David Daube
Encyclopedia
David Daube DCL
, FBA (8 February 1909, Freiburg
, Germany
– 24 February 1999) 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.
(whose family probably migrated generations earlier from France), and Selma Ascher of Nördlingen
, whose family descends directly from Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg
, the Maharam. Daube married in 1936 and divorced in 1964; he has three sons. (Daube's eldest son, Jonathan, has the middle name, "Maharam.") Daube is an in-law of Leo Strauss
(one of Selma Ascher's siblings married into the Strauss family of Amöneburg-Kirchhain-Marburg). Daube was critical in getting Strauss out of Nazi Germany by helping to find him a position at the University of Cambridge in 1935. Daube fled Germany for England earlier, in 1933, but made several trips back to Europe to help bring out family members, friends, and mere acquaintances, with the assistance of Cambridge professors, fellows, and students - but especially the then-graduate student Philip Grierson
.
In 1970, at the height of his career, he left his fellowship at All Souls College and his chair, Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)
, and moved to California, where he became Professor-in-Residence at UC-Berkeley's law school, Boalt Hall, where he taught for the rest of his life. He married again in 1986.
Daube's teachers include Otto Lenel
, who "encouraged" him to take up the study of legal history in the first place, according to Daube's notes in his first published book, Studies in Biblical Law. Daube goes on to thank Professors Johannes Hempel and Wolfgang Kunkel of Göttingen, who trained Daube in rigorous scholarly methods. The influence of C.H. Dodd, whom Daube first met at Cambridge, guided Daube all his life; also at Cambridge, F.S. Marsh and Stanley A. Cook were important influences on Daube. And, finally, Professor William Warwick Buckland
: "to him, in love," Daube dedicates his first book.
But, adds Daube, this application of the comparative method is not enough. Because "the Bible is an anthology compiled by priests and prophets, who were neither competent nor even desirous to formulate an accurate exposition of Hebrew law," one must first find out something about the true Hebrew law, separating it "from the dress in which priests and prophets have handed it down to us, like assembling a jigsaw puzzle from scattered fragments." The result of such an inquiry would likely show that the religious character of the law was not originally in it, but due to the theological tendencies of the authors of the Bible. Why, he concludes, should one assume the law sprang from religion rather than religion from the law? This question marks an important step: Biblical legal scholarship is not to be confined to pious exegesis of a text whose sacred character always makes its status primary.
Rather, Biblical law is a field of legal study, of rational inquiry, like any other field of legal study, and must be approached with the same analytical tools and methods. Moreover, this sacred text is not the authoritative statement of Hebrew law, for priestly transmission has distorted the law, the law that had an independent existence in the Israelite state. That law must be recovered from the Biblical narratives by careful juristic analysis.
Daube begins with examples of how that recovery ought to take place. He first looks at the narrative of Joseph and his brothers, showing how it can be understood in the context of principles of the law of custodianship, which provide the implicit legal categories utilized by the text and determine the contours of the action it recounts. And off he goes, inaugurating fifty years of path-breaking scholarship.
According to Carmichael, on account of Daube's knowledge of Aramaic and the Talmud, Daube was invited to attend the New Testament seminar run by C.H. Dodd at Cambridge. It aroused in him an absorbing interest in the rabbinic background to Christianity. New Testament studies was the area in which he was to make his most original contribution to scholarship, in his eyes also a contribution to Jewish–Christian relations, according to Tony Honoré
. Daube reinterpreted many New Testament texts in the light of Talmudic scholarship. The Christian scriptures could be reappraised as a form of Jewish literature, which he called "New Testament Judaism."
W. D. Davies
focused on this in his tribute to his teacher on his death: "It is the complexity in David that made him so magical. It is not surprising then that it was this most Jewish of scholars, who taught us that Christianity, is a New Testament Judaism—a strikingly pregnant phrase that he invented and which sums up best perhaps his legacy and the near revolution that he introduced into New Testament studies." In 1962-1964, Daube gave the Gifford Lectures
on Natural Theology.
, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
; Davi Ascher Strauss Bernstein, University of Chicago
; David Cohen, UC-Berkeley; William Frankel
; (A.M.) Tony Honoré, Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)
; Bernard Jackson
, Manchester and Liverpool; Fergus Millar
, Oxford; Stephen Passamaneck, Hebrew Union College
-Jewish Institute of Religion; the late Lord Rodger (Alan Rodger, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry), Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
; E.P. Sanders, Duke; Peter Gonville Stein, Regius Professor of Civil Law (Cambridge)
; Géza Vermes
, Oxford; Alan Watson
, law faculties at the universities of Georgia, Edinburgh, and Belgrade; Reuven Yaron, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
testifies: "For two years, I submitted material on a weekly or fortnightly basis. As was his normal pattern with research students, [Daube] would invite me for lunch at All Souls, then spend most of the rest of the afternoon analysing and criticising my work line by line. No more intense or productive supervision could be imagined. I owe everything I may have done subsequently to this foundation. Alan Watson
has recorded his enduring sense of fear of disappointing Daube in approaching these sessions. My own recollection is that of the feeling with which I always emerged. However devastating the criticism may have been - and never without justification - Daube always concluded with sincere and persuasive words of encouragement, which made me ready, even eager, to commence the next cycle of destruction.
"He was a warm, wise and generous mentor, whose support went far beyond doctoral supervision and subsequent academic advancement. He did not distance himself from the personal lives of his pupils, both in joy and sorrow. He spoke at [my wedding], but what stands out in my mind is not merely the studied flattery of his speech, but the manner in which he spoke informally to members of our respective families, without a hint of condescension but rather with genuine interest and human feeling."
DCL
- Organizations :* Detroit College of Law, now known as Michigan State University College of Law* Data Connection Ltd, see Metaswitch* Disney Cruise Line, a cruise line company * Distillers Company Limited, a producer of spirits...
, FBA (8 February 1909, Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
– 24 February 1999) 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.
Life
He was the son of Jacob Daube, of FreiburgFreiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
(whose family probably migrated generations earlier from France), and Selma Ascher of Nördlingen
Nördlingen
Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a complex meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...
, whose family descends directly from Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg
Meir of Rothenburg
Meir of Rothenburg was a German Rabbi and poet, a major author of the tosafot on Rashi's commentary on the Talmud...
, the Maharam. Daube married in 1936 and divorced in 1964; he has three sons. (Daube's eldest son, Jonathan, has the middle name, "Maharam.") Daube is an in-law of Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
(one of Selma Ascher's siblings married into the Strauss family of Amöneburg-Kirchhain-Marburg). Daube was critical in getting Strauss out of Nazi Germany by helping to find him a position at the University of Cambridge in 1935. Daube fled Germany for England earlier, in 1933, but made several trips back to Europe to help bring out family members, friends, and mere acquaintances, with the assistance of Cambridge professors, fellows, and students - but especially the then-graduate student Philip Grierson
Philip Grierson
Philip Grierson, FBA was a British historian and numismatist, emeritus professor of numismatics at Cambridge University and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College for over seventy years...
.
In 1970, at the height of his career, he left his fellowship at All Souls College and his chair, Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)
Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)
The Regius Chair of Civil Law, founded in the 1540s, is one of the oldest of the professorships at the University of Oxford.-Foundation:The Regius Chair of Civil Law at Oxford was founded by King Henry VIII, who established five such Regius Professorships in the University, the others being the...
, and moved to California, where he became Professor-in-Residence at UC-Berkeley's law school, Boalt Hall, where he taught for the rest of his life. He married again in 1986.
Daube's teachers include Otto Lenel
Otto Lenel
Otto Lenel was a German Jewish jurist and legal historian. His most important achievements are in the field of Roman law.-Life and career:...
, who "encouraged" him to take up the study of legal history in the first place, according to Daube's notes in his first published book, Studies in Biblical Law. Daube goes on to thank Professors Johannes Hempel and Wolfgang Kunkel of Göttingen, who trained Daube in rigorous scholarly methods. The influence of C.H. Dodd, whom Daube first met at Cambridge, guided Daube all his life; also at Cambridge, F.S. Marsh and Stanley A. Cook were important influences on Daube. And, finally, Professor William Warwick Buckland
William Warwick Buckland
William Warwick Buckland, M.A., LL.D. was a Roman Law scholar, Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge from 1914 to 1945.-Life:...
: "to him, in love," Daube dedicates his first book.
Studies in Biblical Law
The first chapter of Daube's first major book, Studies in Biblical Law, titled "Law in the Narratives," phrased in polite language, nonetheless starts with a revolutionary claim: all scholars since Henry Maine say that there is no separation of law and religion in "primitive," or ancient, legal systems. But, Daube notes, this is a generalization based upon the study of law in the Bible, and the Bible, after all, is "a collection of literature arranged by priests and prophets." They, naturally enough, he continues, "subordinated law to religion; indeed, they represented legal rules as religious rules, destined to guide God’s chosen people." But, he asks, "Is it safe to argue that because the devout authors of the Bible saw law as part of religion, law must have formed part of religion in the Hebrew state?" In answering this, he says, legal historians must go beyond the Bible, using the comparative method.But, adds Daube, this application of the comparative method is not enough. Because "the Bible is an anthology compiled by priests and prophets, who were neither competent nor even desirous to formulate an accurate exposition of Hebrew law," one must first find out something about the true Hebrew law, separating it "from the dress in which priests and prophets have handed it down to us, like assembling a jigsaw puzzle from scattered fragments." The result of such an inquiry would likely show that the religious character of the law was not originally in it, but due to the theological tendencies of the authors of the Bible. Why, he concludes, should one assume the law sprang from religion rather than religion from the law? This question marks an important step: Biblical legal scholarship is not to be confined to pious exegesis of a text whose sacred character always makes its status primary.
Rather, Biblical law is a field of legal study, of rational inquiry, like any other field of legal study, and must be approached with the same analytical tools and methods. Moreover, this sacred text is not the authoritative statement of Hebrew law, for priestly transmission has distorted the law, the law that had an independent existence in the Israelite state. That law must be recovered from the Biblical narratives by careful juristic analysis.
Daube begins with examples of how that recovery ought to take place. He first looks at the narrative of Joseph and his brothers, showing how it can be understood in the context of principles of the law of custodianship, which provide the implicit legal categories utilized by the text and determine the contours of the action it recounts. And off he goes, inaugurating fifty years of path-breaking scholarship.
Work
Daube made seminal contributions to three fields—Biblical and Talmudic law; New Testament studies; and Roman law. Calum Carmichael, professor of comparative literature at Cornell and Daube's literary executor, describes his memoir of Daube—Ideas and the Man: Remembering David Daube—as "an attempt to convey the spirit of enlightenment that David Daube exuded in all his work and conversation. Outstanding law professor, classical scholar par excellence, ecumenical religious thinker, leading Talmudic scholar, skilled linguist, great humanist of the law, a brilliant literary critic, the foremost Roman lawyer of his day."According to Carmichael, on account of Daube's knowledge of Aramaic and the Talmud, Daube was invited to attend the New Testament seminar run by C.H. Dodd at Cambridge. It aroused in him an absorbing interest in the rabbinic background to Christianity. New Testament studies was the area in which he was to make his most original contribution to scholarship, in his eyes also a contribution to Jewish–Christian relations, according to Tony Honoré
Tony Honoré
Anthony Maurice Honoré is a British lawyer and jurist, known for his work on ownership, causation and Roman law.Honoré was born in London but was brought up in South Africa. He served in the army during the Second World War and was severely wounded in the Battle of Alamein...
. Daube reinterpreted many New Testament texts in the light of Talmudic scholarship. The Christian scriptures could be reappraised as a form of Jewish literature, which he called "New Testament Judaism."
W. D. Davies
W. D. Davies
William David Davies , always called W. D., was a Welsh congregationalist minister and academic theologian.-Life:He was born in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Educated at the University of Wales and at Cambridge , he was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Church in 1941, and served parishes...
focused on this in his tribute to his teacher on his death: "It is the complexity in David that made him so magical. It is not surprising then that it was this most Jewish of scholars, who taught us that Christianity, is a New Testament Judaism—a strikingly pregnant phrase that he invented and which sums up best perhaps his legacy and the near revolution that he introduced into New Testament studies." In 1962-1964, Daube gave the Gifford Lectures
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures were established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford . They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported...
on Natural Theology.
Students
In addition to Carmichael and the late W.D. Davies, Daube's students include the late C.K. Barrett, Durham (UK); Saul BermanSaul Berman
Saul J. Berman is a prominent American scholar and leading Modern Orthodox rabbi.As a rabbi, scholar, and educator he has made extensive contributions to the intensification of Jewish education for Jewish women on many levels, to the role of social ethics in synagogue life, and to the...
, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School is a "Modern Open Orthodox" yeshiva founded in 1999 by Rabbi Avi Weiss.Currently located in Riverdale, New York, it seeks to "recruit, professionally train, and place rabbis" who will promote its founder's philosophy...
; Davi Ascher Strauss Bernstein, University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
; David Cohen, UC-Berkeley; William Frankel
William Frankel
William Frankel was the editor of the British weekly newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, from 1958 until 1977...
; (A.M.) Tony Honoré, Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)
Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)
The Regius Chair of Civil Law, founded in the 1540s, is one of the oldest of the professorships at the University of Oxford.-Foundation:The Regius Chair of Civil Law at Oxford was founded by King Henry VIII, who established five such Regius Professorships in the University, the others being the...
; Bernard Jackson
Bernard Jackson
Bernard Stuart Jackson is a former law professor, and from 1997-2009 was Alliance Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester, Co-Director of the and Director of its . He is now Professor of Law and Jewish Studies at Liverpool Hope University...
, Manchester and Liverpool; Fergus Millar
Fergus Millar
-External links:* staff page at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford* announcement of "History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ."...
, Oxford; Stephen Passamaneck, Hebrew Union College
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
-Jewish Institute of Religion; the late Lord Rodger (Alan Rodger, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry), Justice
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom are the judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom other than the President and Deputy President. The Supreme Court is the highest in the United Kingdom for civil matters, and for criminal matters from England and Wales and Northern Ireland...
of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the supreme court in all matters under English law, Northern Ireland law and Scottish civil law. It is the court of last resort and highest appellate court in the United Kingdom; however the High Court of Justiciary remains the supreme court for criminal...
; E.P. Sanders, Duke; Peter Gonville Stein, Regius Professor of Civil Law (Cambridge)
Regius Professor of Civil Law (Cambridge)
The Regius Professorship of Civil Law is one of the oldest and most prestigious of the professorships at the University of Cambridge.The chair was founded by Henry VIII in 1540 with a stipend of £40 per year, and the holder is still chosen by The Crown....
; Géza Vermes
Geza Vermes
Géza Vermes or Vermès is a British scholar of Jewish Hungarian origin and writer on religious history, particularly Jewish and Christian. He is a noted authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient works in Aramaic, and on the life and religion of Jesus...
, Oxford; Alan Watson
Alan Watson
Professor W.A.J. 'Alan' Watson is a Scottish law and legal history expert, and is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on Roman law, comparative law, legal history, and law and religion...
, law faculties at the universities of Georgia, Edinburgh, and Belgrade; Reuven Yaron, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Pedagogy
Bernard JacksonBernard Jackson
Bernard Stuart Jackson is a former law professor, and from 1997-2009 was Alliance Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester, Co-Director of the and Director of its . He is now Professor of Law and Jewish Studies at Liverpool Hope University...
testifies: "For two years, I submitted material on a weekly or fortnightly basis. As was his normal pattern with research students, [Daube] would invite me for lunch at All Souls, then spend most of the rest of the afternoon analysing and criticising my work line by line. No more intense or productive supervision could be imagined. I owe everything I may have done subsequently to this foundation. Alan Watson
Alan Watson
Professor W.A.J. 'Alan' Watson is a Scottish law and legal history expert, and is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on Roman law, comparative law, legal history, and law and religion...
has recorded his enduring sense of fear of disappointing Daube in approaching these sessions. My own recollection is that of the feeling with which I always emerged. However devastating the criticism may have been - and never without justification - Daube always concluded with sincere and persuasive words of encouragement, which made me ready, even eager, to commence the next cycle of destruction.
"He was a warm, wise and generous mentor, whose support went far beyond doctoral supervision and subsequent academic advancement. He did not distance himself from the personal lives of his pupils, both in joy and sorrow. He spoke at [my wedding], but what stands out in my mind is not merely the studied flattery of his speech, but the manner in which he spoke informally to members of our respective families, without a hint of condescension but rather with genuine interest and human feeling."
Education
- Berthold-Gymnasium, Freiburg
- Universities of Freiburg and GöttingenGöttingenGöttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
(Dr jur 1932) - PhD University of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
1935
Career
- 1938-46 Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, CambridgeGonville and Caius College, CambridgeGonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
(Honorary fellow, 1974) - 1946-51 Lecturer in Law, University of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
- 1951-55 Professor of Jurisprudence, University of AberdeenUniversity of AberdeenThe University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
- 1955-70 Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)Regius Professor of Civil Law (Oxford)The Regius Chair of Civil Law, founded in the 1540s, is one of the oldest of the professorships at the University of Oxford.-Foundation:The Regius Chair of Civil Law at Oxford was founded by King Henry VIII, who established five such Regius Professorships in the University, the others being the...
, and Fellow of All Souls College, OxfordAll Souls College, OxfordThe Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
; Emeritus Fellow, 1980 - 1970-99 Emeritus Professor of Law, Oxford
- 1970-81 Professor-in-Residence and Director of the Robbins Hebraic and Roman Law Collections, Boalt Hall (School of Law), University of California, Berkeley
- 1995-99 Emeritus Professor of Law, Berkeley
Other posts and honours
- 1953-1999 Member, Academic Board, Institute of Jewish Affairs
- 1957 Fellow of the British AcademyBritish AcademyThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
- 1957-8 President: Société d'Histoire des Droits de l'Antiquité
- 1961 Founder-President, B'nai B'rithB'nai B'rithB'nai B'rith International |Covenant]]" is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was initially founded as the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in New York City, on , 1843, by Henry Jones and 11 others....
Oxford Lodge - 1970 Honorary Member, Royal Irish AcademyRoyal Irish AcademyThe Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
- 1971 DHL: Hebrew Union CollegeHebrew Union CollegeThe Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
- 1973 Honorary Fellow, Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies
- 1979 Fellow: American Academy for Jewish Research
- 1983-5 President: Jewish Law Association
Publications
- Studies in Biblical Law, 1947
- Rabbinic Methods of Interpretation and Hellenistic Rhetoric, 1949
- Alexandrian Methods of Interpretation and the Rabbis, 1953
- The Defence of Superior Orders in Roman Law, 1955 (Regius Chair Inaugural Lecture)
- The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism, 1956
- Forms of Roman Legislation, 1956
- (ed with W.D. Davies) The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology: Studies in Honour of C. H. DoddC. H. DoddCharles Harold Dodd was a Welsh New Testament scholar and influential Protestant theologian.He is known for promoting "realized eschatology", the belief that Jesus' references to the kingdom of God meant a present reality rather than a future apocalypse.-Life:Dodd was born in Wrexham,...
, 1956 - (ed) Studies in the Roman Law of Sale Dedicated to the Memory of Francis de Zulueta, 1959
- The Earliest Structures of the Gospels, 1959
- The Exodus Pattern in the Bible, 1963
- Suddenness and Awe in Scripture, 1964
- The Sudden in the Scriptures, 1964
- Collaboration with Tyranny in Rabbinic Law, 1965
- He That Cometh, 1966
- The Significance of the Afikoman, 1968
- Roman Law: Linguistic, Social, and Philosophical Aspects, 1969
- Legal Problems in Medical Advance, 1971
- Dissent in Bible and Talmud, 1971
- Civil Disobedience in Antiquity, 1972 (based on his Messenger Lectures at Cornell)
- Ancient Hebrew Fables, 1973
- Wine in the Bible, 1975
- Medical and Genetic Ethics, 1976
- Duty of Procreation, 1977
- Typologie im Werk des Flavius Josephus, 1977
- Ancient Jewish Law, 1981
- Geburt der Detektivgeschichte, 1983
- Das Alte Testament im Neuen, 1984
- Sons and Strangers, 1984
- (with C. Carmichael) Witnesses in Bible and Talmud, 1986
- Appeasement or Resistance and other essays on New Testament Judaism, 1987
- The Deed and the Doer in the Bible: David Daube’s Gifford Lectures, Volume 1, 2008
- Law and Wisdom in the Bible: David Daube's Gifford Lectures, Volume 2, 2010
Festschriften
- Daube Noster: Essays in Legal History for David Daube, 1974 (ed. Alan WatsonAlan WatsonProfessor W.A.J. 'Alan' Watson is a Scottish law and legal history expert, and is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on Roman law, comparative law, legal history, and law and religion...
) - Studies in Jewish Legal History: Essays in Honour of David Daube, 1974 (ed. Bernard JacksonBernard JacksonBernard Stuart Jackson is a former law professor, and from 1997-2009 was Alliance Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester, Co-Director of the and Director of its . He is now Professor of Law and Jewish Studies at Liverpool Hope University...
) - Donum Gentilicium: New Testament Studies in Honour of David Daube, 1978 (eds. Ernst Bammel, C.K. Barrett, and W.D. Davies)
Memorial Volumes
- Law for All Times: Essays in Memory of David Daube, 2004. ISBN 9780976414902 (ed. Ernest Metzger)
- David Daube: A Centenary Celebration, 2010. ISBN 9780956642301 (ed. Ernest Metzger)