The Code Of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to about 1754 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a man-sized stone stele and various clay tablets. The Code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded depending on social status, of slave versus free man. Nearly one-half of the Code deals with matters of contract, establishing, for example, the wages to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon. Other provisions set the terms of a transaction, establishing the liability of a builder for a house that collapses, for example, or property that is damaged while left in the care of another. A third of the code addresses issues concerning household and family relationships such as inheritance, divorce, paternity, and sexual behavior. Only one provision appears to impose obligations on an official; this provision establishes that a judge who reaches an incorrect decision is to be fined and removed from the bench permanently. A few provisions address issues related to military service. Hammurabi ruled for nearly 42 years, c. 1792 to 1750 BC according to the Middle chronology. In the preface to the law, he states, "Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared Marduk, the patron god of Babylon (The Human Record, Andrea & Overfield 2005), to bring about the rule in the land." On the stone slab there are 44 columns and 28 paragraphs that contained 282 laws. The laws follow along the rules of 'an eye for an eye'.

The intention of Ancient Texts and Translations (ATT) is to make available a variety of ancient documents and document collections to a broad range of readers. The series will include reprints of long out-of- print volumes, revisions of earlier editions, and completely new volumes. The understanding of ancient societies depends upon our close reading of the documents, however fragmentary, that have survived. --K. C. Hanson Series Editor

Among the best-known and most esteemed people known from antiquity is the Babylonian king Hammurabi. His fame and reputation are due to the collection of laws written under his patronage. This book offers a new interpretation of the Laws of Hammurabi. Ancient scribes would demonstrate their legal flair by composing statutes on a set of traditional cases, articulating what they deemed just and fair. The scribe of the Laws of Hammurabi advanced beyond earlier scribesin articulating legal thinking. The tradition that inspired the Laws of Hammurabi continued outside of Mesopotamia. It influenced biblical law and may have shaped Greek and Roman law.

The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses are thousands-years old documents, evidence of the social structure and rules of ancient civilizations. The Code of Hammurabi is roughly one thousand years older than the Ten Commandments, or Laws of Moses, which were written in 1500 B.C., and is considered the oldest set of laws in existence. Promulgated by the king Hammurabi in roughly 2250 B.C., the Code is a set of rules guiding everyday life, listing everything from punishments for stealing and murder to the prices commanded for animals, products, and services. The famous "eye for an eye" maxim comes from the Hammurabi code: "If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out." W.W. Davies' translation of The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses includes an explanation of the laws and their history, a Prologue by the author, the text of the codes with comments, an Epilogue, and a detailed Index. W.W. DAVIES was one of several translators of the famous Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses. Little to no information is known about him other than his work with the ancient text. A professor of Hebrew at Ohio Wesleyan University, Davies's translation was from 1905, published by Jennings and Graham in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi are thousands-years old documents, evidence of the social structure and rules of ancient civilizations. The Code of Hammurabi is roughly one thousand years older than the Ten Commandments, or Laws of Moses, which were written in 1500 B.C., and is considered the oldest set of laws in existence. Promulgated by the king Hammurabi in roughly 2250 B.C., the Code is a set of rules guiding everyday life, listing everything from punishments for stealing and murder to the prices commanded for animals, products, and services. The famous "eye for an eye" maxim comes from the Hammurabi code: "If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out." S.A. Cook's translation of The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi includes the code, the history of the regions in which it was employed-Babylonia and Israel, the elements of Law, the social structures of families, workers, and slaves, information on land, agriculture, trade, and commerce, protection of the people, and a detailed Index. STANLEY ARTHUR COOK (1837-1949) was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk. He was the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University from 1932-1938, where he also received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees. He was on the editorial staff of the Encyclopedia Biblica from 1896-1903, as well as an editorial advisor on Biblical subjects for the Encyclopedia Britannica. He edited Palestine Exploration Fund publications from 1902-1932 and authored many of his own books on ancient Hebrew and Middle East culture.

one of the earliest and most complete written legal codes and was proclaimed by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who reigned from 1792 to 1750 B.C. Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern Mesopotamia. The Hammurabi code of laws, a collection of 282 rules, established standards for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice. Hammurabi's Code was carved onto a massive, finger-shaped black stone stale (pillar) that was looted by invaders and finally rediscovered in 1901.

This book, which includes new translations of the old Babylonian laws of Hammurabi, is the second book by the author examining, from a historical Arabic linguistic perspective, a major Akkadian document. The first book offered new translations of three tablets from a literary work, the Epic of Gilgamesh, written in a late Babylonian language. The pioneering methodology used by the author to decipher the ancient Mesopotamian texts in both documents involves the primary utilization of old etymological Arabic manuscripts written by hundreds of accomplished scholars more than a thousand years ago. Using this methodology does not only provide more accurate, non-speculated, translations, and preserve the spirit and linguistic style of the original texts, but also provides more realistic phonetic values of the cuneiform signs. This would result in having more realistic overall text readings suitable to the one geographical and historical environment where these texts were produced, namely the greater Arabian Peninsula. The text of the Hammurabi stele offers students of both Arabic and Assyriology a perfect and unique opportunity to identify the language and grammar of its ancient Arabic language. Its vocalizations of subjects, objects, verbs, and genitives are astonishingly identical to that of classical Arabic. The loose and sometimes “chaotic” placement of words in sentences is strikingly identical to that of pre-Islamic Arabic. In, fact, the older the formal Akkadian language it seems the clearer its Arabic identity! Offering a textbook reference value, the author provided the numbered, phonetic Latin transcription for each law right above its corresponding, numbered Arabic transcription. Furthermore, he translated the text of each law literally, into Arabic and English, to illustrate how its translation was concluded, and to preserve its overall linguistic style, accounting for every word in its actual text. For easier reading experience, a full subject guide to the laws of Hammurabi is provided. All reference entries from both the historical Arabic manuscripts and the modern dictionaries of Assyriology are also provided in the appendix. In his expanded introduction, the author discussed the layout, script, and language of the Hammurabi code stele in the Louvre, and through the evidence of Hammurabi’s own words in a key paragraph in his prologue, he offered the possible meanings of the nickname Hammurabi.

This, the earliest known written legal code, was composed about 1780 B.C.E. by Hammurabi, the ruler of Bablyon. This text was excavated in 1901; it was carved on an eight foot high stone monolith. The harsh system of punishment expressed in this text prefigures the concept of 'an eye for an eye'. The Code lays out the basis of both criminal and civil law, and defines procedures for commerce and trade. This text was redacted for 1,500 years, and is considered the predecessor of Jewish and Islamic legal systems alike.