´s baby son, but after that everything was perfect. Breaking the law, a sin, was
treated directly by God. There was no civil court to treat David´s crime, it was only a
God to punish in arbitrary way. The punishment is not fixed by law, is not equal to
everybody, depends only on God´s intervention. There is no room for civil law, no
social contract.

Daniel’s story is about jealous noble men who are trying to find a sin on Daniel.
As it´s impossible, they plot to create a situation in which he´ll be found against the law
of God. So, they propose a civil law that the one who is praying to any god in the next
30 days should be cast into the den of lions. Daniel, besides of knowing the new law,
was praying in his home to his God. Jealous noble man gave the notice to the king about
this fact and it was inevitable for Daniel to be punished and meet lions. But again, we
have a God´s intervention. Daniel was put with the lions, but God´s angels shot lion´s
mouth and they didn´t kill Daniel. God´s law is showed as superior to civil law. Civil
law in this story is something that can be easy to manipulate, absurd, be a tool of harm.
The only one that is truly just and is the law is God. God´s law was shown as a law
above human´s nonsense. On the other hand, the ones that accused Daniel and all their
families was eaten with no mercy by hungry lions. And the king decreed that everyone
should fear and tremble the God of Daniel, and Daniel´s kingdom, meaning Israel,
should not be destroyed. Old Testament´s God is really taking care of Israel.

Medea was a pagan princess who fell in love with Jason. He was meant to beat
her father, so, she has decided to help. She betrayed her family and her homeland for
her lover by killing her father and her brother. Jason brought her back to Greece. But, at
some point Jason wanted to get rid of Medea. He wanted to marry Corinthian princess
and banish Medea from the city, and the kids they have together. Medea got mad
because she betrayed her family because of Jason and then he left her. The law problem
we face in the play is that they were not legally married, because she was pagan, and he
was Greek. So, legally, he can leave her and the kids without breaking the law. From
civil law´s point of view it is only shameful to do it. Medea has an evil plan to poison a
new bride, kill her children in order to hurt Jason, and make him miserable childless and
with no bride.

Nevertheless, the evil plan and all the deaths caused by Medea, are not important
for Gods in a perspective of her being betrayed by her lover. Medea appears on the roof,
standing on a chariot of winged Dragons, in which are the children's bodies that Zeus
send to help her. Form human point of view the final of the play is unjust and cruel.
Moreover, Medea is seen as someone supernatural, to be helped by gods. This situation
reminds me of the unequal moral expectation from mortals and gods in Greek culture.
Humans were supposed to be always just, strong, living in accordance with law. Gods,
on the other hand, was permitted to act in evil way without punishment. Because of that
it feels like all terrible crimes of Medea are making her closer to Olympian gods, and
for that reason she found help from gods.

Which powers, rights, privileges, responsibilities, etc. are left with the constituted
authority (i.e., 'the state')?

Civil law in ancient Greek regulates the way polis are living and organizing their
states. Everyone has to live in accordance with this law. Moreover, divine forces are not
legislated by humans. They have their own laws, but they are also free to break the
rules. If they are punished, it is only because of personal issues between gods.

In Jewish tradition God is the source of a law. Ten commandments are the base
of the law, but we can find in Bible, as I said before, many detailed regulations about
everyday life. Civil law is seen as something that vary between kingdoms and can be
unintuitive. The regional regulations and punishments that are not the direct
interpretation of ten commandments or that are harmful to Israelites, are invalid for
God. God as the one and only just judge can punish directly without any rules. The
punishment is personal and there is no rule what sin can be punished in which way.
Also, disgrace does not have to be God´s punishment. The God gave the laws and he is
the last authority to account for following his laws.

Which powers, rights, privileges, responsibilities, etc. are left with the persons who
are subjected to that authority (e.g., citizens or subjects)?

Citizens have to follow the law. Being a part of a law community is a privilege
of being under the law. Law has to be followed, but the community in which laws are
being followed is a safe community. So, being a part of the community with laws is a
privilege.