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Around 5000 years ago, civilizations started to emerge in Egypt and Mesopotamia.1 The
main factor in these civilizations was religion. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society
claims that religion fostered creativity in the arts, sciences, and literature in addition to bringing
people together through the building of public works of art.2 Law is one of the most significant
ways that religion has impacted almost every society. Laws were regarded as divine directives
from the gods in prehistoric primitive societies.3 The oldest known legal code comes from
Babylon, a city in Mesopotamia. This legal code, also called the Code of Hammurabi, dates back
to approximately 1780 BC. Decades later, the ancient Roman Law of the Twelve Tables was
composed around 450 BC. A comparison and analysis of selected passages from Scripture and
each of these laws will be done in this essay. Both the Code of Hammurabi and the Law of the
Twelve Tables have had a tremendous impact on the evolution of laws in Western Civilization,
sharing certain similarities with biblical concepts of justice and law but also falling short of the
biblical standard in distinct ways.
The Avalon Project: Code of Hammurabi. Accessed March 1, 2024.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp.
2 Perry, M. et al. (2016) Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society. Boston, MA: Cengage
Learning.
3 The Law of the Twelve Tables. Accessed March 1, 2024.
http://thelatinlibrary.com/law/12tables.html.
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There are parallels between the Law of the Twelve Tables and the Code of Hammurabi.
For instance, parts on trial procedures and debt management are included in both codes of law.
The legal system created by the Code of addressed many of the issues that would come up in
various cases of legal conflicts at the time. There was death sentence for many crimes that would
be considered petty in our times. The first three statutes, which address legal conflicts between
parties, are an illustration of this. If someone brought someone else before the elders and accused
them of a wrongdoing, but the accuser was unable to provide any evidence, the accuser would be
executed instead of the accused.1 The Law of the Twelve Tables' first two tables provide a set of
regulations that describe court procedures. These rules cover topics like missing court dates and
which party is required to produce evidence in support of their case.1 A series of rules governing
court procedures, including those pertaining to nonattendance and which party is required to
produce evidence, are contained in The Law of the Twelve Tables' first two tables. In Leviticus
24:17-22, it says, “Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death.>Anyone
who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life.>Anyone who injures
their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner:>fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth.>The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.>Whoever kills an animal
must make restitution,>but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death. You are to have the
same law for the foreigner>and the native-born.>I am the>Lord>your God,” (NIV). Scripture's law
is based exclusively on the worship of one virtuous, monotheistic God, whereas the other two are
not. This is one of the primary distinctions between Scripture and the two ancient codes of law
that are the subject of this essay's evaluation. Scripture has a close relationship between morality
and the law. The idea of sin and the requirement to respond to God are brought about by the law.
This is where the Law of the Twelve Tables and the Code of Hammurabi fall short.
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The Code of Hammurabi and the Law of the Twelve Tables have had a great influence on
modern Western law. The Code of Hammurabi attempted to provide a consistent system by
which people could seek out justice for wrongdoing and settle disputes. The Law of The Twelve
Tables offered a similar system. These two codes of law also conveyed the idea that justice was
something that anyone could obtain and not be trampled under the will of the more powerful in
society. The concepts of justice that were established in these two legal codes has carried on
through centuries to remain relevant in the Western legal systems of today.
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Bibliography
Perry, Marvin, Myrna Chase, James R. Jacob, Margaret C. Jacob, Jonathan W. Daly, and
Theodore H Von Laue. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society. (Wadsworth
Cengage Learning, 2016)
The Avalon Project: Code of Hammurabi. Accessed March 1, 2024.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp.
The Law of the Twelve Tables. Accessed March 1, 2024.
http://thelatinlibrary.com/law/12tables.html.
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