Bikewer
Penultimate Amazing
This article, previously published by the Atheist Alliance, was run in our local Rationalist Society newsletter. I thought it might be of interest:
The Code of Hammurabi:
ORIGIN OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
by David L. Kent, AAI Individual Member
With the drive of the Religious Right to place the Ten Commandments in public buildings nationwide, the public should know where those commandments came from, lest it remain in ignorance and vulnerable to religious propaganda. In view of the state-church separation issues at stake, these Ten Commandments should be scrutinized closely.
The Moses on Mount Sinai drama cannot be placed by scholars historically or geographically for a very good reason. It seems to have been drawn directly from the legend of Minos of Crete, who every nine years ascended Mount Dikte to receive from the god of the mountain the laws for his people. Like Moses (Exodus 33:11), Minos was described as god's friend. Moses is supposed to have lived three centuries after Minos.
The Ten Commandments were written five centuries after the time of Moses (ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, 11th ed., VII:907-909, XVIII:895-96, XXV:138; HEBREW MYTHS, by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, 1965, p. 138; and EYEWITNESS TO DISCOVERY, by Brian M. Fagan, 1996, p. 189).
The Jahvist priesthood composed the first five of the Ten Commandments to consolidate their political power and reinforce their hierarchy. These were direct orders concerning what to worship and how to worship it. They placed a curse in the mouth of their deity on the innocent offspring of any who disobeyed (Deuteronomy 5:9, Exodus 20:5). The second half of the Ten Commandments was lifted from the Code of Hammurabi.
Both Hammurabi and his code are historical. Any visitor to the Louvre Museum in Paris can view the eight-foot pillar of black diorite, discovered in 1901 at Susa, Iran, by J.V. Scheil, on which is incised "one of the most important documents in the history of the human race" (Webster's BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY) in 44 cuneiform columns. Hammurabi was the sixth king of the first Babylonian dynasty, ruling the entire area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and composing the Code in the fortieth year of his reign, approximately 1910 BCE.
The Code has a strikingly modern feel. As in Egypt, women were the equal of men. Forty-four sections provided justice and a minimum wage to workers of all classes. Priests had no privileges and were mentioned only as citizens.
Hammurabi said expressly that he compiled the Code, not a deity (THE BABYLONIAN LAWS, by G.R. Driver and John C. Miles, Vol. 2, 1955; LAWS OF MOSES AND THE CODE OF HAMMURABI, by S.A. Cook, 1903). The Jahvist priesthood omitted these sections, selecting only those that would bolster its patriarchal hierarchy.
A point-by-point comparison of the latter half of the Commandments with the Code shows clearly how crude, vague and ethically inadequate the Jahvist edition is.
MOSES--Thou shalt not kill. HAMMURABI--If a man strikes the daughter of a man and causes her to lose the fruit of her womb, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver [#209]. If a surgeon causes a man's death...they shall cut off his fore-hand [#218]. If a man strikes a man in an affray, and if he dies of the striking, he may swear, "Surely I did not strike wittingly," and pay 1/2 maneh of silver [##206,207].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou commit adultery. HAMMURABI--If a married lady is caught lying with another man, if her husband wishes to let his wife live, the king shall let his servant live [#129]. If a man has taken himself off and there is not means for food in his house, his wife may enter another man's house; that woman shall suffer no punishment [#134]. If a woman hates her husband and states, "Thou shalt not have me," her history shall be determined in her district and, if she has kept herself chaste and has no fault, while her husband is given to going about out of doors and so has greatly belittled her, that woman shall suffer no punishment; she may take her dowry and go to her father's house [#142].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou steal. HAMMURABI--If a man has broken into a house, they shall transfix him at the breach he has made [#21]. If the robber is not caught, the man who has been robbed shall formally prove his loss, and the city and the mayor in whose district the robbery has been committed shall replace whatever he has lost for him [#23]. If a man occupying a house has paid its full rent for a year in silver to the owner, who then has ordered him to quit before the full term, the owner forfeits the silver which the occupier has paid [#E]. If a herdsman to whom cattle or sheep have been given to tend, alters the brand and sells them, they shall convict him and he shall replace them ten-fold to their owner [#265].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor. HAMMURABI--If a man has come forward in a case to bear witness to a claim for corn or money and then has not proved the statement that he has made, he shall be liable for the penalty for that suit [##3,4, with the following copied verbatim from the Code into Deuteronomy 19:15-19: "If a false witness rise up and the judges make diligent inquisition, if the witness be a false witness, then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother."]. If a man has caused a finger to be pointed at a married lady and has then not proved what he has said, they shall flog that man before the judges and shave half his head [#127].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's. HAMMURABI--If a fire has broken out in a man's house and a man who has gone to extinguish it has coveted an article of the owner of that house, and takes that article, that man shall be cast into that fire [#25].
Moses addresses his commandments to men, not to women, whom the Jahvist priesthood consider equivalent to livestock. In contrast, Hammurabi establishes a wide range of legal rights for women:
If a man has bestowed a field, a plantation, a house, or chattels, on his wife; after he dies her sons shall not bring a claim for it against her; she shall leave her estate to the son she loves [#150]. If a widow sets her face to go out, she shall surrender the settlement which her husband gave her to her sons; she shall take her dowry which she brought from her father's house, and a husband after her heart may marry her [#172]. If the father bestows a dowry on his daughter high priestess, priestess, or epicene, and grants her written authority to give her estate to whom she pleases and concedes her full discretion, after he dies she may give her estate to whom she pleases; her brothers shall not claim it [#179].
Women could become judges, elders and witnesses under the Code. The marriage ceremony included the joining of hands and a declaration by the groom: "I am the son of nobles, silver and gold shall fill thy lap, thou shalt be my wife, I shall be thy husband. Like the fruit of a garden I will give thee offspring." The penalty for rape was death for the man [#130].
Hammurabi summarized his Code in these words: "I, Hammurabi the shepherd, king of kings, have inscribed my precious words on my monument, that the strong may not oppress the weak, and to give justice to the orphan and to the widow.... I have set forth truth and justice throughout the land and prospered the people."
The Jahvist priesthood drew a small part of this age-old code of laws into its "command-ments" to sell its patriarchal propaganda to the people of Israel. As Joseph McCabe put it, "The moral code of the Decalogue is not, as regards human relations, higher than that of primitive peoples, and differs only in clauses, such as Sabbath-keeping, which point to the post-Exilian organization by the priests of the Jahvist religion. At whatever date this crude list of moral prohibitions was first compiled, it shows merely that the Hebrews were one of the last peoples of the ancient world between the Nile and the Persian Gulf to reach the general level of civilization."
That the ethical part of the "Ten Commandments" was never intended to be taken seriously is made clear in Deuteronomy 20:16, where the same god who purportedly commanded, "Thou shalt not kill," proceeds to command his people, under penalty of destruction, to kill everyone in the cities they are promised: "Thou shalt save alive nothing that breathes." That would include children and animals.
It would be extremely degenerate to accept a code of conduct emanating from such a corrupt source, much less adopt such an insincere ethical system for this country. Our Founding Fathers were careful to exclude religion from government. Their thinking was sound then, and it is sound now.
The Code of Hammurabi:
ORIGIN OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
by David L. Kent, AAI Individual Member
With the drive of the Religious Right to place the Ten Commandments in public buildings nationwide, the public should know where those commandments came from, lest it remain in ignorance and vulnerable to religious propaganda. In view of the state-church separation issues at stake, these Ten Commandments should be scrutinized closely.
The Moses on Mount Sinai drama cannot be placed by scholars historically or geographically for a very good reason. It seems to have been drawn directly from the legend of Minos of Crete, who every nine years ascended Mount Dikte to receive from the god of the mountain the laws for his people. Like Moses (Exodus 33:11), Minos was described as god's friend. Moses is supposed to have lived three centuries after Minos.
The Ten Commandments were written five centuries after the time of Moses (ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, 11th ed., VII:907-909, XVIII:895-96, XXV:138; HEBREW MYTHS, by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, 1965, p. 138; and EYEWITNESS TO DISCOVERY, by Brian M. Fagan, 1996, p. 189).
The Jahvist priesthood composed the first five of the Ten Commandments to consolidate their political power and reinforce their hierarchy. These were direct orders concerning what to worship and how to worship it. They placed a curse in the mouth of their deity on the innocent offspring of any who disobeyed (Deuteronomy 5:9, Exodus 20:5). The second half of the Ten Commandments was lifted from the Code of Hammurabi.
Both Hammurabi and his code are historical. Any visitor to the Louvre Museum in Paris can view the eight-foot pillar of black diorite, discovered in 1901 at Susa, Iran, by J.V. Scheil, on which is incised "one of the most important documents in the history of the human race" (Webster's BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY) in 44 cuneiform columns. Hammurabi was the sixth king of the first Babylonian dynasty, ruling the entire area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and composing the Code in the fortieth year of his reign, approximately 1910 BCE.
The Code has a strikingly modern feel. As in Egypt, women were the equal of men. Forty-four sections provided justice and a minimum wage to workers of all classes. Priests had no privileges and were mentioned only as citizens.
Hammurabi said expressly that he compiled the Code, not a deity (THE BABYLONIAN LAWS, by G.R. Driver and John C. Miles, Vol. 2, 1955; LAWS OF MOSES AND THE CODE OF HAMMURABI, by S.A. Cook, 1903). The Jahvist priesthood omitted these sections, selecting only those that would bolster its patriarchal hierarchy.
A point-by-point comparison of the latter half of the Commandments with the Code shows clearly how crude, vague and ethically inadequate the Jahvist edition is.
MOSES--Thou shalt not kill. HAMMURABI--If a man strikes the daughter of a man and causes her to lose the fruit of her womb, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver [#209]. If a surgeon causes a man's death...they shall cut off his fore-hand [#218]. If a man strikes a man in an affray, and if he dies of the striking, he may swear, "Surely I did not strike wittingly," and pay 1/2 maneh of silver [##206,207].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou commit adultery. HAMMURABI--If a married lady is caught lying with another man, if her husband wishes to let his wife live, the king shall let his servant live [#129]. If a man has taken himself off and there is not means for food in his house, his wife may enter another man's house; that woman shall suffer no punishment [#134]. If a woman hates her husband and states, "Thou shalt not have me," her history shall be determined in her district and, if she has kept herself chaste and has no fault, while her husband is given to going about out of doors and so has greatly belittled her, that woman shall suffer no punishment; she may take her dowry and go to her father's house [#142].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou steal. HAMMURABI--If a man has broken into a house, they shall transfix him at the breach he has made [#21]. If the robber is not caught, the man who has been robbed shall formally prove his loss, and the city and the mayor in whose district the robbery has been committed shall replace whatever he has lost for him [#23]. If a man occupying a house has paid its full rent for a year in silver to the owner, who then has ordered him to quit before the full term, the owner forfeits the silver which the occupier has paid [#E]. If a herdsman to whom cattle or sheep have been given to tend, alters the brand and sells them, they shall convict him and he shall replace them ten-fold to their owner [#265].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor. HAMMURABI--If a man has come forward in a case to bear witness to a claim for corn or money and then has not proved the statement that he has made, he shall be liable for the penalty for that suit [##3,4, with the following copied verbatim from the Code into Deuteronomy 19:15-19: "If a false witness rise up and the judges make diligent inquisition, if the witness be a false witness, then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother."]. If a man has caused a finger to be pointed at a married lady and has then not proved what he has said, they shall flog that man before the judges and shave half his head [#127].
MOSES--Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's. HAMMURABI--If a fire has broken out in a man's house and a man who has gone to extinguish it has coveted an article of the owner of that house, and takes that article, that man shall be cast into that fire [#25].
Moses addresses his commandments to men, not to women, whom the Jahvist priesthood consider equivalent to livestock. In contrast, Hammurabi establishes a wide range of legal rights for women:
If a man has bestowed a field, a plantation, a house, or chattels, on his wife; after he dies her sons shall not bring a claim for it against her; she shall leave her estate to the son she loves [#150]. If a widow sets her face to go out, she shall surrender the settlement which her husband gave her to her sons; she shall take her dowry which she brought from her father's house, and a husband after her heart may marry her [#172]. If the father bestows a dowry on his daughter high priestess, priestess, or epicene, and grants her written authority to give her estate to whom she pleases and concedes her full discretion, after he dies she may give her estate to whom she pleases; her brothers shall not claim it [#179].
Women could become judges, elders and witnesses under the Code. The marriage ceremony included the joining of hands and a declaration by the groom: "I am the son of nobles, silver and gold shall fill thy lap, thou shalt be my wife, I shall be thy husband. Like the fruit of a garden I will give thee offspring." The penalty for rape was death for the man [#130].
Hammurabi summarized his Code in these words: "I, Hammurabi the shepherd, king of kings, have inscribed my precious words on my monument, that the strong may not oppress the weak, and to give justice to the orphan and to the widow.... I have set forth truth and justice throughout the land and prospered the people."
The Jahvist priesthood drew a small part of this age-old code of laws into its "command-ments" to sell its patriarchal propaganda to the people of Israel. As Joseph McCabe put it, "The moral code of the Decalogue is not, as regards human relations, higher than that of primitive peoples, and differs only in clauses, such as Sabbath-keeping, which point to the post-Exilian organization by the priests of the Jahvist religion. At whatever date this crude list of moral prohibitions was first compiled, it shows merely that the Hebrews were one of the last peoples of the ancient world between the Nile and the Persian Gulf to reach the general level of civilization."
That the ethical part of the "Ten Commandments" was never intended to be taken seriously is made clear in Deuteronomy 20:16, where the same god who purportedly commanded, "Thou shalt not kill," proceeds to command his people, under penalty of destruction, to kill everyone in the cities they are promised: "Thou shalt save alive nothing that breathes." That would include children and animals.
It would be extremely degenerate to accept a code of conduct emanating from such a corrupt source, much less adopt such an insincere ethical system for this country. Our Founding Fathers were careful to exclude religion from government. Their thinking was sound then, and it is sound now.
