24 February 1999 Death of David Daube, scholar of Judaism, Christianity and Roman Law

David Daube DCL, FBA (8 February 1909, Freiburg, Germany – 24 February 199, Berkeley, California) was the twentieth century’s preeminent scholar of ancient law. He combined a familiarity with many legal systems, particularly Roman law and biblical law, with an expertise in Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian literature, and used literary, religious, and legal texts to illuminate each other and, among other things, to “transform the position of Roman law” and to launch a “revolution”or “near revolution” in New Testament studies. (wikipedia article)

I met David Daube on the steps of Berkeley University  in California in 1991 when I was completing my MA Dissertation. I explained that I was a Jewish believer in Jesus and had learned much from his work, especially “The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism”. He told me he was very…