IV. Translations Alone.
Of translations there was early no lack. Scheil’s appeared in October, 1902, Winckler’s first, the following month. The Oldest Code of Laws in the World, a baldly literal translation of the Code alone, with a short introduction and index of subjects by C. H. W. Johns, appeared in February, 1903 (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh).
Le leggi di Hammurabi re di Babilonia (a. 2285-2242 a. C.) con prefazione e note, by P. Bonfante (Milano, 1903), and Il codice di Hammurabi e la Bibbia, by Fr. Mari (Roma, Desclée, 1903), witness to the interest shown in Italy.
In the New York Independent for December 11, 18, 1902, and January 8, 15, 22, 1903, W. Hayes Ward gave a translation of the Code, following Winckler closely; as did C. F. Kent in his article, The Recently Discovered Civil Code of Hammurabi, published in the Biblical World (Chicago University Press, March, 1903).
A translation of the Code also appeared in W. St. Chad Boscawen’s The First of Empires, along with comments and notes. The book presented a clear and readable account of the life and times of Hammurabi and the dynasty to which he belonged. It gave many interesting views upon Babylonian history and the relations to Israelite legislation; but it must be used with great caution, as it is often inaccurate and full of misprints (London and New York, Harper’s, 1903).
The many criticisms which had appeared on his first translation and the desirability of a less expensive presentation led V. Scheil, in 1903, to put out a fresh translation as La loi de Hammurabi (Paris, E. Leroux); in which, however, he accepted little from his critics. A second edition came out in 1904.
Other translations have appeared in connexion with particular discussions. Thus the present writer was induced to set out a fresh translation for his Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters in the Library of Ancient Inscriptions (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1904). This work covered most of the helps to the study of the subjects referred to in this survey available up to that date. R. W. Rogers included an excellent translation and transliteration of the text in his useful work, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1912).
Several of those who have discussed the relation of the Code to the laws of Moses have given translations based upon Scheil, Winckler, or Müller. The Hammurabi Code and the Sinaitic Legislation, by Chilperic Edwards (London, Watts & Co., 1904), The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses, W. W. Davies (New York, Eaton & Maine, 1905), The Code of Hammurabi, by C. H. W. Johns, in the Extra Volume of A Dictionary of the Bible (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1904), pp. 584-612, may be named. In the second and third editions of his excellent work, The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia (London, S. P. C. K., 1903), T. G. Pinches translated the Code (1903, pp. 487-536; 1908, pp. 487-538). The treatment is full of acute observation and accurate scholarship.
A. Ungnad has contributed a fresh translation to Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum alten Testamente, herausgegeben von H. Gressmann, erster Band, pp. 140-71 (Tübingen, J. C. B. Mohr, 1909).