Правовая система империи Ахеменидов в библейской традиции
The legal system of the Achaemenid Empire in the biblical tradition

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the ways the legal system of the Achaemenid Empire is represented in the biblical tradition, focusing on the Books of Ezra and Esther, which provide the most important information about the Achaemenid law. Particular emphasis is placed on the interpretation of key legal terms that denote law (dāt), royal order (db̲ar-malk̲ût̲ or db̲ar-hamelek), royal message (pithgam hamelek), and royal decree (tēm). The Book of Ezra, which cites certain royal decrees in Aramaic, uses the legal terminology accepted for referring to such decrees in the Semitic countries (for example, the term tēm is rendered in Babylonian as ṭēmu). However, in two instances where this Semitic tradition is abandoned, the word dāt for law corresponds most closely to the Old Persian term dāta-. In the Book of Esther, the Hebrew lexical unit dāt, considered as a borrowing from the Old Persian dāta- (law), appears in three main meanings: court regulations, traditional Persian customs, and royal decrees.

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