How do the laws in human history relate to ethics today? We may read of the laws of mankind from ancient times, such as the Code of Hammurabi and the Ten Commandments, combined with the laws in the Hebrew people’s teachings, the Torah. Many centuries later, Plato wrote an extensive, though unfinished, dialogue entitled Laws, which attempted to analyze legal codes of various Hellenic countries of the 5th Century B.C. In comparing these ancient codes and commentary, we find one particularly significant property in common, which is the appeal to deity in one form or other for establishing the authority of the laws. The rationale for appealing to such authority has its basis in the absolute standard of purity, without equivocation or error; otherwise, ethics and faith in God Himself have no standard but are reduced to mere relativism. Therefore, a comparison of ancient legal codes and commentary with the Bible would seem not only appropriate but vital.

Even though earlier legal codes of a Sumerian culture are also extant, these appear much more fragmented and incomplete than Hammurabi’s. The Code of Hammurabi dates back to the 18th Century B.C. under a Mesopotamian leader, probaby King Hammurabi himself, in the region of the Euphrates. Oddly, the most complete preservation of the code, the basalt stele of Hammurabi, was discovered in Susa, Iran (Persia) near the border with modern-day Iraq, and stands reassembled today in the Louvre Museum. Scholars surmise that the stele had been moved to Susa by force of war; nevertheless, other fragments found in the Near East point to the code of Hammurabi having a lasting influence across several cultures over some centuries in the overall region. The stele has a prologue and 282 legal paragraphs inscribed in cuneiform in the Akkadian (Semitic) language, followed by an epilogue, and it prescribes the legal requirements for such topics as family and civil law, business law, property law, and criminal law. The legal paragraphs are amazingly advanced in both format and concept. The casuistic style for each legal paragraph states “if” such-and-such, “then” such-and-such shall apply as to the legal remedy, and either a reward or punishment. Probably the most notable paragraph similar to a biblical nature mentions exacting punishment for the crime of violence – “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” as later cited in the law of Moses: Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21; and repeated in the New Testament in Matthew 5:38. The carved relief at the top of the stele depicts the king revering Shamash, also known as Utu, the Babylonian god of the sun and justice.

Another remarkable code chronologically after Hammurabi’s would of course be the law of Moses as found in the parchment manuscripts of the Hebrew books of instruction – the Torah, consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (written c. 15th Century BC). The earliest extant manuscripts of the Torah today, along with many other Hebrew scriptures and Jewish writings, were discovered between 1946/1947 and 1956 at the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea. They were probably copied by Essene scribes dating between the 3rd and 1st Centuries BC, with some manuscripts even earlier, and some later. The advance in scholarship and corroboration finds a remarkable similarity in the wording and clarity of translation between the previously “oldest” extant manuscripts and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The law of Moses found in the Torah reveals the law code of God to His people that organizes around the Ten Commandments presented to the first generation of the liberated Hebrews who exited Egypt (Exodus chapter 20), and then a second time to the next generation as the people prepared to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy chapter 5). We may note that the Ten Commandments give four “vertical” commandments on how to relate to the Supreme Being, followed by six “horizontal” commandments on how to relate to fellow humans. The summary commandments for each of these two categories may be found in the narration and admonitions by Moses to the people. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 provides the famous “Shema,” meaning “Hear,” which states the oneness of God and the Greatest Commandment – to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. The first four of the Ten Commandments relate to honoring God as the only true and living God, the use of His name, and keeping the Sabbath, and all fall under the Greatest Commandment, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 – the Shema. The Second-Greatest Commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself, lies deep in Leviticus in the context of not holding a grudge, but to love instead, in Leviticus 19:18. “Love your neighbor as yourself” provides the primary emphasis and reason for the last six of the Ten Commandments, which include:

• Honor your father and mother.
• Do not murder.
• Do not commit adultery.
• Do not steal.
• Do not bear false witness.
• Do not covet.

This law code includes the simple major and universal Commandments but branches out into the sacrifical system of worship and animal blood atonement for sin, as well as various cultural regulations, sacred holidays, and worship requirements that provide a type for Christ, the projected Messiah, who was to come centuries after Moses. We may state unequivocably that the law of Moses points to the Divine, and as Bible believers, we say on faith that it comes from God.

We now come to the bulwark of Western legal and political thought, the philosphers of ancient Greece, which included the Big Three: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Of these, we may focus on Plato’s final work in his old age, his dialogue, Laws. Today Plato’s discussion of laws may be criticised for its style and antiquated opinions, which at times seem to border on the naive. However, the major point comes from the statements of Plato’s character in the dialogue, the Stranger of Athens, as he propounds the divine nature of good law. “The laws of the Cretans,” he says to Clinias the Cretan, “are held in superlatively high repute among the Helenes. For they are true laws inasmuch as they effect the well-being of those who use them by supplying all things that are good. Now goods are of two kinds, human and divine” (Laws, Book I). He further expounds on humanity’s dependence on divine direction. We may wonder whether, assuming pagan gods to be nonexistent, a “divine” order or direction from the ancient Hellenic world would have any relevance, even in the 5th Century BC. The answer must come from their perspective, which would be affirmative. Although at times Plato’s Athenian Stranger mentioned God as the source for good law, we may only gather that he referred to someone in the ancient Greek pantheon. In the reading, one may find a reference to Zeus and Pythian Apollo. Now Zeus in general would be regarded in Hellenic culture as of highest rank, the deific king of Olympus. However, Apollo, a god of great influence in multiple areas of human endeavor, specifically became involved in Greek religious tradition as the source for the power of the oracle at Delphi, the ancient Greek center of the universe. There at Delphi on the Bay of Corinth, Pythia, the oracular priestess, practiced her art of divination. Belief in law from the mouth of Apollo through Pythia had great weight to the Hellenic peoples.

Our thesis, after some comparison of legal and religious cultural references, lays out the universal need for authority for objective ethical principles, which we may further focus as commandments and laws of religious importance; namely, there must be a standard by which ethics are judged that stand independent of mere opinion and relativism. Even as Bertrand Russell, a self-described agnostic or atheist, admitted, he could not definitively judge goodness and badness (right and wrong) without requisite “non-natural properties of goodness and badness” (Stanford, 2021). Therefore, we may surmise that, according to Russell, without the supernatural ethical standard, objective ethical correctness would be reduced to debate. God must exist for an objective ethical standard, and as God said, “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Remarkably, the ancient philosophers and lawgivers tended to agree on divine direction, if only ostensibly to justify the laws. Divine decree was invoked by Hammurabi, Moses, and Plato. Bible believers say that God will judge the people of the world, past, present, and future, and His judgment is right. We have His Book by which we may know His standard, in the pages from Genesis to Revelation.

For God shall bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. – Ecclesiastes 12:14

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. -Hebrews 4:13

We are fortunate to have the hope of God’s promises to believers, and may call on the name of the Lord and plead in faith for His grace and mercy, turning to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith (Romans 10:9-10; Hebrews 12:2). We are privileged to live out our faith, not under judgment, but under grace and a sound mind in Christ (Romans 8:1; 12:1-3). May the Lord’s peace be with you.

REFERENCES:

Britannica Online, britannicaonline/topic/Britannica-online. “Code of Hammurabi.” Accessed 10

February 2024.

Britannica Online, britannicaonline/topic/Britannica-online. “Dead Sea Scrolls.” Accessed 10

February 2024.

Britannica Online, britannicaonline/topic/Britannica-online. “Shamash.” Accessed 10 February 2024.

Plato, Laws. English trans. by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1926.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Russell’s moral philosophy,” under subtitle “1. The open

question argument and its aftermath: Moore’s influence on Russell,” revised 4 May 2021.