Moral Equity: Mosaic Law in Plymouth Colony.
Historians have long noted the centrality of Scripture in early New England, yet most of this work focuses on Massachusetts and tends to overlook Plymouth. Legal and political dimensions of Plymouth have also largely escaped scholarly attention. This essay argues that leading thinkers in Plymouth pu...
| Publicado en: | Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 257 - 286 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Pennsylvania Press
Summer2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=196086019&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 196086019 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 15434273 00N jtl: Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal issn: 15434273 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Summer2026 vid: 24 iid: 3 pid: 4636 pub: University of Pennsylvania Press artinfo: ui: 196086019 10.1353/eam.2026.a997608 ppf: 257 ppct: 29 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 428KB tig: atl: Moral Equity: Mosaic Law in Plymouth Colony. aug: au: Benporat, Israel affil: Yeshiva University sug: ab: Historians have long noted the centrality of Scripture in early New England, yet most of this work focuses on Massachusetts and tends to overlook Plymouth. Legal and political dimensions of Plymouth have also largely escaped scholarly attention. This essay argues that leading thinkers in Plymouth pursued a coherent approach to Mosaic law distinct from their counterparts in Massachusetts. These contrasting intellectual traditions trace back to Elizabethan puritans, whose writings influenced divergent developments in the two colonies. John Cotton strongly emphasized the eternality of Mosaic law in Massachusetts, while William Bradford advocated for moderation and conformity with English law in Plymouth. Similarly, Bradford's transcription of a theological discussion by Plymouth clergy in 1642 largely cautioned against adopting elements of Mosaic law, whereas a roughly contemporaneous discussion by Cotton and other ministers in Massachusetts tended to embrace the idea. Finally, Bradford's study of Hebrew toward the end of his life, as well as the expanded role of the Old Testament in Plymouth's revised law code of 1658, further reveals the Plymouth puritans' underappreciated contributions to early modern debates over divine law. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal is the property of University of Pennsylvania Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal holder: University of Pennsylvania Press dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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