Biblical Justice
Introduction
Hebrew Lexical Data
Justice is the abstract concept of the resulting state of proper judgment. In a legal sense, judgment refers to the process of defending the righteous and condemning the guilty. Together, these concepts form the basis of righteous governance in an emulation of the kingdom of God.
שָׁפַט (šāpaṭ). vb. to judge, govern, administer justice. This verb generally refers to all aspects of administering justice, including making, enforcing, and judicially deciding the merit of case laws.
שׁפט (šāpaṭ), which means “to govern” or “to administer justice,”
שׁפט
מִשְׁפָט (mišpāṭ). n. masc. justice, judgment. Containing a nuance of righteous living, generally refers to all aspects of administering justice, including making laws, enforcing laws, and decisions regarding the merit of cases.
מִשְׁפָט (mišpāṭ, “judgment”)
Example Uses
צֶדֶק (ṣedeq, “righteousness”)
(ṣedeq). n. masc. righteousness, justice. The abstract concept of something or someone that is right or just. The focus of this section is on the legal aspects of justice.
צָדַק (ṣādaq). vb. to be or make righteous, to be or make just. Primarily describes the act of justifying a person or declaring a person to be justified.
צָדֹק (ṣādōq, “to be or make righteous”)
Depending on context, the Septuagint uses Greek words related to the terms δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē, “righteousness”) or κρίνω (krinō, “to judge”) to translate these Hebrew words.
OT Texts On Biblical Justice
Greek Lexical Data
δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē). n. fem. justice, righteousness. The quality of being in accordance with God’s law.
κρίσις (krisis). n. fem. judgment, legal case. Refers to the process, event, or result of legal proceedings intended to evaluate punishment.
Caring for Widows & Orphans in the NT
Nothing in this entire text suggests that the division of labor, or the difficulties that led to this division of labor, reflects some sort of significant theological differences between Hebrews and Hellenists.
Ancient texts viewed widows not, first of all, in terms of their bereaved marital status (as we generally do) but in terms of the destitution that typically resulted from it.145 One major study argues that widowhood was more common in this period than often assumed and that most widows were terribly impoverished. Some even argue that widows constituted nearly a third of women in the Roman world and 40 percent of those between forty and fifty years of age.147 If impoverished widows constituted only half of such numbers (despite the large percentage of poor people in general in Mediterranean antiquity), they could easily overwhelm a community’s resources to care for them.
Compared with Jewish customs of charity, those of Greek society did not help widows much. Generally, widows were expected to be supported by male relatives or to remarry.149 A Roman ideal was the univira, the person who married only once; but from the era of Augustus forward, remarriage was standard practice.151 Judaism tended to encourage widows’ remarriage and certainly did not discourage it.