The Hammurabi’s Law Code and the Ten Commandments were laws created in ancient times. Although they are still in use today, they have changed over time. Whether or not a person’s life is founded upon religion, every individual should have principles and morals to control how they behave and understand how to distinguish between what is right and wrong (Pavlac, 2011). With that said, I think the Law code of Hammurabi and the Ten commandments created good communities in the ancient world, putting into consideration the things people had to endure during those times.
In ancient times, “they believed that keeping the law pleased the gods” (Pavlac, pg. 21). Laws were enforced in society so that there would be less violence. In case chaos erupted, there were structures that punished the perpetrators (Slanski, 2012) . Laws also protected property. For example, guarantees were made that land cannot be taken away from its owners and that after the owner’s death, the property would be passed down to a family member (Wright, 2009) . In the Hammurabi’s code “Many other punishments involved mutilation. A son whom his father, in Hammurabi’s code, for example, deserved having his hand cut off” (Pavlac, pg. 21). Prisons were not a common thing in ancient time because they were expensive to set up and run.
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The first code founder is Hammurabi Babylonian king, a Babylonian king. He was the most famous ruler and the sixth king of the Amorite dynasty (Ascaso, Singh, & Dua, 2011) . He is famous for having the codes carved onto a black stone pillar around 1700 B.C. The second code finder is Moses. He was born of Hebrew descent and received his code of law from God. He is famous for his delivery of the Ten Commandments (Davies, 2010) .
In both codes, we see that the father of a household was the primary decision-maker and overall leader of the unit, and disrespect towards him was intolerable (Farkas, 2011) . Both codes show similarities; for example, no one shall steal, commit adultery, kidnap, or murder. Anyone who broke these laws would face the consequences (Nagarajan, 2011) .
The Code of Hammurabi focused exclusively on criminal and civil laws and meted out harsh, and sometimes brutal, punishments (The Code of Hammurabi, n.d.). Unlike the Mosaic Law, Hammurabi’s Code had no provision for forgiveness. The Law of Moses speaks of sin and responsibility to one God. The Law of Moses provided justice, but it also dealt with spiritual laws and personal and national holiness. The Hammurabi Code does not do this.
While the Mosaic and Hammurabi codes had their similarities and differences, they were all formed to serve the same purpose; to enable people to live in peace, harmony, and tranquility in their community setups. Not only did all of theme outline consequences for breaking of the laws but also ensured that those who were sinned against were compensated. With this, people in communities co-existed peacefully.
References
Ascaso, F. J., Singh, A. D., & Dua, H. S. (2011). Decoding eyes in the Code of Hammurabi. British Journal of Ophthalmology , 95 (6), 760-760.
Davies, W. W. (2010). The codes of Hammurabi and Moses . Cosimo, Inc..
Farkas, D. S. (2011). In search of the Biblical Hammurabi. Jewish Bible Quarterly , 39 (3), 159-166.
Nagarajan, K. V. (2011). The code of Hammurabi: an economic interpretation. International journal of business and social science , 2 (8).
Pavlac, B. A. (2011). A concise survey of Western civilization: supremacies and diversities throughout history . Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Slanski, K. E. (2012). The Law of Hammurabi and its audience. Yale JL & Human. , 24 , 97.
The Code of Hammurabi. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/ham/ham00.htm
Wright, D. P. (2009). Inventing God's law: how the covenant code of the Bible used and revised the laws of Hammurabi . OUP USA.
