Liberation and the Idea of Equity

Abstract This chapter provides the stage for the marriage between freedom and justice in the form of equity and liberation. Equity is a corrective against the harshness of the law. From the third millennium bce onwards, equity is part of royal ideology in the sense that the king liberates debt slaves collectively. The king legitimizes himself by enforcing liberation, and he legitimizes liberation with the help of equity. Equity is not only an important idea in the ancient Near East, but also in Athens in the time of Solon. Similar to an ancient Near Eastern king, Solon nullifies debts against the remorselessness of the creditors. In Israel, the idea arises that God enforces equity, that the laws about the regular release of debt slaves enforce equity, and that the human being in general has to enforce equity. This happens in a time when, in ancient Israel and Greece, respectively, the kingdom has vanished from the scene.