Exploring the Relationship between the Mosaic Code and the Hammurabi Code

Abstract

Over the years there has been a growing interest in the connections between the Old Testament and other Ancient Near East literature. The Hammurabi Code, a Babylonian legal document which predates the Mosaic Code by about 300 years, is one of the ancient documents that have featured prominently in such comparative studies. The remarkable similarities between the Hammurabi Code and the Mosaic Code raises questions about the originality of the Mosaic Code. Scholars often ask whether Moses copied and/or revised the Hammurabi Code and gave it to Israel as a divinely inspired Law or whether Moses actually received his Law as an original document from God. If Moses plagiarized the Hammurabi Code, then the inspiration of the Mosaic Code and (by extension) the inspiration of the entire Hebrew Scriptures is in doubt. The relevance of this textual and source issue for Old Testament scholarship has prompted the present study which aims at investigating the relationship between the Mosaic Code and the Hammurabi Code through a comparative study. After a critical assessment of the key similarities and differences between these two ancient documents, the paper suggests keys factors that might have accounted for the similarities and the proceeds to contend for the originality and authenticity of the Mosaic Code. Keywords: Ancient Near East, Hammurabi Code, Mosaic Law, Old Testament, Plagiarism