(Serializing here the draft of my book, Biblical Law: Divine Justice.)
5. Property
Unlike Western feudalism, where land was the primary object of ownership and the serfs simply belonged to the land same as animals, ANE feudalism is very personal and holds people as the primary treasure. Material wealth could be recovered easily enough, but people were the source of wealth, not land. It was a burden on the chiefs and other rulers to maintain justice so that Creation would actively support reasonable prosperity. The leaders’ moral stature was a major issue and could never be presumed simply by virtue of position or role. It was a heavy burden and men were rightly somewhat reluctant to accept the mission of shepherding more than their own immediate household. The head of household was responsible for bearing a very indulgent affection for everyone, and God required his blood for theirs if he failed.
While it would always be obvious that the nature and use of some physical objects prevented more than one person claiming it, most property was familial. In more primitive pastoral societies, it would be said that the chief owned all the flocks, but it meant that he was responsible for feeding, clothing and housing everyone in his extended household with those animals. Disowning a family member was serious business. It was quite rare because most problems resulted in either stern discipline within the household, or in such extreme measures as execution. Otherwise, it was share and share alike. When it’s all blood kin sharing, we don’t call it “communism.”
Furthermore, one could become family by covenant. A woman married into her husband’s family most of the time, and was thereby an equal member of the household. There were other forms of covenants with varying degrees of application, but in general, covenants were more binding than — took precedence over — blood kinship. It was a broadly recognized custom that a natural heir could be disinherited, but a covenant heir could not.
There was no such thing as contracts, which in theory bind property only. All business was personal in ANE feudalism. You weren’t permitted to invest without a blood kinship or covenant tie with the titular owner (and family) of a business or property. If you weren’t there to work it with your own hands, you had to send a family representative. This guaranteed a full bond of responsibility for all parties in both directions. There could be no such thing as property owned indirectly. Even rental was full personal ownership for a limited term. If you weren’t personally involved in occupying the property in some way, you didn’t own it and had no claim. Our modern property laws are pure perversion up against divine justice.
In similar fashion, various forms of liability were all personal. Our civil, tort and criminal justice systems are an ugly insult to Creation itself, and rather like poking God in the eye. We whine about slavery but our prison system is actually far worse than ANE slavery. We grant conflicting ownership claims and use conflicts as an excuse to enrich the powerful. Perhaps the greatest abomination of all is the notion that the state has any claim on the individual against the family. In a broad sense, God Himself permits violent resistance of government agents who interfere with domestic affairs. That doesn’t mean it will necessarily be effective, but that was never the point. It still requires you are sensitive to the context with your heart and understand the nature of divine justice. This crime of breeching the sanctity of the family structure alone justifies God destroying any nation.
In divine justice, there is no such thing as The State. If it isn’t the people directly involved, it cannot be a valid government in His eyes. Abstracting roles as if they were legitimate third parties is dehumanizing, a moral holocaust. In essence, no one has any legitimate say in your daily life unless they are kin by blood or covenant. If your government is not your family first and foremost, it is illegitimate by God’s revelation. You will never be property of the state in God’s eyes.
