Code of Hammurabi vs. Torah
...o “If a man has destroyed the eye of another free man, his own eye shall be destroyed. If he has broken the bone of a free man, his bone shall be broken” (Hammurabi, 196-197:15). Although similar in appearance, the verse from the Torah is the word of God and the laws from Hammurabi are the words of a man. To break a law from the Torah is to directly disobey a command from God. The Code also has different punishments depending on the class of the person committing the crime. “If a man has knocked out the teeth of a man of the same rank, his own teeth shall be knocked out. If he has knocked out the teeth of a peasant, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver” (Hammurabi, 200-201:15). The Torah, on the other hand, has the same punishment regardless of class. “And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:19-21). The word “slave” appears many times in both texts. The Torah generally uses this term to describe the people who were freed from the Pharaohs of Egypt. The Code refers to the people of Hammurabi’s time who were considered property of others. In the following passage, the Torah refers to a male selling his service to another. It states, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. And if one of your brethren who dwe...