The Legal Aspects of the Concept of "Corporate Personality" in the Old Testament

Abstract

The concept of corporate has become one of the most important and fruitful ideas in modern Old Testament study. Indeed, since the coining of the actual term by WHEELER ROBINSON 1), the thorough working out of the thought-world associated with it by PEDERSEN 2) and the zealous propagation of the idea by scholars such as A. R. JOHNSON 3), the expression has even become something of a commonplace. But commonplaces are always dangerous, not least in the realm of scholarship; and that for two reasons. First, the exact force and significance of a commonplace expression tends to be rapidly forgotten, and it soon takes the place of original research and original thought. Secondly, the very convenience and ease of such an expression means that it tends to become applied to aspects of the subject under discussion for which it was never really suited. Subtle, but none the less important, distinctions are apt to be overlooked, and such expressions become portmanteaux words, or even, it may sometimes be felt, pantechnicons. It is the aim of this paper to suggest that there is some danger of this happening with the phrase corporate and to propose some limitations on its common usage, with particular reference to the realm of Hebrew legal practice. Corporate may be taken to imply that, in certain spheres and on certain occasions, the individual is considered as indistinguishable from the group to which he belongs. In the words of WHEELER ROBINSON 4), corporate personality means...... the treatment of the family, the clan, or the nation, as the unit in place

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