Goel
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''Goel'' (Hebrew: גואל, lit. "redeemer"), in the
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
Hebrew: ''Tān ...
and the
rabbinical Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian ...
tradition, is a person who, as the nearest relative of someone, is charged with the duty of restoring that person's rights and avenging wrongs done to him or her. One duty of the ''goel'' was to redeem (purchase back) a relative who had been sold into slavery. Another was to avenge the death of a relative who had been wrongly killed; one carrying out this vengeance was known as the ''goel hadam'', commonly translated to English as "avenger of blood." The term ''goel'' is also used in reference to other forms of redemption. In the
Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...
, God is called the redeemer of Israel, as God redeems his people from captivity; the context shows that the redemption also involves moving on to something greater. In
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, the title ''goel'' is applied to
Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
, who redeems humanity from all evil by offering Himself as the
Paschal Paschal is used as a name. Paschal, a variant of Pascal, from Latin ''Paschalis'', is an adjective describing either the Easter or Passover holidays. People known as Paschal include: Popes and religious figures * Antipope Paschal (687), a riv ...
Lamb.


Duties of the goel

The obligations of the goel include the duty to redeem the relative from
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, if the latter had been obliged to sell himself into slavery (); to repurchase the property of a relative who had had to sell it because of poverty; to avenge the blood of his relative; to marry his brother's widow in order to have a son for his brother, in the case that the brother had no son to pass on his name (); and to receive the restitution if the injured relative had died (). regulates the duties of the ''goel hadam''. The congregation must judge the case before it puts a murderer in the hands of a ''goel''. More than one witness is needed for conviction. In case of accidental manslaughter, the slayer can save his life by fleeing to a " city of refuge" and staying there until the death of the
high priest The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious caste. Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many gods rever ...
. Ransom is not accepted for murder. Revenge cannot be taken on the offender's children or parents (). gives the order in which the nearest relative is considered the ''goel'' in the case of redeeming a slave: brother, uncle, male cousin and then other relatives. The same order was probably observed in the other cases, except in marrying a sister-in-law.


The blood-avenger in rabbinic tradition

Jewish tradition has also attributed the blood avenger role in modern times to a
prosecuting attorney A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...
, who pleads on behalf of the victim the case against the criminal. Thus, he is responsible for bringing the offender to court, finding evidence against him, presenting the case to the court, and collecting damages from the offender. It is also his task to argue against any attempts to pardon the sinner. It is presumed that the court would be the party who would avenge the wrongful death via the imposition of the death penalty, though Deuteronomy 13:9 suggests that the witness to an offense and afterward the whole of the people would carry out the penalty of death by stoning.Deuteronomy 13:

/ref>


See also

* Next of kin *
Redeemer (Christianity) In Christian theology, Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is sometimes referred to by the title Redeemer. This refers to the Christian soteriology, salvation he accomplished, and is based on the metaphor of Redemption (theology)#In Christianity, rede ...


References


External links

{{EB1911 poster, Avenger of Blood *Donald A. Leggett
The Levirate and Goel Institutions in the Old Testament With Special Attention to the Book of Ruth
Doctoral dissertation at the Free University in Amsterdam. Cherry Hill, N.J. 1974, Mack Publishing Company. Jewish courts and civil law Book of Ruth