If anyone's bull injures someone else's bull and it dies, the two parties are to sell the live animal and divide both the money and the dead animal equally between them. The shared-loss principle governs when two animals come into conflict without prior negligence by either owner: divide the loss equally. When both parties are innocent and one suffers loss, the community principle requires sharing the burden rather than leaving the full loss with the victim. Galatians 6:2 says carry each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ — the burden-sharing of Exodus 21:35 is the legal enactment of the same principle. A community ordered by covenant ethics does not leave all the loss with the one who happened to suffer it.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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