I find it most interesting how smiliar the type of law is between these two. although i feel Hammurabi's to be not quite as strict as the bible's leviticus version by moses' god, and outside of the different gods worshipped, they could easily have been plagerized by moses and added to to make up the difference, if you get time compare them all and add the words of biblical god to them it's quite interesting indeed.
two that stand out as a main comparison are H: 196 and 200 - verses leviticus chpt. 24 vs. 20 - let's take a closer look at this comparison shall we?

H= Hammurabi L = leviticus



H: law 196 - " If a man put out the eye of
another man, his eye shall be
put out"

H: law 200 - " If a man knock out the teeth of
his equal ( a free man) his teeth
shall be knocked out."


L: chpt. 24 vs. 20:

""If a fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, as he hath caused a blemish in a man,
so shall it be done to him again."" KJV / NIV



now keep in mind Hammurabi's code preceed's moses laws from god by over 200 year's H: code - 1780 bce - moses "birth" approx. 1526 bce. probably closer to 300 hundred than 200 by the time moses wrote the laws.

OH, and by the way i retrieved the time lines from the " new international study bible" not from non christian sources.

That is rather interesting

http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/hammurabi-code-of-law-faq.htm

hmmm? i find that interesting that "christian archaeoligist and scholar's" find it to not be in concordance with the bible version. stating that H. code, was "not a universal application." yet exodus states - chpt. 21 vs. 26,27 " and if a man smite the eye of a servant, or the eye his maid, that it perish; he shall (what?) - "let him go free". and again in vs. 27: "And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall "let him go free" for his tooth's sake".

Sure sound's to me like two differnt thing's here - the mosaic law was "not universal" as they state, they were also two types of punishment layed out in both!! One for the isrealites proper and one for the servants and slaves for the other - that equates to 2 - (count them) set's / types of punishment - not 1 "universal punishment" for "all". The israel proper looses a tooth,eye,etc., the slave is let go free?? Universal? i dont think so. their conclusion on that point is wrong! if their wrong on that then i dont hold any other statements they make as having much value either. Though i'm not saying that one should equate both laws the same - there are many differences as to wording and all - still what i'm mainly saying is i find it very interesting that laws very similiar to moses laws existed 300 yrs., before his, to draw upon for what he wrote. a few, as mentioned here, that one can't help but see where they most likely came from as concepts for further foundation building later of the mosaic law. who know's maybe some were egyptian or other source also.

It is also interseting to note that the position he held was that of law giver given to him by the god Marduk also and that he was to care for both the mighty and weak with his law's

""When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and "Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth", who decreed the fate of the land, "assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man", and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name "me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince", ""who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak""; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.""

sound's much like moses and god's role huh?

moses, prince of egypt, called by god to lead his people and give them the laws to abide by?


H, prince of marduk, called to be king of his people, and giver of law's to them?

most interesting. hmmm???

and we stil have no takers on why one would not think that the H codes were used by moses at least in some instances - HMMM???

Oh brother, here we go again. Was there actually more liberties being taken? Now the code of Hammurabi? This I know nothing about whatsoever but I will read up on it. Good call Tribo. I felt it worth mentioning that there is a term for this used in cultural anthropology. It is when peoples come into contact with one another and very often this occurs by hostile take over. The technical term for this is syncretism. So you have ancient civilizations like the Sumerians who existed in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) from about the 6th milenium BC up until about the 2nd millenium. They were of non-semitic origin but they were sacked by the Akkadians. Because of the policies of the Akkadian Empire toward linguistic assimilation, Akkad also gave its name to the predominant Semitic dialect. So you have now these Semitic people who infiltrate and take over. The Babylonians were but another Semitic people in this area of Mesopotamia. This would be a plausible connection and why we do see these similarities in the bible much later.

google - hammurabi code then go to third entry down called EAWC anthology and click that for the best overview and all of the codes/laws

eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/hammurabi.htm - 63k

the codes that talk of an eye for an eye or tooth for tooth are # 196-201

compare them with the ones i talk of above

thnx for that info K, it helps.

I don't find this to be a surprise. Actually - Lipit Ishtar (Ruler of Isin) predates Hammurabi by an additional 200 yeears (give or take a few) as well, and it is presummed that >H< got his concept from >LI<.

However I don't this this idea of expressing to man the need to have Laws was unique to just the Jewish population. We know that God influenced Nebuchadnezzar through dreams, and hardened Pharaoh's heart. His inspiration and influence was not exclusive to the Jewish race. They recieved the divine inspiration to Moses due to the covenant made to Abraham, in order to assist in their own preservation. The world has never been a safe and happy place. Evil runs amok in the land - always has, always will. It was incumbant upon man to establish laws and rules in order to survive the enslaught of anarchy - because man is basically a self centered, self serving species. They didn't need "God" to observe this obvious fact. There has always been - since the time of Babel - a desire for power and control over the resources of the earth, and the various peoples who inhabit it. Slavery - despite what some believe - is not a concept of the bible, just an obsevance of it. This was not created by God - but by man. As was many od the other "ills" that man does upon his fellow man.

So it is not hard to see that every society most likely established "tribal codes of ethics" and laws in order to live amoungst themselves. It just so happens that we only have a small number of them recorded in terms of the archeological records - one of which is the Mosaic Law. I doubt very much that it was the idea of one handful of people and subsequently copied by the others. We have no viable evidence that thee was any connection what-so-ever by anyone of the Babalonian area with that of the Jews - who wandered amoungst the desert for 40 years before even entering the promised land. There are numerous similarities between the sayings of Confucious and that of the Proverbs of Soloman - and it has never been even implied that Confucious copied Soloman. Just that it is likely that these are obvious truths - given to all men/woman at birth.

It matters not to me what "scholars" consider. Truth is truth, and no one has to "copy" it from someone else to recognise it.

As mentioned in another post at an earlier time on this forum....

God revealed Himself to man in the form of wisdom back then...
before Christ Jesus came to dwell here on earth ....

it was God's way of giving every man, even back then ,a chance to know God .

So if God was revealing HIS WISDOM to all man, even before Christ came to earth...and God's Wisdom is the SAME....UNCHANGING....

then it should not be surprising, that there would be similarities in the different writings found.... among the different cultures of the time.