Abraham's seeking a wife for his son (Gen. xxiv. 4) is in conformity with laws 155, 156, and 166; gifts are given (Gen. xxiv. 53 and laws No. 159, 160, etc.); seemingly the father-in-law retained the presents given by his son-in-law, if he could get possession of them (Gen. xxxi. 15 and laws 159-161), and these belonged to the wife (wives) and the children (xxxi. 16 and laws 162, 167, 171, ff.).
Whether the theft of her father's teraphim by Rachel (Gen. xxxi. 19) could be construed as sacrilege or not is doubtful, but this may well have been the penalty thought of by Jacob when Laban accused some of his household of theft (Gen. xxxi. [pg 525] 32 and law No. 6), though theft, if there were no restitution, was in Babylonian law always punishable with death.
The punishment of death by burning, which Judah decreed for his daughter-in-law Tamar (Gen. xxxviii. 24), is parallel with that meted out to a devotee opening or entering a wine-house (probably a place of ill-repute), but the parallel ends there—there is no law in the code of Ḫammurabi, as at present preserved, decreeing death by burning for a widow who became a harlot.
Theft from a palace (law No. 6) is parallel with Gen. xliv. 9, where the sons of Jacob admit the justice of a death-penalty if Joseph's cup were found in the possession of any of them. Whether the purchase of the Egyptians and their land for bread by Joseph had any analogy in Western Asia or not, is uncertain, though law No. 115, as well as those which precede it, refer to something similar, but in these cases the servitude was terminable, which does not appear from Gen. xlvii. 19 ff. Thereafter the Egyptian ruler took from these farmer-thralls a fifth part of the produce, which compares well with the half or third exacted by the owner of a field in Babylonia from the hirer (law 46). Finally, the clauses of the laws of Ḫammurabi referring to adoption (No. 185) might be quoted in illustration of the adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh by their grandfather Jacob (Gen. xlviii. 5), especially when read in connection with the inscriptions translated on pp. [176] and [177], where the sharing of the adopted son “like a son” is expressly referred to.
In the New Testament, Gal. iv. 30: “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman,” finds illustration in law 171 of Ḫammurabi's code, and the parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14 ff.) reminds one of the agent sending forth commissioners to get gain for him by trafficking, as in laws 100-102. 103-107 do not bear directly upon this parallel, but are worth noting in connection with it.
It will be long ere all that can be said about this noteworthy inscription finds expression. There is much needing comment, and much to study therein, and the precise rendering of many a word has still to be found out.
Babylon And The Bible.
A great deal has been written concerning the two lectures which the renowned Assyriologist, Friedrich Delitzsch, delivered some time ago before the German Emperor, under the title of Babel und Bibel. These lectures have now been published, [pg 526] and from their style and contents, one can easily judge how great was the interest which they aroused. Those who were privileged to hear them must have enjoyed a true archæological feast, all the more exquisite in that the subject was that which throws more light upon the Old Testament than any other known.
His lectures deal, for the most part, with the things which are touched upon at greater length in this book—the early records of Babylonia and Assyria, the history, the literature, the arts, and the sciences of those countries, and of the great cities of which they were so proud. Beginning with “the great mercantile firm of Murašû and Sons in the time of Artaxerxes,” about 450 b.c., and the Hebrew names found therein, he speaks of Ur of the Chaldees, Carchemish, Sargon of Agadé, Ḫammurabi, the Bronze Gates of Shalmaneser II., Sargon of Assyria, Sennacherib, Assurbanipal (Aššur-banî-âpli or Sardanapalus), the Laws of Ḫammurabi (translated in full in this volume), the processions of gods,[297] the blessing of Aaron,[298] the advanced civilization of Babylonia 2250 years b.c., and many other things. To touch upon all his points would be to repeat much that has been treated of in this book, and that being the case, all the most important of them are referred to in the following pages under special headings:—