The Relations between the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew Peoples / The Schweich Lectures

by C. H. W. Johns

V. Discussions.

All the above works contained more or less discussion of the Code from various points of view.

In October, 1902, the present writer read a paper before the Cambridge Theological Society, an abstract of which appeared in the January number of the Journal of Theological Studies (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903). The Code was here dealt with as material for comparison with the Laws of Moses, but no comparison was made. A. Ungnad wrote Zur Syntax der Gesetze Hammurabis in vol. xvii of the Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, pp. 353-78 (Strassburg, K. J. Trübner, May, 1903), and again in vol. xviii, pp. 1-67. The text of the Code, by its careful phraseology and exact use of grammatical forms, has become a classic for the study of the language. The order of the sentence is, however, somewhat unusual, and probably shows the influence of the legal phraseology of the time, which was based on Sumerian law precedents. D. H. Müller took up this point in Die Wortfolge bei Hammurabi und die sumerische Frage, an article in Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. xvii, pp. 337-42 (Wien, Hölder, 1904), followed by Noch einmal die Wortfolge bei Hammurabi und die sumerische Frage, vol. xviii, pp. 89-94. Der Gebrauch der Modi in den Gesetzen Hammurabis, xviii, pp. 95-8, by D. H. Müller, appeared in the Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes (Vienna, A. Hölder, 1904).

In the Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, vol. xviii, pp. 202-22, S. Daiches contributed a most important article, Zur Erklärung des Hammurabi-Codex (1904). The same title was used by A. Ungnad for an article in the Wissenschaftliches Correspondenzblatt der Philologie—Novitates for October, 1906, pp. 8-9.

In vol. xix of the Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, pp. 388-91, Chr. Sarauw took up the grammar of the Code in an article Zum Kasus-System des Hammurabi-Kodex, 1906.

E. Wohlframm has since written Untersuchungen zur Syntax des Codex Hammurabis (Leipzig, Drugulin, 1910).

In the Expository Times, vol. xiv, pp. 257-8, the present writer gave an article on the Code of Hammurabi, and in The Journal of Theological Studies, vol. v, pp. 313-16, under the same title, a notice of the bibliography at that date. A. W. Sayce wrote on The Laws of Hammurabi, Expository Times, vol. xv, pp. 184-6. The Code of King Hammurabi appeared in The Times, April 14, 1903; The Laws of Hammurabi, by L. T. Hobhouse, in The Speaker, March 7, 1903; D. O. Dykes in The Juridical Review, discussed some legal points; E. König gave an estimate in Beweis des Glaubens, 1903, pp. 169-80. P. Lotichius wrote Die Gesetzessammlung des Königs Hammurabi von Babylon in Protestantenblatt, 1903, nos. 29, 30. C. F. Lehmann contributed an article on Hammurabi’s Code to The Nineteenth Century, 1903, pp. 1035-44. These served to give a wider publicity to the Code.

In Notes on the Hammurabi Monument, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xxv, pp. 266-78, D. G. Lyon, 1904 (New Haven, Conn.), and in Notes on the Code of Hammurabi, American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. xxii, pp. 1-28, R. F. Harper (Chicago, University Press, 1905) made some important contributions to the understanding of the text. D. H. Müller wrote Ueber die Gesetze Hammurabis (Wien, Hölder, 1904); T. G. Pinches had an article Hammurabi’s Code of Laws in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1902, pp. 301-8, among other valuable comments pointing out a hitherto unrecognized fragment in Ashurbanipal’s Library. The present writer discussed some difficulties in Notes on the Code of Hammurabi contributed to the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature, vol. xix, pp. 96-107, 172-5 (Chicago, University Press, 1903); T. G. Pinches wrote also on The Laws of the Babylonians as recorded in the Code of Hammurabi in The Journal of the Victoria Institute, 1903, pp. 237-55.

P. Cruveilhier discussed Le Code de Hammurabi in Revue du Clergé français, 1912, pp. 413 ff.

There is not space to chronicle all the reviews of these books and articles on the Code, though many of them are practically articles in themselves and marked advances. As a rule, later books used up all that appeared in the reviews of any note, and some of them give references to such sources. Such discussions are of fundamental importance for the exact understanding of the Code.