The Laws of Eshnunna and the Books of Moses



Adapted from: http://jerryandgod.com/2012/06/26/the-passover/

The Laws of Moses and Laws of Eshnunna 

 

Eshnunna, which lay east of Babylon, was for a brief period a dominant city in Mesopotamia, and a code of laws has been discovered from this civilization.

 

Judging from the fragments that remain of the laws’ superscription, it appears that King Dadusha issued this law code for his city.

 

It is the earliest example of an Akkadian law code discovered to date and anticipates form and content its successor, the much moore famous Code of Hammurabi (who conquered Eshnunna).

 

The code of Eshnunna is fairly short but covers a wide range of topics, including price controls for products like barley and wool and regulations involving theft, the status of slaves, marital relations, crimes of violence, and vicious animals.

 

It includes, for example, laws concerning a dangerous ox and the liability of its owner, which are closely paralleled in Ex 21:28-32.

 

The Eshnunna law code is significant for Biblical studies. It confirms that a code of laws similar to those we find in the Bible could have existed as early as the time of Moses.

 

Some histori­ans have argued that the bulk of Israel’s laws were very late, coming into existence long after Moses’ day. But we think instead that Dadusha was King David himself, ruling Mesopotamia, and continuing to apply the now ancient Laws of Moses.

 

The laws of Eshnunna began with a royal superscription that proclaimed this standardization as instrumental in establishing justice, eliminating enmity, and protecting the weak. 

Similarities between the legal systems of Babylon and Judah



 

Benjamin Jones writes in Exodus: The Hammurabi Code

http://www.academia.edu/1231172/Exodus_The_Hammurabi_Code

 

....

 

"The Covenant Code, the set of laws given by Yahweh to Moses, who conveyed them to the Israelites, bears a marked similarity to the law codes of Mesopotamia, including, in particular, the Code of Hammurabi. Many of the same moral and legal issues are addressed, and both the presentation of themes and the narrative style of the two documents bear a strong resemblance to one another".

 

Jones then asks:

 

"This similarity begs the question: what was the inspiration for the Covenant Code? Do the similarities between the Law of Hammurabi and the Covenant Code reflect similarities between the legal systems of Babylon and Judah, with the two systems and records developing simultaneously? Or was the law in Exodus appropriated directly from the laws of Hammurabi, as a philosophical or scholarly exercise?"

 

 

AMAIC Comment:

 

According to our revision of history, Hammurabi was King Solomon ruling Babylon. Hence the famous Laws of Hammurabi reflect the Law of Moses (Exodus) due to Solomon's and Israel's reverence for the great Lawgiver, Moses.