The Code Of Hammurabi And the Bible?

jprocks · Jan 7, 2014

Hello, people! I am new to this website, my apologies if I had not introduced myself on the other introduction page but, here I am! I'm not a Christian, I don't know what to think where my faith is, I want to believe in God, but it's tough in this day and age. We live in now, Sin city.

Anyways, the point I'd like to make here is Did Moses steal the 10 commandments? it'll be a bit silly, since one of the commandments does stipulate '' Thou shalt not steal '' but other people do honestly believe that Moses did in fact plagiarize some laws from Hammurabi. The story goes that a French Archaeologists began excavations around Shushan in 1852. M. Dieulafoy discovered the palace fortress that the writer of the book of Esther calls the citadel of Susa. In 1901, another expedition began, led by de Morgan, uncovered three stone fragments of black stone. After being fitted together, they formed an impressive round-top stele or pillar, which according to the archaeologists measured in total of 7.5 feet high. Hammurabi was said to be around the time of 1792 to 1750 BC.

But the closest parallel between the Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses comes in the common wording of "eye for an eye" and "tooth for a tooth". Hammurabi's laws 196, 197, and 200 stipulated that "If a man puts out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. If he breaks another man's bone, his bone shall be broken. And if a man knocks out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out." This is very similar to Exodus 21:23-25, which reads, "But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

So, I'm kinda scratching my head here and starting to think, '' Who copied who exactly? '' I don't know exactly what dates that Moses was born, but obviously if he was born way before 1792 or 1750, then we'd be pointing our fingers at Hammurabi. Please tell me what you's think about this!

thanks all,

4enlightment · Jan 7, 2014

Hammurabi

Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon from 1792 BC to 1750 BC middle chronology. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire following the abdication of his father, Sin-Muballit, extending ...Wikipedia

Born: 1792 BC, Babylon, Iraq

Died: 1750 BC

Parents: Sin-Muballit

Children: Samsu-iluna

Jeremiah 20:4
For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword.

directline2iam · Jan 7, 2014

And where did this hammurabi get this code from...Man, or should I say, himself.
And where did Moses get his commands from? it wasn't man, it was God.
Put away foolish books and learn truth from God's Word the bible, not mans words.

starfield · Jan 7, 2014

directline2iam said:

Amen! What a foolish speculation. The Ten Commandments was not plagiarised from Hammurabi's code.

4enlightment · Jan 7, 2014

According to those that were living in those times and now, believe that a person that harmed another in a certain way should receive the same as justifiable punishment. We all has came from One, and we all think like that One; and so we should be pattern after that One. We had inherent that One qualities, but we has also inherent another Qualities as well. Some of us believed from birth, that thou shalt not kill, and which we should all have that in us. If you sum up the laws, it would be saying that we should respect the Creator and appreciate all the things that He has done and given us. So now our thinking of what is called justifiable punishment is to understand the criminal by walking in their shoes, to see what will you have done, and which that is the meaning of an eye for an eye.

Romans 2:14
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.

Romans 12:17
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.

1 Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

Matthew 7:2
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Hosea 1:2
When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”

jprocks · Jan 7, 2014

Can anybody give me a date to when Moses was born, and to when he died?

Thanks

reject-tech · Jan 7, 2014

I'd be inclined to think that the majority of various OT laws existed long before Moses, probably even written down, including all of the ten commandments mixed in but not set apart.
It was through Moses that God showcased the 10 of those that are "His picks".

As far as the other laws go, it's not so much which non-commandment laws were "borrowed" as much as Moses's way of presenting them.
For example to be "unclean" means to be unclean from the transgressor's point of view, whether or not there is actually any real uncleanliness.

Take a leper for example, leprosy is not a sin, but in order to demonstrate uncleanliness, who feels more like the leper is unclean -
Those who don't want to catch the disease, or the guy who has it because nobody will have anything to do with him?
Who hurts more and actually feels unclean more? The guy with aids or the guy who just won't sit next to him?
And which of the two has the worse "disease"?

I've never seen a copy of anything attributed to Hammurabi, but I wonder if those texts present spiritual issues the way Moses did, or just record "laws"

jag1977 · Jan 7, 2014

What would it mean to you if it was from that time?

4enlightment · Jan 7, 2014

jprocks said:

Around 1300 bc

Boanerges7 · Jan 7, 2014

There are multiple problems with this perception. Firstly, the poster asked whether Moses "stole" (which is a violation of the 10 Commandments BTW) from Hammurabi, but then uses a verse from Exodus 21:23-25 as some apparent evidence. Stealing is in the Ten Commandments, not "an eye for an eye." Who amongst God's people would not have pointed this out, or even FOLLOWED Moses upon discovery of usurping a Babylonian code of conduct? Who outside of the kingdom of Babylon adhered to these codes? Are the codes used today, or are they as prominent as scripture, or it's Commandments? I think not... You must also consider that 1st Century Israel was under a Theocracy, which means God DIRECTLY intervened with His people. Why would someone who was chosen to lead Israel not only think he could steal something, and posit it as if he had not, much less would God let Him do it without annihilating him since that would violate God's character and integrity? I could go on, but the point is made, and the truth of the matter is that this idea (stealing) is ridiculous.

Brother_Don · Jan 7, 2014

Exodus 31:18, And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him on mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Deut 4:13, 2 Cor 3:3.

st_sebastian · Jan 7, 2014

To put it respectfully, most of the Ten Commandments are not exactly surprising if you want to have a stable society. They're built into the fabric of reality; it does not require divine revelation to notice that everyone is better off if we're restrained from arbitrary violence or hankering after another's spouse.

I find it interesting that you didn't copy and paste the rest of the article. The original appears to be here. The article concludes:

Like I say - if everyone across the globe decides that it's best not to steal, that's less about plagiarism than noticing that we're better off when fewer people steal.

GodIsSalvation · Jan 7, 2014

Very interesting question in my opinion, and I think it merits serious consideration. I don't think people should cast this away too quickly, as a look into the Ancient History does in fact give supporting evidence to the historocity of the Bible (in terms of people groups, ancient religions, cities and empires, and events mentioned in the Bible which archaeology and history all align together with, thus giving great supporting and circumstantial evidence for the many books of the Bible.) Also the similarities in the Law and Code give supporting evidence for the conditions in the Ancient World that both the Bible and the secular histories describe.

First things first, note that Hammurabi's life is Circa mid to late 1700s BC. Some also beleive Hammurabi may have lived from the mid 1600 BC to early 1700 BC. One must be cautious in trying to ascribe modern dates to any of the Ancients. This is a big problem in my opinion with both secular and biblical historians as they always try to date things in the BC. One must remember that anything past 200 BC becomes virtually impossible date accurately by our modern standard as the Gregorian Calendar (which we use) and the Julian Calendar (which the Gregorian calendar is based from) did not exist. So in all honesty no person can give you an exact year that Moses or Hammurabi lived.

Therefore I would say one must examine the circumstances around Hammurabi's life to more accurately ponder who came first, Moses or Hammurabi. In the same wikipedia article posted by 4enlightment you will notice Hammurabi, being a king, greatly expanded his empire by conquering surrounding kingdoms and people groups. Very interesting is all those kingdoms are indeed mentioned within the Bible. For example, the Assyrians, Elam, the Amorites, etc.

The wikipedia page theorizes that Hammurabi may have been a king of Shinar in Genesis 14:1, though I personally doubt this as at that time both the Bible and Secular History seem to point to this being the time of the Sumerians and/or Akkadians (the empires that preceded the Babylonian Empire.) In particular the fact that Hammurabi was able to defeat Assyria and force them to pay tribute (though not conquer them) makes me ponder that Hammurabi would have lived well after Moses, but before the Babylonian conquest of Assyrian Empire. An alternative theory to this may be that Hammurabi partially defeated the proto-Assyrians (the people originating from the city Ashur, or Assur) before the Asyrian Empire was founded (the Assyrian Empire's capital was the city of Ninevah.) Though this would seem unlikely as Hammurabi would have easily been able to defeat the nearby city-state of Ashur, and also in other supporting evidence it mentions that Aleppo (controlled by the Assyrians and today in modern Syria) remained free from his control, which would lend credit to the fact that Hammurabi lived and fought against the Assyrian Empire, not the proto-Assyrians of Ashur whom lived in modern day Iraq.

Regardless of timeline discrepancies let's move onto the question: Did Moses plagiarized Hammurabi or did Hammurabi plagiarize Moses?

Either one would be at the minimum feasible as both Moses was literate (being raised by Egyptian royalty) and Hammurabi was literate (being Babylonian royalty.) Though I think it would be unlikely that Moses would have been able to read Hammurabi's works unless they were imported to Egypt, which as far as we know archaeologically, did not happen (though mind you the beauty of archaeology is they constantly dig up new evidence.) It would however be feasible that if Hammurabi lived after Moses he could have read the Mosaic Law.

Let us also look where Moses and Hammurabi themselves claim they recieved their laws from. Moses claims the Ten Commandments were given to him by God directly. Moses also claims he spoke with God, and thus learning great knowledge from God devised the Mosaic Law. Though I should note that while all the sins that Moses lists in the Law are indeed sins, the punishments and such seem to be of Moses' own invention (Jesus supports this theory when he mentions that Moses added the divorce law because the hearts of Moses' people were too hard.) Hammurabi likewise claims his Code was given to him by the pagan gods he worshipped (the fact he calls these idols by the names Shamash and Marduk is also important as the ancient Near East idols were all the same but underwent various name changes throughout history, thus again lending supporting evidence to Hammurabi living after the time of Moses, and perhaps even after the time of Joshua and the Judges. Most likely putting Hammurabi as living sometime in the early era of the Kings.)

Also consider the time at which Hammurabi and Moses lived, that of the Ancient World. Though there are some similarities, such as the eye for and eye and the tooth for a tooth, there are also very stark differences, such as religion, the concept of judgement and witnesses, and also the punishments.
Where there are similarities I think these come from simply rationalization of their ancient world, for example the trade laws enforcing fair trade among people to merely keep the economy from crumbling or sanitation/diet laws simply being put forth for the sake of Public Health like we do today (though it should be noted the punishments for violation of such laws seem to differ with Hammurabi being more inclined towards physical punishment and Moses being moreso inclined towards recompensation and/or atonement.)

So to conclude I personally do not think either man plagiarized the other but that the similarities between the Hammurabi Code and the Mosaic Law were merely because of the times which both men lived, and if one keeps in mind the conditions of the Ancient World, even from an atheistic standpoint, the Mosaic Law makes complete sense for its time frame as does Hammurabi's Code. Even in today's modern time much of those laws still are very practical, such as fair trade, sanitation, and having a legal system.

dcontroversal · Jan 7, 2014

4enlightment said:

Hammurabi

Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon from 1792 BC to 1750 BC middle chronology. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire following the abdication of his father, Sin-Muballit, extending ...Wikipedia

Born: 1792 BC, Babylon, Iraq

Died: 1750 BC

Parents: Sin-Muballit

Children: Samsu-iluna

Jeremiah 20:4
For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword.

Jeremiah 20:4 would be applicable unto Nebuchadnezzar, for after three invasions and deportation of Jews destroyed Jerusalem in 586/87 B.C.

jag1977 · Jan 7, 2014

Oh don't forget genesis follows Ra, Isaaset, and Atum and so on from the beginning.

2Thewaters · Jan 7, 2014

For God's sake
why are you teaching peope to care what Babylon says?
Don't you know salvation is not of the caucasioans or of the Babylonians?

God has merciful heart and will allow anyone who has a good heart to repent and join his people and everyone makes up their own religion and teaches people can go to heaveen like that...
Please, Read your Bible
it is a Jewish book
You can become a Jew by faith i you study.
Salvation is not of the caucasian pagans.
no way

dcontroversal · Jan 7, 2014

jprocks said:

If you back track from King David around 1000 B.C.
Plus Saul and the period of the judges about 325yrs for judges and 40 years for Saul's reign.
Plus the time of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the time they had in the land before the period of the judges
Finally add another 120 years as Moses was a 120 at death with no dimness of eye or loss of virility.

You come up with about 1515 to1520 (circa) B.C. maybe a little earlier than that as I did not dig in to deep to get a close approximation of the time of Joshua, the conquest and the time in the land. Remember concerning Moses he had the following...40 years in Egypt, 40 years shepherding, and 40 years of leading Israel through the wilderness.

john832 · Jan 7, 2014

So, help me out here, the Ten Commandments have been around since Adam and Eve. Hammurabi adapts them to his code and then later people accuse Moses of "misappropriating" Hammurabi's code and calling it the Ten Commandments?

Does anyone see who the source of this is? Isn't it pretty plain who really engineered this?

jag1977 · Jan 7, 2014

RA=God the creator...Ra-Atum=Lord God....Isaaset=tree of life....Atum=Adam....Ka=Eve....and so on

jag1977 · Jan 7, 2014

I recommend doing at 2 minute read on each of these.

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