Both Hammurabi’s and Moses’ codes share the same claim to further the welfare, not just of one nation, but “for all of mankind”. The difference between the two codes – and this is huge – lies in the contractual nature of Hammurabi’s Law and the covenantal nature of the Mosaic Law. There is no consent of the governed in a contract – it is rule by a dictator by any title of king, president, etc., and human nature is such that the powerful rulers exploit the powerless masses.
The Greeks recognized this problem when they replaced their kings with new forms of government. First came Demo-cracy – People Power, as opposed to Aristo-cracy – rule by the aristocrates, or Theo-cracy – Rule by God or gods. In Athens, all male citizens were eligible to participate in the city’s governing assembly. Obviously, this only works in small city states, and most of all, worked because anyone who didn’t fit in was eliminated.
Ostracism was a democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state though in many cases popular opinion often informed the expulsion. The word “ostracism” continues to be used for various cases of social shunning.
Execution was also used to keep the status quo, Socrates being a famous example.
Socrates’ student Plato conceived of the Republic – from Latin rēs (“thing”) + pūblica (“public”); hence literally “the public thing”, i.e. rule of the people using representatives.
The Republic, one of the most important dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, renowned for its detailed expositions of political and ethical justice and its account of the organization of the ideal state (or city-state)…what justice is and why it is in each person’s best interest to be just.
According to Plato, the ideal state comprises three social classes: rulers, guardians, and producers e.g., farmers and craftsmen. The rulers, who are philosophers, pursue the good of the entire state on the basis of their knowledge of the form of the Good and the form of the Just…Political justice, then, is the condition of a state in which each social class performs its own role properly, leaving aside the role of any other class.
Plato recognized that the individuals making up society must also be Good and Just for this system to work. Corresponding to the three social classes are the three parts of the individual soul:
- reason desires truth and the good of the whole individual
- spirit is preoccupied with honour and competitive values
- and appetite has the traditional low tastes for food, drink, and sex.
Justice in the individual, or ethics, is analogous to that of political justice—a state of psychic harmony in which each part of the soul performs its role properly.
This is baseline Humanism, the belief that humans have the power to overcome the essential hormonal and neurological drives of the human body and soul, inherent to the mortality that allows growth and development as well as ultimately death.
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good…but I am carnal [flesh, hormonal and neurotransmitter-driven]…what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good…For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not….O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death…?
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but…[mind] the things of the Spirit [of God in us].” (Romans 7, 8:3-5)
Hammurabi’s and Moses’ codes both explicitly state that their purpose is “to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land.” Since mankind’s inherent life-sustaining nature is focused on personal growth and development, this requires a rule of law to prevent injustice.
And here is where the Mosaic Law – a covenant – absolutely did not plagiarize the Code of Hammurabi – a contract.
Hammurabi’s Laws assign socially approved / disallowed behaviors and punishments, while the Mosaic Law deals with the cause of destructive behavior, not just its effects, and prevents, not just punishes, social damage through its demands on personal and national holiness.
Most of all, Hammurabi or the Supreme Court of the United States or any other leadership forum can’t simply arbitrarily call into existence the rightness or wrongness of actions. Just like defying laws of physics will inevitably cause destruction, so too breaking laws of human nature will inevitably lead to destruction.
For example, Hammurabi’s code imposed a fine on anyone who caused a pregnant woman to lose her child, while the Book of the Covenant required a life for a life, not only recognizing but teaching the sanctity – and value – of life.
“After nearly thirty years, the data suggest that abortion has been anything but good for the United States.” The economic consequences alone are that abortion (the modern clinically approved manner of child sacrifice)
- reduced the size of the economy,
- undercut one main cause of the American economy’s current dynamism: innovation,
- reduced the standard of living of the average America household
- is single-handedly responsible for anticipated imbalances in the Social Security retirement system,
- is perhaps the single largest American economic event of the past century, more significant than the Great Depression or the Second World War.
“the analysis warns that if it continues unchecked, legal abortion will progressively erode both America’s relative economic importance and her average absolute standard of living.”
Another example of the impossibility of reversing a law of nature by decree is the massive numbers of innocent deaths by AIDS caused by unlimited political support of homosexuality. See relevant post for details.
The Melchizedekian Covenant, defined in great detail in the Mosaic Law, protects the disenfranchised members of society, regardless of their place or rank in society, while the Code of Hammurabi is interested only in the free men class and gives special protection to the middle and higher social classes of Babylon…the lower classes, the wardu (slaves) and the mushkenu (free person of low estate) have no such protection. Taking the life of your own slave was no-one’s business but your own, and taking the life of another man’s slave might only bring a fine.
The superiority of God’s Laws is that obedience (and holiness) is the desired outcome, so that a relationship with God is made possible, but the Law of Hammurabi’s goal is for longevity of the king and prosperity for the nation’s elite class, regardless of who gets hurt.
As much as irreligious people like to fault the laws of Moses, objectively speaking the Mosaic Covenant provides well for the quality of life of its subjects in the kingdom.
- There is one day out of seven free from labor as opposed to the Egyptian and Roman one day out of ten,
- as well as one full year’s vacation out of seven,
- redistribution of resources to those unable to provide for themselves via a low ~22% income tax,
- and periodic elimination of debt.
- ensuring equal distribution of resources to all subjects, with no wealthy elite gaining power over the impoverished.
There is a sharp contrast between contractual laws simply cursing the unrighteousness and covenant blessings giving second chances.
The presumption here is not that loans are made to exploit commercial opportunity, but rather to avert disaster. Indeed the Mosaic law encourages such lending: “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him what he needs.” (Deut. 15: 7-8, NIV)
Compare the assurances of debt relief in the Mosaic Covenant with the Mesopotamian reactionary debt release practices during crises.
In Hammurabi’s time…The peasantry was provided with land…tools, draught animals, livestock, and water for irrigation, so that they could grow food…they had to pay to the State as rent…When the harvest was poor, they accumulated debts. If peasants were unable to pay off their debts, they could also find themselves reduced to the condition of serfs or slaves…after 1400 BC; inequality increased and intensified. Land was taken over by big private land-owners and debt enslavement became commonplace. The ensuing centuries…have evidence of violent social struggles between creditors and debtors.”
Contrast with the oversight and restrictions placed on leaders in God’s kingdom.
“Now the sons of Eli [chief priest and judge over the kingdom of Israel] were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD. And there came a man of God unto Eli and said unto him… Wherefore… honourest thy sons above me, …thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.” (I Samuel 2:12-36)
“And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue:” (I Samuel 13:13-14, Acts 13:22)
The common feature between the two types of agreements is the eternal condition of the spiritual life of the ruler.
- In contractual paganism, the ruler obeyed the demands of the god who experienced “life” by indwelling him – in short, demon possession – maximizing the quality of life of the god by plundering the lives of his worshippers. Can we not recognize this down through the ages by the exorbitant lifestyles of the rich and famous extracted by extortionate policies against the masses?
- But under YHVH’s covenant, Melchizedek Adam lived on in the DNA of the Order of Melchizedek through a dynasty of heirs culminating in The Seed of the Woman who achieved eternal life through union with God for ALL kings AND subjects in his kingdom by gathering the people in, not an insurrection, but a resurrection.
To determine the type of any nation, we only need to measure the morality of the ruler and the welfare of the people in action, not words. What is America in 2025?
Kingdom Come 