Introducing the Code of Hammurabi

  Introducing the Code of Hammurabi articles in the The Thompson CHAIN-REFERENCE® Bible

 Thompson Chain Archaeological Supplement 

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 A complete numerical system of chain references, analyses of books, outline studies of characters, unique charts, pictorial maps, and archaeological discoveries COMPILED AND EDITED BY Frank Charles Thompson, D.D., Ph.D. Updated and Expanded by John Stephen Jauchen, Th.M., Ph.D., Religion Editor b.b. kirkbride bible co., inc. indianapolis, indiana u.s.a. 

4434—SHUSHAN or SUSA, which lies about two hundred miles east of Babylon, was the capital of ancient Elam (Susiana) and later the winter capital of the Persian kings. It was the scene of many biblical events in the time of Daniel, Nehemiah, Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus (Xerxes).

The French began excavations here in 1852 under the direction of W. K. Loftus, resumed them in 1884 under M. Dieulafoy, and have continued the work under Jacques de Morgan and others. The ruins are in four sections and cover about 4,900 acres, so they may never be completely excavated. Dieulafoy, aided by his wife, discovered the palace fortress that the writer of the book of Esther calls “Shushan the Palace.” It covered 123 acres, was raised high above the surrounding city, and was made up of the throne room, “the House of the King,” and “the House of the Women,” along with the inner and outer courts, the palace garden, pylons, stairways, terraces, and a few archways. The throne room was a great hypostyle hall that covered nearly an acre of ground. It had thirty-six noble columns—six rows of six each—with capitals carved in the form of bulls kneeling back to back, and with long cedar of Lebanon beams spanning the great distance between the massive columns. This palace would have been used by King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) and Queen Esther (see the book of Esther).

Evidence of palace gardens was found. The gate near where Mordecai the Jew stationed himself was also located (Esther 2:21; 3:2). Dieulafoy even found among the debris a quadrangular prism or die on which were engraved the numbers one, two, five, and six. This kind of die or “Pur” was used to cast lots (cf. Esther 9:24–26).

A scale model of the great palace is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. On it one can readily locate the various parts of the palace where particular events in the book of Esther occurred.

 

 

4434a—Aerial view of a portion of the mound of ancient Shushan (Susa), the city of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

In 1901 de Morgan’s men uncovered three fragments of black diorite that formed an impressive round-topped stele (monument) 7 feet 5 inches high. At the top of the monument is a low relief showing Shamash the sun god in the act of giving laws to King Hammurabi. Beneath the carving is the lengthy legal code, inscribed in cuneiform script and comprising about 282 statutes written in three thousand lines. Two hundred forty-eight of the statutes remain in a fairly good state of preservation. The Laws of Hammurabi, as they became generally known, make up one of the most important legal documents that has come down to us from antiquity.

4434b—Code of Hammurabi. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

In a lengthy prologue Hammurabi honors the gods of the land and represents himself as a shepherd and devout god-fearing prince. Hammurabi’s laws were for all the people of his realm—for the common man as well as for judges deciding cases of law. Notice his reassuring appeal in his prologue:

Let any oppressed man who has a cause come into the presence of the statue of me, the King of justice, and then read carefully my inscribed stele, and give heed to my precious words, and may my stele make the case clear to him; may he understand his cause; may he set his mind at ease.

The Code provides civil legislation for almost every aspect of life’s activities except for religion. The discovery of Hammurabi’s Laws silenced some nineteenth-century critics concerning certain features of Mosaic law. Indeed there are resemblances, even striking parallels, between some of Hammurabi’s statutes and those of Moses in the book of Exodus (compare Exodus 21:18–21). For example, in citing the law for personal injury, Hammurabi’s statute 206 says:

If a man wound another accidently in a quarrel with a stone or his fist, and oblige him to take his bed, he shall pay for the loss of his time and for the doctor.

Mosaic law is superior to the Code of Hammurabi because of its high ethical standards and its stress upon the motive of love, both of God and of man. It moves on a high moral and spiritual plane infinitely superior to all other codes. Moses taught the fact of sin within the human life and man’s responsibility to God in respect to that sin; a fact that Hammurabi and other law-givers failed entirely to comprehend. Hammurabi’s code was exclusively civil and criminal, whereas Moses’ law was ceremonial, religious, and deeply spiritual.

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