Term Paper on "Laws of the Ancient World"

Term Paper 7 pages (2466 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed; 14 you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press; as the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. 16 But if he says to you, 'I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you, 17 then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your bondman for ever. And to your bondwoman you shall do likewise. 18 It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for at half the cost of a hired servant he has served you six years. So the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do. (The Holy Bible 201)

A slave of Hebrew origins, can simply choose to remove his bonds, though it says nothing of other nationalities, the message is a clear indication that the laws of Moses are flexible within the context of the morality of bondage. A slave must choose to remain with his or her master. Yet, in the Hammurabi codes slaves are clearly pieces of property and in most cases mercy was shown with regard only to the fiduciary rights of the owner, not with regard to the soul of the slave.

175. If a State slave or the slave of a freed man marry the daughter of a free man, and children are born, the master of the slave shall have no right to enslave the children of the free.

Hence the children are free as a product of their free blood, presuming the children of slave and master would be slaves and the children born among slaves would also be enslaved to the master of both.

176. If, however, a State slave or the slave of a freed man marry a man's daughter, and after he marries her she bring a dowry from a father's house, if then they both enjoy it and found a household, and accumulate means, if then the slave die, then she who was free born may take her dowry, and all that her husband and she had earned; she shall divide them into two parts, one-half the master for the slave shall take, and the other half shall the free-born woman take for her children. If the free-born woman had no gift she shall take all that her husband and she had earned and divide it into two parts; and the master of the slave shall take one-half and she shall take the other for her children.

The fruits of the slaves half of the labour of such a marriage revert in ownership to the master of the slave. Yet probably the most telling of all the passages on slavery in the Hammurabi code is the one declaring it illegal for a slave to pronounce his freedom publicly, "282. If a slave say to his master: "You are not my master," if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear." (Hammurabi's Code http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html)

Official judgment within each work is determined by the judgment of the Lord in the case of the laws of Moses, and the judgment of human beings within the laws of Hammurabi. This departure is extreme as the demonstration of Hammurabi's work as a clear indication of what the bible would call the laws of man, to be followed but not to determine the value of the soul in the afterlife. Hammurabi often inflicts death and rarely demonstrates the act of the divine as a saving grace. Though if a person where to be accused, is thrown in the river to drown and is divinely spared he is found innocent of his wrongdoing and the accuser is therefore held accountable, it would be argued that the divine in this case is the divine strength of the individual to be able to swim.

2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser. (Hammurabi's Codes http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html

While in the laws of Moses the divine will sit in judgment and the accused will be punished through denial of the divine presence in the afterlife. Within these works the similarities of the human condition are marked and undeniable. The sources for the basis of modern morality are hinted at, and the divine power is present yet, secular laws of man are defined in one while the other leaves the afterlife as the judicial system for morality.

Works Cited

Ancient History Sourcebook: Code of Hammurabi, c. 1780 BCE at:

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Chambliss, Rollin. Social Thought: From Hammurabi to Comte. New York: Dryden Press, 1954.

Cited, Not. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Revised Standard Version. Rev. ed. Toronto: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1952.

Pinches, Theophilus G. The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia. 3rd ed. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1908. READ MORE

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