Text of Lectures given at Religion and Society Seminar at Kellogg College, Oxford, January 2011
HAMMURABI (c. 1810 BC – c. 1750 BC)
Hammurabi was the sixth Amorite king of Babylon (the First Babylonian Dynasty) who died c. 1750 BC. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire, who extended Babylon’s control over all Mesopotamia (reigning c. 1792–1750 BC). He succeeded his father, Sin Muballit, who was the first king to actually rule over Babylon, and abdicated due to failing health.
He expanded the Babylonian Empire and conquered Larsa, which was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the centre of the cult of the sun god Utu with his temple E-babbar; Eshnuna (the modern Diyala Governorate of Iraq); and Mari, an ancient city-state in modern Syria. He defeated Isheme-Dagan I, ruler of the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia, bringing almost all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule.
Ruling over such vast territories in those days, over people of different backgrounds, he decided to codify a code of law which would apply to all his subjects.
HAMMURABI’S CODE OF LAWS (1780 BC)
Hammurabi’s Code of Laws (proclaimed c. 1780 BC) is one of the earliest legal codes which predated Moses’s Ten Commandments by many centuries and is much more detailed and more comprehensive. The Ten Commandments have clearly borrowed some of the laws set out in Hammurabi’s code. Several other older codes of law survive, the oldest being known as the Ur-Nammu Code, prepared by the founder of one of the Sumerian dynasties at the city of Ur, dating to the middle of the 21st century BC. Although not as detailed as Hammurabi’s Code, Ur-Nammu dealt with witchcraft, the flight of slaves, bodily injuries, etc. and could be regarded as a possible source or inspiration for Hammurabi’s Code of Laws.
Like most ancient kings and, indeed, most ancient prophets, Hammurabi claimed divine authority. Indeed, although he did not claim divinity for himself and proclaimed his Code of Laws simply as a revelation from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice, he was seen by many as a god within his own lifetime. The main record of Hammurabi’s Code of Law was discovered on a stone monument in 1901–02. At the top of the monument, a low relief represents the king in prayer before the god of justice, clearly confirming that he did not claim divinity for himself.
The laws are engraved beneath it in 282 paragraphs, apart from the prologue and epilogue. Copies of parts of the code have been discovered in other parts of the Middle East, scattered over a millennium of time, showing that the code had a lasting importance in the ancient world, even in countries where it was no longer in force.
Claiming divine authority for the Code of Laws, the code begins with the following proclamation:
“When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, 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; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.”[1]
This shows that, like the Bible, the Gospels or the Koran, Hammurabi sees himself as a vehicle for divine revelation and for promulgating divine laws which had to be followed by everyone. The Code of Laws contains 282 separate clauses containing laws on a large number of offences, including murder, rape, stealing, false accusation, etc.
His Code provides the first instance of lex talionis or the law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, including execution for deliberate murder. At the same time, it is also the first legal code presuming innocence until proven guilty. Hammurabi’s Code of Laws provides us with the most detailed set of laws in any ancient text or scripture. Although there are some harsh penalties, there are also some laws that protect the rights of women and children, or punish those who make false allegations or judges who rule unjustly. These are just a few examples of his 282 separate laws:
196. If a man puts out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
197. If he breaks another man’s bone, his bone shall be
broken.
3. If anyone bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it is a capital offence charged, be put to death.
5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his
judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be
through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in
the case, and he shall be publicly
removed from the judge’s bench, and never again shall he sit there to render
judgment.
23. If the robber is not caught, then shall he who was robbed claim under oath the amount of his loss; then shall the community, and … on whose ground and territory and in whose domain it was, compensate him for the goods stolen.
137. If a man wishes to separate from a woman who has borne him children, or from his wife who has borne him children, then he shall give that wife her dowry, and a part of the usufruct of the field, garden, and property, so that she can rear her children. When she has brought up her children, a portion of all that is given to the children, equal to that of one son, shall be given to her. She may then marry the man of her heart.
145. If a man takes a wife, and she bears him no children, and
he intends to take another wife: if he takes this second wife, and brings her
into the house, this second wife shall not be allowed equality with his wife.
195. If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be cut off.
Notes:
[1] Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, translated by L.
W. King. http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/hammurabi.htm
F Jahanpour 