Question: "Did Moses copy the Law from the
Code of Hammurabi?"

Answer: Hammurabi was a Babylonian king who reigned from 1795 to 1750 B.C. He is remembered today for promoting and enforcing an organized code of laws. The Code of Hammurabi, discovered on a stele in 1901, is one of the best preserved and comprehensive of ancient writings of significant length ever found. The Hammurabian Code is divided into 12 sections and consists of 282 laws, 34 of which are unreadable. The Code is primarily a case-by-case formula of customary law covering administrative, civil, and criminal issues. The complexity of the laws and their subject matter reveal much about ancient Babylonian culture.

About 300 years after Hammurabi, in 1440 B.C., Moses recorded the Law for the Israelites. Because the Mosaic Law contains some similarities to Hammurabi’s Code, some critics of the Bible believe that Moses copied from the Hammurabian Code. If they’re right, and Moses simply stole from the Babylonians, then the whole episode at Mount Sinai is false (Exodus 34), and the inspiration of Scripture is suspect.

Both Levitical law and Hammurabi’s Code impose the death penalty in cases of adultery and kidnapping (Leviticus 20:10; Exodus 21:16; cf. Statutes 129 and 14). Also, there are similarities in the law of retaliation, such as “an eye for an eye” (Leviticus 21:23-25; cf. Statute 196). Statute 206 of the Hammurabian Code says, “If during a quarrel one man strike another and wound him, then he shall swear, ‘I did not injure him wittingly,’ and pay the physicians.” The Law of Moses is comparable: “If people quarrel and one person hits another with a stone or with their fist and the victim does not die but is confined to bed, the one who struck the blow will not be held liable if the other can get up and walk around outside with a staff; however, the guilty party must pay the injured person for any loss of time and see that the victim is completely healed” (Exodus 21:18-19).

There are other examples, but in all truth, such resemblances do not demonstrate that Moses plagiarized Hammurabi’s Code. What the similarities do show is that murder, theft, adultery, and kidnapping are problems in every society and must be addressed. Even today, countries throughout the world have similar laws. Such parallels certainly don’t prove plagiarism. . . . Continue Reading>> http://www.gotquestions.org/Moses-Hammurabi-code.html#ixzz33w6PoNyC

http://www.specialtyinterests.net/codexhammurabi.html
http://mysavior.info/article/414
http://1peter315.blogspot.com/2011/06/did-moses-plagiarize-from-code-of.html

A Few Words About the Sin of Hasty Conclusions
The Wrong Idea

Imagine yourself in one of these scenarios:

1) Somebody criticizes what you have done, but you know he has no understanding of the situation, and if he did, you are certain he would have a different opinion.
2) A report comes back to you that represents your actions in a manner which makes you look like a fool, or reckless, or even criminal and you know the facts have been twisted into a false and misrepresentative scenario.
3) Someone challenges your theology and its practical application, and he is so far away from at least understanding your perspective let alone qualified to criticize it that you have no idea where to begin with him.
4) Someone makes fun or even denounces your principled stand for something, but it has become plain to you that he himself never stands for any principle -- he himself has no principles and he ridicules or opposes everyone who does.

Ignorant criticism, fabricated reports, outrageous challenges, and unprincipled mockery or denunciation -- what is the common element in these scenarios?  Somebody has the wrong idea about you. Nobody likes to be in that position.
Now maybe you think I'm going to talk about how to respond to such situations.  Nope. I'm going to talk about how you ought not to find yourself in the role of the antagonist in such situations.

Matthew 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye
even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. .... continue reading>>