Politics · 21 · Yhwh and His People
Hammurabi's laws were royal PR
Hammurabi's famous stele shows the king receiving honors from the sun god, above 4,130 lines of laws. They weren't used in actual courts.
Biblical law was meant to be lived, not displayed.
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Hammurabi's collection celebrates the king who protects the weak. Biblical law removes the human ruler entirely: it's God's charge to a nation, to study and practice. Breaking it is sin against God. This radically new concept of law shaped equality before the law.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 342–344
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