Journal of Biblical Literature - Society of Biblical Literature

262 Journal of Biblical Literature
rabbinic. 33 The codes of Hellenistic Judaism present the closest correlate to the
Haustafeln because of the reciprocity of the instructions they contain, and
there is evidence in rabbinic literature for reciprocity in dealing with the duties
of members of the family. 34
But there is no existing rabbinic code that includes all of the Haustafel elements.
In the Mishnah, women, slaves, and children were exempted from
responsibility rather than positively exhorted, and they were discussed in terms
of cultic situations rather than household relationships. The sentence structure
of the Haustafel is not present, nor is the direct address. The importance of the
rabbinic tradition lay in furnishing an interest in the behavior of inferior
groups. 35
Hellenistic Jewish codes, however, parallel the Haustafeln in important
ways. For example, the order in which the relationships are discussed in Philo
—husbands–wives, parents–children, masters–slaves—corresponds exactly to
the order of the presentations in the Colossian Haustafel. Philo was also the
first extant writer to limit a single code to these three specific pairs; and
33 Such first-century rabbinic sources are hypothetical, of course. The connection with the
Haustafel was first suggested by Ernst Lohmeyer (An die Kolosser, 152–59). These three groups
had neither the rights nor the responsibilities of the adult, free, male members of the community,
and they are nearly always mentioned together in rabbinic texts as “women, slaves, and minors.”
See, e.g., m. Ber. 3:3; 7:2; m. Sukkah 2:8; and m. Naz. 9:1. Lohmeyer concluded that there must
have been a Jewish code that listed the specific duties of these groups and that the Christian
Haustafel form was an adaptation of this code.
34 Although the vast majority of rules in the Mishnaic literature concern the duties of men,
some are reciprocal and some focus on the duties of the groups considered “inferior.” T. Qidd. 1:7,
for example, discusses the reciprocal duties of father and son; m. Pe