5. Another inference from the point above made is that this code can not be held responsible for what was in existence before its promulgation; e. g. personal slavery. It can be held responsible only for doing the best that could be done with such a people—a people so educated, accustomed to such usages and trained in such ideas.
6. That this code, though given by the Lord himself, was not theoretically perfect but only the best practicable, is obvious from the fact that it was from time to time modified. Cases of this appear in the law respecting the six years’ emancipation of Hebrew servants (compare Ex. 21: 2–7 with Deut. 15: 12–17); the taking of pledges from the poor for the payment ofdebts: (compare Ex. 22: 26 with Deut. 24: 6, 10–15). See also the law of inheritance in a family consisting of daughters only (Num. 36).
7. That this code was framed with the design of a special adaptation to the Hebrew people appears in such facts as these, viz. that though it went into immediate effect and continued in force during their wandering life in the wilderness forty years, yet it anticipated their ultimate residence in Canaan, especially in its land-law and its provision for the entailment of real estate. Also it anticipated the future demand for a king according to the usage of contiguous nations and provided for this modification in the general government.
8. At the point where the administration of justice first appears, the sole responsibility seems to have rested on Moses (Ex. 18). At the suggestion of Jethro (as we have seen) important modifications were introduced. Further modifications were made after the settlement in Canaan. In consequence of the close connection between the church and the state—the religious law and the civil—the same class of men were to a great extent put in charge of both. The tribe of Levi became the ministers of religion and the administrators of civil law as well. Exempted chiefly from agriculture and from military service, they became the learned class—the lawyers of the nation. “The priests’ lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth” (Malachi 2: 7).
9. The question how far this divinely revealed code of law is authoritative upon human legislators and should control legislation in this Christian age, should be carefully considered. With no attempt to exhaust this question, I may suggest briefly:—(1.) That the great principles of this code should underlie every code of human law. These principles must be good for all time—for man in his social and civil relations every-where. For example, its doctrine of equity; its law of love; its regard for the personal rights of life, chastity, property; its doctrine of the essential equality of every man’s rights before the law; and its assumption that the poor, being otherwise defenseless, have special need of the protection of law, and should be regarded therefore as the special wards of government and itsofficers.——(2.) As the moral law of the ten commandments is obviously the compend and summary of the great principles which underlie this Hebrew code, so should this moral law be the compend and summary of the principles that should underlie every human code of law in whatever age of the world and in whatever stages of civilization.——(3.) As the Hebrew code while accepting the supreme authority of the ten commandments and aiming to embody and apply its principles did yet allow to itself a certain latitude in adjusting its “precepts and statutes” to the condition of the people, so may human legislators. Lessons of wisdom may be drawn from this code in both these lines of its example; viz. its fidelity to the principles and doctrines of the perfect moral law of Sinai; and its careful adaptation of these principles to the actual status of the people so as to reach the highest possible amount of practical efficiency in securing the ends of justice and of virtue.
The brief analysis and treatment of the civil code here attempted will follow mainly the same order of subjects which appears in the law of Sinai; thus:
I. Crimes against God:
1. Idolatry;—2. Perjury;—3. Presumptuous sins;—4. Violations of the Sabbath;—5. Blasphemy;—6. Magic.
II. Crimes against parents and rulers (Fifth commandment).