The Law 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'.

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 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

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.

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to about 1772 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 human-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 handful of provisions address issues related to military service.One nearly complete example of the Code survives today, on a diorite stele in the shape of a huge index finger, 2.25-metre (7.4 ft) tall (see images at right). The Code is inscribed in the Akkadian language, using cuneiform script carved into the stele. It is currently on display in The Louvre, with exact replicas in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, the library of the Theological University of the Reformed Churches (Dutch: Theologische Universiteit Kampen voor de Gereformeerde Kerken) in The Netherlands, the Pergamon Museum of Berlin and the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.Hammurabi ruled for nearly 44 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 stele was probably erected at Sippar, city of the sun god Shamash, god of justice, who is depicted handing authority to the king in the image at the top of the stele.In 1901, Egyptologist Gustave Jéquier, a member of an expedition headed by Jacques de Morgan, found the stele containing the Code of Hammurabi in what is now Iran (ancient Susa, Elam), where it had been taken as plunder by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte in the 12th century BC.The Code of Hammurabi was one of several sets of laws in the ancient Near East. The code of laws was arranged in orderly groups, so that everyone who read the laws would know what was required of them. Earlier collections of laws include the Code of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur (c. 2050 BC), the Laws of Eshnunna (c. 1930 BC) and the codex of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin (c. 1870 BC), while later ones include the Hittite laws, the Assyrian laws, and Mosaic Law. These codes come from similar cultures in a relatively small geographical area, and they have passages which resemble each other.The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old Babylonian period. The code has been seen as an early example of a fundamental law regulating a government — i.e., a primitive constitution. The code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, and it also suggests that both the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence.

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.

"Code of Hammurabi" is the most comprehensive extant collection of Babylonian laws formed during the reign of Hammurabi of the 1st dynasty of Babylon. It consists of his legal decisions collected toward the end of his rule and carved on a diorite stela set up in Babylon's temple of Marduk, the national god of Babylonia. The 282 case laws in this work include economic provisions, family law, criminal law, and civil law. Penalties differed depending on the offenders' status and the circumstances of the crimes.

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.