279. Judicial Precepts Concerning Foreigners, Warfare, and Domestic Life

Subscribe in Podcast App | Download Transcript

Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Relations with Foreigners and Immigration #

• The law distinguishes between peaceful and hostile communication/relations with aliens
• Foreigners may participate in worship and receive mercy when they make pilgrimages or immigrate (Exodus 12)
• Some nations are admitted to the people’s consortium in the third generation (Egyptians, Edomites) due to friendly relations and shared affinity
• Other nations are perpetually excluded (Ammonites, Moabites) due to past hostility and perpetual enmity
• Exceptions exist for virtuous individuals across nationalities (Ruth the Moabite, Achior the leader of the Ammonites)
• The principle of gradual admission prevents dangers: foreigners lacking firm love for the public good might act against the people if admitted at once
• Usury from foreigners was permitted not as ideal justice but as a dispensation due to Jewish proneness to avarice, allowing them to gain wealth peacefully from strangers

Just Warfare and Military Conduct #

• War must be entered justly, with an offer of peace made first to the enemy
• The law instituted that soldiers carry out war bravely, with confidence in God’s aid
• Priests strengthen soldiers before battle, promising God’s assistance
• Impediments to warfare are removed by sending home those who could hinder military effectiveness:
  • Those who built new houses
  • Those who planted vineyards
  • Those who took wives
  • The fearful and fainthearted (timid)
• Those sent home are excluded for two reasons:
  1. Newly acquired goods are more dearly loved; fear of loss causes less brave fighting
  2. It is unfortunate (infelix) when one approaches a good and then is impeded from it; their presence would sadden others
• The timid are sent back not for their benefit but to prevent their fear and flight from provoking fear in others
• Victory is used moderately: mercy is shown to women and infants in conquered cities
• Fruit-bearing trees are preserved in conquered territory for the benefit of the conquering people; their destruction would be unfortunate waste
• Distinctions are made about conquered cities:
  • Remote cities (not promised to Israel): men who fought are killed, but women and infants are spared
  • Nearby cities (promised to Israel): all are commanded killed due to prior iniquities; Israel executes divine justice

Domestic Relations: Servants #

• The law does not permit perpetual servitude for Israelites
• Because the Israelites were liberated from slavery in Egypt, they should not reduce their own people to perpetual slavery
• Those who sell themselves into servitude are not simpliciter (absolutely) servants but secundum quid (in a certain respect)—more like mercenaries serving for a time
• Servants in the seventh year must be freed and given provisions for departure (Leviticus 25)
• Servants wounded by their masters receive strict protection:
  • If a servant dies immediately from beating, the master is guilty of homicide
  • If a servant survives at least one day after beating, the injury is deemed uncertain; if death later occurs, the master is not guilty of homicide (the death may result from other causes)
  • Mutilation of servants (loss of eye, tooth, etc.) must be compensated by granting the servant liberty
• A servant fleeing to one’s territory should not be returned to the master, contrary to returning a lost animal
• The distinction between certain injury (requiring punishment) and uncertain injury (no punishment, as the servant is the master’s possession) reflects the difficulty of proving causation

Domestic Relations: Fathers and Children #

• The paternal rule has only the power of admonition, not coercive power
• Fathers may punish excess/rebellious behavior but not ultimate punishment
• A stubborn/contumax son is not punished by the father alone but brought before the princes of the city for judgment
• Scripture contains strong provisions regarding disrespect to parents, including potential death penalty, but this is administered by civil authority, not parental authority alone

Domestic Relations: Wives and Foreigners #

• The law prohibited marriage with aliens to prevent seduction into idolatry
• However, captive women from conquered cities could be taken as wives, with regulation:
  • They must be given time to mourn their parents
  • Procedures ensure they are treated as wives, not slaves

Citizens Secundum Quid vs. Simpliciter #

• Following Aristotle’s Politics, Book III, there is a distinction between citizenship:
  • Simpliciter (absolutely): those who can perform citizens’ functions (counsel, judgment in the people)
  • Secundum quid (in a certain respect): those who inhabit the city but lack power in commune affairs (children, old men, vile persons, eunuchs, the spurious/illegitimate)
• Those of vile origin (spurious/illegitimate) are excluded from the church (consortium of the people) up to the tenth generation due to the vileness of their origin
• Eunuchs are excluded from the church as far as the tenth generation because they cannot bear the honor owed to fathers, especially in the Jewish people where worship of God is conserved through generation of the flesh
• However, regarding grace, eunuchs and strangers are not separated from others (Isaiah 56)

Key Arguments #

Against Objections on Relations with Foreigners #

Objection: If all nations that fear God and do justice are acceptable to Him (Acts 10:34-35), why does the law exclude Ammonites and Moabites from the church?

Response: The law excludes foreigners from political citizenship and temporal consortium, not from worship of God and salvation. One of no nation is excluded from the worship of God. Some nations are admitted in the third generation if they have friendly relations; others are excluded due to past hostility. Virtuous individuals may be admitted as exceptions.

Objection: The law permits usury from foreigners, but usury is unjust.

Response: Usury from foreigners was not the intention of the law but a permission on account of Jewish proneness to avarice, allowing them to gain wealth peacefully from strangers (similar to how Moses permitted divorce due to human hardness).

Against Objections on Warfare #

Objection: Why should the newly married, those who built houses, or those who planted vineyards be excluded from battle if the common good demands all contribute to war?

Response: They are excluded for two philosophical reasons: (1) Newly acquired goods are more greatly loved, creating fear of loss that makes one less brave; (2) it is unfortunate when one approaches a good and is then impeded from enjoying it. These men are excluded both from the danger of death and from the sadness that would otherwise afflict them and others.

Objection: Why are the timid excluded if fear is a defect of courage (fortitude)?

Response: The timid are excluded not for their benefit but to prevent their presence, fear, and flight from provoking fear in others. Fear is contrary to the virtue of fortitude.

Objection: Is it just that Israel kills all inhabitants (including women and children) in nearby conquered cities?

Response: Distinctions must be made. In remote cities, men who fought are killed but women and infants are spared. In nearby cities (promised to Israel), all are killed as punishment for prior iniquities; Israel executes divine justice as God’s instrument. This is comparable to one man being punished for his sin so that others fear and desist from similar sin.

Against Objections on Servants #

Objection: A servant is the possession of the master like an animal; why command that servants be freed in the seventh year?

Response: The Israelites were liberated from slavery in Egypt by God. Because they were brought from slavery into service to God, God did not wish them to be forever servants. Those in servitude are not simpliciter servants but secundum quid—servants for a time when necessity compels them. When the time of service is finished (seventh year), they must be liberated.

Objection: The law unjustly forbids returning a servant who flees, contrary to the law requiring animals to be returned to their owners.

Response: The command to return an animal does not apply to servants seeking freedom. A servant fleeing should not be returned to the master.

Objection: Why does the law permit beating servants (Exodus 21), allowing punishment if they survive one day?

Response: The law distinguishes between certain and uncertain injury. If injury is certain (e.g., mutilation of eye or tooth), the servant must be given liberty. If injury is uncertain (servant beaten but survives; death occurs days later), the master is not guilty of homicide because it is uncertain whether death resulted from the beating or another cause. The uncertainty principle applies because the servant is the master’s possession.

Objection: Why does the law not punish the master for beating his servant severely?

Response: A distinction is necessary. The command is understood about servants sought by their master for some ministerial service, not about servants unjustly beaten. The law applies punishment only when injury is certain.

Against Objections on Filial Obedience #

Objection: Why does the law command fathers to punish disobedient sons, since paternal rule is not coercive?

Response: Paternal rule has only the power of admonition, not coercive power. For ultimate punishment of a stubborn (contumax) son, the law commands that he be brought before the princes of the city, not punished by the father alone. The father instructs and admonishes; civil authority executes punishment.

Important Definitions #

• Secundum quid (in a certain respect): A qualified or partial status; one who inhabits a city but lacks power in commune affairs (secondary citizenship); one who serves for a time rather than perpetually
• Simpliciter (simply/absolutely): An absolute or complete status; one who can perform the functions of citizenship; perpetual or absolute condition
• Contumax: Stubborn, rebellious, persistently disobedient
• Pecunia: Money, wealth, possession (applied to servants as the master’s property)
• Infelix: Unfortunate, unlucky (used of the situation where one approaches a good and is then impeded from enjoying it)
• Dispensatio: A dispensation, permission granted due to human weakness or proneness to vice rather than as ideal justice
• Extraneous/Extraneous peoples (Greek: ξένοι, xénoi): Foreigners, aliens, outsiders
• Consortium: Community, communion, association (specifically, membership in the people of Israel)
• Pacifice/Pacifically: Peacefully

Examples & Illustrations #

Foreign Relations #

• Ruth the Moabite: A virtuous woman admitted to the people of Israel despite Moabites being generally excluded. The law may have extended this exception to women, who did not possess full citizenship (simpliciter) but only secundum quid.
• Achior, leader of the sons of Ammon: Though Ammonites were perpetually excluded, this virtuous man and his family lineage were added to the people of Israel.
• Egyptians and Edomites: Admitted in the third generation due to shared history and friendly relations (Egyptians: Israel lived among them; Edomites: Esau was Jacob’s brother).

Warfare #

• Israeli military experience with women soldiers: The Israeli military attempted to include women in combat but found it problematic because men would take foolish, reckless actions to protect women, undermining military cohesion. Israel ultimately discontinued this practice, proving Aquinas’s principle that mixed forces reduce courage and effectiveness.
• Destruction vs. preservation in conquest: Fruit-bearing trees are preserved for the conquering people’s benefit, but cities themselves are destroyed (with distinctions about mercy to non-combatants).

Domestic Relations #

• Indentured servitude in America: Servants could work for a fixed term (similar to the Jewish seventh-year release), after which they gained freedom, illustrating the principle of temporary rather than perpetual servitude.
• Beating with a rod and survival: If a servant beaten with a rod survives at least one day and later walks on a cane, the master is not guilty of homicide, showing the law’s caution about causation and certainty of injury.

Notable Quotes #

“My mother used to say, charity doesn’t mean you’ve got to be stupid.” — Duane Berquist (in context of immigration policy and national security concerns)

“[The foreigner] not having yet a firm love for the public good, [may do] some things against the people.” — Aquinas, Reply to Objection 3 (on gradual admission of foreigners)

“The timid are sent back to the house. Not that they would get some benefit from this, but [so] that the people from their presence would get something not suitable. Because through their fear and flight, also others would be provoked to fear.” — Aquinas, Reply to Objection 6 (on exclusion of the fainthearted from warfare)

Questions Addressed #

On Immigration and Foreign Relations #

Q: Does God accept all nations equally, making legal exclusion of foreigners unjust? A: God accepts all who fear Him and do justice regarding grace and salvation, but the law may exclude foreigners from political citizenship and temporal community to protect the common good. Distinctions in admission based on friendly vs. hostile relations and generational waiting periods serve public safety and prevent seduction into idolatry.

Q: Is usury from foreigners just? A: No, but it was permitted as a dispensation due to Jewish proneness to avarice, similar to how divorce was permitted due to human hardness. The permission serves pragmatic peace, not ideal justice.

Q: Should all people be admitted immediately to citizenship if they meet moral criteria? A: No. Those without a firm love for the public good pose dangers. Gradual admission (third generation for some, perpetual exclusion for former enemies) reflects prudent political ordering.

On Warfare #

Q: Why exclude the newly married, new builders, and new planters from battle? A: Because they love their newly acquired goods greatly and thus fear their loss, making them less brave. Additionally, it is philosophically unfortunate (infelix) for one to approach a good and then be impeded from enjoying it.

Q: Why exclude the fearful from battle if courage is the goal? A: The timid are excluded not to benefit them but to prevent their fear from spreading contagiously to others, undermining the army’s courage.

Q: Is it just for Israel to kill all inhabitants in nearby conquered cities? A: Yes, because these cities are promised to Israel and their inhabitants are being punished for prior iniquities. Israel executes divine justice. In remote cities, only combatants are killed; women and infants are spared mercy.

On Servants #

Q: Why must servants be freed in the seventh year if they are the master’s possession? A: Because the Israelites themselves were freed from Egypt. They should not perpetually enslave their own people. Servitude is secundum quid (for a time), not simpliciter (absolute and perpetual).

Q: If a servant is beaten and dies days later, is the master guilty of homicide? A: If the death occurs after the servant has survived at least one day and walked on a cane, causation is uncertain. The master is not guilty because it is unclear whether the beating caused death or another factor did. However, if mutilation (eye, tooth) results from beating, the servant must be freed as compensation.

Q: Why should a fleeing servant not be returned to the master? A: Unlike lost animals, which are property to be returned, the law protects servants’ freedom. The command suggests a servant seeking freedom should not be forced to return.

On Children #

Q: Can a father punish his disobedient son directly? A: The father may admonish and correct, but for ultimate punishment of a stubborn (contumax) son, the law requires the father to bring the son before the city’s princes. Paternal rule lacks coercive power; civil authority must administer final punishment.

Theological and Philosophical Significance #

• The law demonstrates rational ordering toward the common good rather than arbitrary commands
• Distinctions between absolute (simpliciter) and qualified (secundum quid) status reflect Aristotelian philosophy and provide nuance in citizenship, servitude, and justice
• Dispensations (permissions due to human weakness) differ from ideal justice but serve practical peace and gradual education toward virtue
• The law accommodates human nature—fear in soldiers, avarice in trade, hardness of heart in divorce—while directing toward higher goods
• Divine justice may be executed through human instruments (Israel in warfare) as God’s judgment on prior iniquities
• The regulation of domestic relations (servants, fathers, wives) reflects principles of natural law and the hierarchy of rule appropriate to each relationship