Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is the most complete surviving ancient law code and one of the most important documents in the history of jurisprudence. Inscribed on a 7.5-foot black diorite stele discovered in Susa (modern Iran) in 1901 and now displayed in the Louvre in Paris, it was commissioned by Hammurabi, king of Babylon, around 1754 BCE. The code contains 282 laws covering an extraordinary range of social issues: commerce and contracts, property rights, wages and prices, family law including marriage, divorce, and adoption, inheritance, slavery, and criminal law including assault and homicide.

The Code of Hammurabi is framed by a theological prologue and epilogue of considerable literary sophistication. The prologue presents Hammurabi as divinely appointed 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.' This is not merely political rhetoric: ancient Near Eastern law codes claimed divine authorization because justice was understood as a cosmic principle rooted in the divine order. Hammurabi presents himself as the earthly administrator of divine justice, appointed by the sun god Shamash (the god of justice) to protect the weak from the powerful — a claim that directly parallels the biblical insistence that God commands Israel to protect the widow, orphan, and stranger because God himself is their protector.

The stele's discovery in 1901 was immediately recognized as a landmark event in biblical studies. The parallels between Hammurabi's laws and the Mosaic Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21-23) were so striking that some scholars initially claimed Moses had borrowed from Babylon. Subsequent scholarship established a more nuanced picture: both law codes participate in a shared ancient Near Eastern legal culture, while the biblical law is distinctive in its equal application across social classes and its grounding in the covenant relationship between God and Israel.

For any serious student of the Bible's legal background, the Code of Hammurabi is essential reading — not because the Bible copied it, but because understanding what the Bible shares with and differs from its legal environment illuminates the distinctive claims of the Mosaic covenant.

• Exodus 21-23 (Book of the Covenant)
• Deuteronomy 19 (false witness)
• Leviticus 24:19-22 (lex talionis equally applied)
• Proverbs 22:22 (do not exploit the poor)
• Exodus 22:7-13 (deposit law)
• Exodus 21:28-36 (goring ox)

When the Code of Hammurabi was discovered in 1901, it caused a sensation in biblical studies. Some scholars initially claimed it proved Moses copied from Hammurabi; later analysis showed the codes are parallel products of a shared ancient Near Eastern legal culture, with the biblical code distinctive in its equal application to all classes and its theological grounding in covenant and God's own rescue of Israel from slavery.