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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEĹ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: In 1931 Koroec published a study about the Hittites, their foreign policy, and the feudal contracts made with the nations under their influence. The clauses of these contracts included the great deeds done by the lord towards the people under submission and ended with the name of the gods who were witnesses to the contract.
Two decades later George Mendenhall from the University of Michigan developed this idea and came to an amazing conclusion: the Covenant between God and Israel on Mount Sinai is built on the model of Hittite contracts. He compared these two contracts and discovered many similarities.
The model of the Hittite contracts was widely used in the Ancient Near East during the second millenium B.C. We cannot deny that the covenant on Mount Sinai, which represents the essence of the Old Testament, was based solely this model. Yet the genius of the Jewish people stands in their skill of transforming and spiritualizing a political contract.
This genius also is modeled by the saints. Saint Theresa of Lisieux, who didnt know about the theology of the covenant, made a similar maneuver. She transformed the text of a wedding invitation into an invitation to her heavenly engagement, celebrated on the day of her life commitment in the Carmelite Order. Behind this childish gesture lies a deep theology. Israel accomplished a similar transformation with the text of the feudal contracts 3000 years ago.
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