6.2 Ancient Near Eastern Law

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6.2 Ancient Near Eastern Law

• BOT612 Old Testament Backgrounds

2
Law in the ANE

• Introduction
• Urukagina of Lagash (acceded c. 2370 BC). Brought
  about social reform for the under-privileged.
• Urukagina has come to an agreement with Ningirsu
  that the powerful shall do no wrong to the orphan
  and widow.

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Law in the ANE

• The Problem of social bias in legal codes
• You imprison the unjust judge, you punish the
  one who accepts bribes and acts unjustly. The one
  who accepts no bribes, who intercedes for the
  weak, is pleasing to Shamash (and) gains long
  life. The prudent judge who passes just judgement
  will (even) complete a palace he shall dwell in
  a royal court.
• "It was constantly stressed, particularly in the
  prologues and epilogues of ancient eastern codes,
  that the divinity had entrusted the present ruler
  with the legal protection of the oppressed and
  disadvantaged."

4
Law in the ANE

• The Codes are not really comprehensive codes
• "Never does it claim to regulate the citizens
  lives in their totality and in every respect. To
  our modern way of thinking, an ancient eastern
  code is always incomplete, fragmentary. This
  would be so even if such a code were extant
  complete and intact, which unfortunately is not
  the case. It is very noticeable that the codified
  prescriptions deal principally with exceptional
  cases and hardly at all with daily, common ones.
  Ancient oriental collections of laws provide only
  minimal information on marriage and divorce,
  inheritance and property, and the usual methods
  of conducting trials. Such information as there
  is is conveyed obliquely in the treatment of
  exceptions. This can be explained only on the
  supposition that the laws mainly record only what
  was disputed or seemed to be in need of reform."

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Law in the ANE

• "Evidently an ancient oriental judge was not
  bound in his verdict by the letter of any law he
  might have before him. It is also true that the
  ancient Babylonian language had no equivalent for
  our word law and no phrase like observe the
  law or sentenced according to section x of law
  y

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Sumerian Law

• The Laws of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2100 B.C.E)
• The Laws of Lipit-Ishtar (ca. 1930 B.C.E.)

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The Laws of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2100 B.C.E)

• "The prologue recounts the political and
  economical accomplishments of the king, including
  providing a peaceful climate for sea and land
  trade to flourish and regularizing and
  standardizing weights and measures. The first law
  provision of the collection provides for the
  death penalty for homicide and is followed by
  provisions dealing with various illegal or
  unlawful acts, the ownership of children of
  unions between slaves and free persons, sexual
  offenses, marriage, bodily injuries,
  insubordination, false witnesses, and
  agricultural offenses. Each provision is
  introduced by the Sumerian tukum-bi, 'if"."

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The Laws of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2100 B.C.E)

• Only 40 laws are preserved.
• Justice "The orphan was not delivered up to the
  rich man the widow was not delivered up to the
  mighty man the man of one shekel was not
  delivered up to the man of one mina."
• Fines
• "If a man, in the course of a scuffle, smashed
  the limb of another man with a club, he shall pay
  one mina of silver" (17).
• "Surprisingly, the CU does not follow the
  principle of the talion, which is overwhelmingly
  applied in the later CH in similar cases."

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The Laws of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2100 B.C.E)

• River Ordeal
• "If a man accuses another man of and he has him
  brought to the divine River Ordeal, but the
  divine River Ordeal clears him, the one who had
  him brought shall weigh and deliver 3 shekels of
  silver." (13)

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The Laws of Lipit-Ishtar (ca. 1930 B.C.E.)

• A prologue, an epilogue, and almost fifty
  provisions are extant. The prologue includes a
  self-praise of Lipit-Ishtar's benevolence for all
  of Sumer and Akkad, lists the southern
  Mesopotamian cities under the care of his
  divinely sanctioned rule, and stresses his role
  as restorer of justice and the social order. The
  first laws securely identifiable with this
  collection deal with boats and are followed by
  laws dealing with agriculture, fugitive slaves,
  false testimony, foster care and apprenticeship,
  marriage and associated property rights, rented
  oxen. Each law provisions is introduced by
  Sumerian tukum-bi, 'if.' The epilogue, after
  reiterating the fair application of justice under
  the rulership of

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The Laws of Lipit-Ishtar (ca. 1930 B.C.E.)

• Lipit-Ishtar, invokes blessings on any future
  king who honors and respects the monumental stela
  recording this composition and curses anyone who
  would desecrate or mutilate."
• Prologue wise shepherd pious shepherd, faithful
  husbandman
• Mainly property laws 9ff.
• False accusation "If a man without grounds
  accuses another man of a matter of which he has
  no knowledge, and that man does not prove it, he
  shall bear the penalty of the matter for which
  for which he made the accusation." (17)

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The Laws of Lipit-Ishtar (ca. 1930 B.C.E.)

• Slavery laws 12-13
• Unique marriage law "If a man's first ranking
  wife looses her attractiveness or becomes a
  paralytic, she will not be evicted from the
  house however, her husband may marry a healthy
  wife and the second wife shall support the first
  ranking wife." 28

13
Babylonian Law

• Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1770 B.C.E.)
• The Code of Hammurapi

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Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1770 B.C.E.)

• "The composition as known from the extant sources
  has no prologue or epilogue. In beginning with a
  date formula in Sumerian, the composition recalls
  the introductions to the Old Babylonian royal
  edicts and remissions, recurrent enactments, at
  irregular intervals, which canceled private debt
  obligations in order to implement economic
  reforms. The association with economic measures
  is further enhanced by the silver and grain
  values for basic commodities in the first two
  sections, the wage and price standards for
  services and equipment, and the silver and grain
  interest rates. A similar economic motivation is
  found in the prologue of the Law of Ur-Namma. In
  addition to these economic measures, the

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Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1770 B.C.E.)

• composition includes provisions that deal with
  numerous situations, including renters'
  liability, agricultural matters, theft, pledges,
  deposits and loans, debt servitude, marital
  rights and property and sexual offenses,
  fosterage and care for children of dependent
  classes, bodily injuries, fugitive slaves, goring
  oxen and vicious dogs, and collapsing walls."

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Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1770 B.C.E.)

• The code begins unusually with a series of
  prescriptions governing prices and fixing the
  level of rents and loans. . . . Economy is
  therefore of especial important in the eyes of
  this code."
• 8 Prescriptions concerning marriage (N.B. 26-28)
• "If a man takes a(nother) man's daughter without
  asking the permission of her father and her
  mother, even though she may live in his house for
  a year, she is not a housewife."

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Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1770 B.C.E.)

• Divorce 59
• "If a man divorces his wife after having her bear
  children and takes another wife, he shall be
  driven from his house and from whatever he owns
  and may go after (the woman) he loves."
• Death penalty 24, 58
• Property protection 12-13 (Exod 22.2-3)
• "A man who is seized in the house of a commoner,
  within the house, at midday, shall weigh and
  deliver 10 shekels of silver he who is seized at
  night within the house shall die, he will not
  live."
• Assaults 42-47

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Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1770 B.C.E.)

• Negligence 58
• "If a wall is threatening to fall and the
  authorities have brought the fact to the
  knowledge of its owner (if nevertheless) he does
  not strengthen his wall, the wall collapses and
  causes a freeman's death, then it is a capitol
  offence jurisdiction of the king."

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• Biblical examples Ex 21.23-25 Lev 24.19-20
  Deut 19.21
• Eshnunna Laws 42-48
• 42 If a man bits the nose of a(nother) man and
  severs it, he shall pay 1 mina of silver. (For)
  an eye (he shall pay) 1 mina of silver (for) a
  tooth 1/2 mina (for) a slap in the face 10
  shekels of silvers.
• 43 If a man severs a(nother) mans finger, he
  shall pay two-thirds of a mina of silver.
• 44 If a man throws a(nother) man to the floor in
  a altercation and breaks his hand, he shall pay
  1/2 mina of silver.

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• 45 If he breaks his foot, he shall pay 1/2 mina
  of silver.
• 46 If a man assaults a(nother) man and breaks
  his . . . , he shall pay two-thirds of a mina of
  silver.
• 47 If a man hits a(nother) man accidentally, he
  shall pay 10 shekel of silver.
• 48 And in addition, (in cases involving
  penalties from two-thirds of a mina to 1 mina,
  they shall formally try the man. A capital
  offence comes before the king.

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• Ur-Nammu Laws 15-19
• 15 If a man cut off the foot (var. limb) of
  another man with his, he shall pay ten shekels
  of silver.
• 16 If a man, in the course of a scuffle, smashed
  the limb of another man with a club, he shall pay
  one mina of silver.
• 17 If someone severed the nose of another man
  with a copper knife, he must pay two-thirds of a
  mina of silver.
• 18 If a man cut off of another man with a
  he shall pay x shekels (?) of silver.

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• 19. If he knocked out his tooth with a he
  shall pay two shekels of silver.
• Hammurapi Laws 195-205
• 195 If a son has struck his father, they shall
  cut off his hand.
• 196 If a seignior has destroyed the eye of a
  member of the aristocracy, they shall destroy his
  eye.
• 197 If he has broken a(nother) seigniors bone,
  they shall break his bone.
• 198 If he has destroyed the eye of a member of a
  commoner or broken the bone of a commoner, he
  shall pay one mina of silver.

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• 199 If he has destroyed the eye of a seigniors
  slave or broken the bone of a seigniors slave,
  he shall pay one-half his value.
• 200 If a seignior has knocked out a tooth of a
  seignior of his own rank, they shall knock out
  his tooth.
• 201 If he has knocked out a commoners tooth, he
  shall pay one-third mina of silver.
• 202 If a seignior has struck the cheek of a
  seignior who is superior to him, he shall be
  beaten sixty (times) with an oxtail whip in the
  assembly.

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• 203 If a member of the aristocracy has struck
  the cheek of a(nother) member of the aristocracy
  who is of the same rank as himself, he shall pay
  one mina of silver.
• 204 If a commoner has struck the cheek of
  a(nother) commoner, he shall pay ten shekels of
  silver.
• 205 If a seigniors slave has struck the cheek
  of a member of the aristocracy, they shall cut
  off his ear.

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• . . . the socio-cultural progression is not from
  talion to monetary penalties but the reverse. As
  the state becomes more powerful and central
  authority grows, it intrudes into the private
  domain, declaring an increasing number of
  wrongdoings (murder, rape, adultery, wounding,
  grand larceny) to be crimes against the state
  (and God). In archaic societies, the trauma of
  these wrongs is assuaged by compensation in the
  advancing state, the state punishes the wrongdoer
  (often severely, by death) but the victims are
  now without remedy. Greengus, Law in the OT,
  IDBSupp, 536

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• The Israelites felt that... the Canaanite law
  needed to be corrected in its basic principle,
  and we can probably guess the direction in which
  differed from the unmitigated application of the
  lex talionis in the Israelite law. It would
  certainly have been less drastic, and in this
  case, dealing with the unpremeditated results of
  an attack made in anger, it would have been
  content with a sufficient recompense for the loss
  and damage caused, following the general tendency
  of the casuistic law in cases of bodily injury.
  In passing judgement on different cases, the
  Israelite lex talionis never takes into account
  in this way the subjective guilt of the
  offender-it only looks at the outward
  consequences of

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Lex Talion in the Bible and ANE

• the deed and exacts accordingly a purely
  external retribution.... From the stylistic point
  of view the lex talionis is so isolated that we
  cannot give any precise account of its origin as
  a literary form. Alt, Origins of Israelite
  Law, Essays in Old Testament History and
  Religion, 136-137

28
Code of Hammurapi

• Figure Shamash or Marduk

29
Prologue Epilogue

• Hammurapi as shepherd capable, discerning,
  warrior, King wise one, the organizer.
• When god Marduk commanded me to provide just
  ways for people of the land (in order to attain)
  appropriate behavior, I established truth and
  justice as the declaration of the land, I
  enhanced the well-being of the people.
  (Prologue, v.14-21)

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Prologue Epilogue

• These are the just decisions which Hammurabi,
  the able king, has established and thereby has
  directed the land along the course of truth and
  the correct way of life. I am Hammurabi, noble
  king. I have not been careless or negligent
  toward humankind, granted to my care by the god
  In order that the mighty not wrong the weak, to
  provide just ways for the waif and the widow, I
  have inscribed my precious pronouncements upon my
  stela and set it up before the statue of me, the
  king of justice. (Epilogue, xlvii.1-78)

31
Code of Hammurapi

• The Code as exemplary decisions, models of sound
  legal judgements, therefore not intended for
  completeness.

32
Three Principal Classes

• aw4lu free people, including men, women and
  minors
• muske4nu the commoner, inferior to the aw4lu
  in some rights and privileges. He too was free,
  but he was socially and economically dependent,
  and in particular he was dependent on the crown.
• wardu and amut male and female slaves,
  including slaves belonging to free persons, to
  commoners, and to the palace.

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Overall Outline

• In the first part (l-41) the code deals
  essentially with legal subjects that concern
  public order. We find prescriptions on the
  ordered administration of justice, the protection
  of property, duties towards king and state, while
  the large section 42-282 deals predominantly
  with the interests and concerns of the individual
  citizen prescriptions about property and family
  law, inheritance, bodily integrity and problems
  that occur in the context of trade and
  agriculture.

34
An Analysis of the Code

• 1-5 The rule of the court
• 6-25 Death Penalty (except 8)
• 26-41 Duty to King and Country
• 42-111 Work, Real estate, etc.
• 48-52, 66 Debtor
• 112-126 Slavery and custody of goods
• 127-193 Family Laws
• 194-195 Transition

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An Analysis of the Code

• 196-214 Bodily injuries
• 215-223 Medical laws
• 224-240 Veterinary surgeon, builder, the
  boatman, shipwright, shearer
• 241-272 Random collections agriculture,
  livestock
• 278-282 Slave laws