The founding of the first empires and societies in the ancient world produced urban communities with large, centralized populations. The complexity of the social order and nature of the social hierarchy included elite rulers, priests, merchants and tradespeople, common laborers, and slaves. These societies required a large body of legal renderings to address and reflect the varied societal dimensions—including familial and professional matters, as well as political, economic, legal, and military relationships. Formalizing of law codes was required for the orderly functioning of society, including punishments of those who broke the law. In the end, these generally served to protect the status quo among classes, as the examples will illustrate.

The first known version of the code in its current location (created c. 2100 BCE–2050 BCE; Istanbul Archaeology Museums)

We can see in the law codes of the newly emerging empires of Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, and others that there was a need to hold individuals accountable. Justice was administered for a range of crimes, including those that caused economic loss, physical harm, and death to others. These legal remedies recognize an underlying view of humanity as flawed and needing control over base motives. The instrument of law was an educational and motivational tool to influence human behavior and to aid compliance with legal, social, cultural, and other norms (Glassman, 2018).

Sumerian Law Codes

The oldest surviving law codes are those of king Ur-Nammu of Sumer (end of the 3rd millennium BCE). Older law codes predated King Ur-Nammu’s, but they are known only by reference in other extant documents. We shall look at the form of composition and content of the Sumerian Law Code.

The Code of Ur-Nammu begins with a prologue, which is a standard feature of Mesopotamian law codes. Here, the deities for Ur-Nammu’s kingship, Nanna and Utu, are invoked, after which the king is said to have established equity in the land. This included both the banishment of malediction, violence, and strife, and also the protection of society’s weakest individuals. After the prologue, the text deals with the laws themselves. (Mingren, 2017)

The ancient Sumerian Ur Nammu Law Code provides for various forms of punishment for crimes of murder, kidnapping, practicing sorcery, etc. Among the surviving laws are these:

• If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed.
• If a man commits a robbery, he will be killed.
• If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver.^[1]
• If a slave marries a slave, and that slave is set free, he does not leave the household.^
• If a slave marries a native (i.e. free) person, he/she is to hand the firstborn son over to his owner.
• If a man violates the right of another and deflowers the virgin wife of a young man, they shall kill that male.
• If the wife of a man followed after another man and he slept with her, they shall slay that woman, but that male shall be set free. (§4 in some translations)
• If a man proceeded by force, and deflowered the virgin female slave of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver. (5)
• If a man divorces his first-time wife, he shall pay (her) one mina of silver. (6)
• If it is a (former) widow whom he divorces, he shall pay (her) half a mina of silver. (7)
• If the man had slept with the widow without there having been any marriage contract, he need not pay any silver. (8)
• If a man is accused of [Translation of word disputed. some interpret as Sorcery…], he must undergo ordeal by water; if he is proven innocent, his accuser must pay 3 shekels. (10)^[5]
• If a man accused the wife of a man of adultery, and the river ordeal proved her innocent, then the man who had accused her must pay one-third of a mina of silver. (11)
• If a prospective son-in-law enters the house of his prospective father-in-law, but his father-in-law later gives his daughter to another man, the father-in-law shall return to the rejected son-in-law twofold the amount of bridal presents he had brought. (12)
• If [text destroyed…], he shall weigh and deliver to him 2 shekels of silver.
• If a slave escapes from the city limits, and someone returns him, the owner shall pay two shekels to the one who returned him. (14)
• If a man knocks out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out one half a mina of silver. (15)
• If a man has cut off another man’s foot, he is to pay ten shekels. (16)
• If a man, in the course of a scuffle, smashed the limb of another man with a club, he shall pay one mina of silver. (17)
• If someone severed the nose of another man with a copper knife, he must pay two-thirds of a mina of silver. (18)
• If a man knocks out a tooth of another man, he shall pay two shekels of silver. (19)
• [text destroyed…] If he does not have a slave, he is to pay 10 shekels of silver. If he does not have silver, he is to give another thing that belongs to him. (21)^
• If a man’s slave-woman, comparing herself to her mistress, speaks insolently to her, her mouth shall be scoured with 1 quart of salt. (22)
• If a slave woman strikes someone acting with the authority of her mistress, [text destroyed…]
• If a man appeared as a witness, and was shown to be a perjurer, he must pay fifteen shekels of silver. (25)
• If a man appears as a witness, but withdraws his oath, he must make payment, to the extent of the value in litigation of the case. (26)
• If a man stealthily cultivates the field of another man and he raises a complaint, this is however to be rejected, and this man will lose his expenses. (27) (“Code of Ur-Nammu,” n.d.)

Babylonian Law Codes

As with the Sumerian Ur-Nammu codes, in the Babylonian empire, Hammurabi’s Law Code covers a wide range of specific situations. It addresses, for instance, the matter of punishments for theft, Situation 1 (Code #229). It recognizes as well human responsibility that causes death due to neglect and shoddy workmanship (Code #22). The code addresses the relationship between slaves and masters (Code #282), and states, “If a slave say to his master: ‘You are not my master,’ if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear.”

See what is legislated in the following case studies from the Babylonian empire under Hammurabi (“Hammurabi’s Code of Law,” n.d.):

• What should be done to the carpenter who builds a house that falls and kills the owner?
  If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its construction sound, and the house which he has built collapses and causes the death of the owner of the house, the builder shall be put to death.
• What should be done about a wife who ignores her duties and belittles her husband?
  If the woman has not been careful but has gadded about, neglecting her house and belittling her husband, they shall throw that woman into the water.
• What should be done when a “sister of god” (or nun) enters the wine shop for a drink?
  If a “sister of god” (nun) who is not living in a convent opens a wine shop or enters a wine shop for a drink, they shall burn that woman.
• What should be done if a son is adopted and then the birth-parents want him back?
  If a man takes in his own home a young boy as a son and rears him, one may not bring claim for that adopted son.
• What happens if a man is unable to pay his debts?
  If a man be in debt and is unable to pay his creditors, he shall sell his wife, son, or daughter, or bind them over to service. For three years they shall work in the houses of their purchaser or master; in the fourth year they shall be given their freedom.
• What should happen to a boy who slaps his father?
  If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.

There were three social classes in Babylonian society: the amelu (the elite), the mushkenu (free men), and ardu (slave). Major laws covered in the code include slander, trade, slavery, duties of workers, theft, liability, and divorce. Nearly half of the code focused on contracts, and a third on household relationships. Women had limited rights, which mostly dealt with marriage contracts and divorce rights.

It will be noted that those with higher status are treated more favorably and with lighter punishments, and the law works against wives in conflict with their husbands or prostitutes in conflict with male clients. “Might” still “makes right” in the eyes of ancient law. Nevertheless, those who are deemed unfortunate or without advocates were often treated fairly under the law.

Hebraic Law Codes

Like the law codes of Sumer and Babylon, the law codes of ancient Israel that followed were an important part of communal and religious life. The Hebraic covenants, contained within the Hebrew Scriptures, comprised both obligatory types of laws between parties of similar status and promissory types of laws seen in the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, between a king or lord and his vassals. In this later type, Yahweh, the creator God, promised to bless Abraham and his descendants, the twelve tribes of Israel, with prosperity as his chosen people, including the land of Canaan. As the lesser party in the covenantal arrangement, Israel was to be loyal to God, receive the blessings, or in case of disloyalty, suffer the curses described in the agreed on code. Law codes were also central to the other two Abrahamic religions: Islam and Christianity

The Book of the Covenant contained in Exodus 20:22–23:33 is similar to, and may have been influenced by, the older Code of Hammurabi. It was comprised of the following sections: prologue, laws on the worship of Yahweh, laws pertaining to people, laws pertaining to property, laws dealing with the perpetuity of the covenant, and an epilogue containing warnings and promises.

Moses receiving the Law (top) and reading the Law to the Israelites. “Moses Receives the Tablets of the Law” by Karolingischer Buchmaler, ca. 840.

From the Book of the Covenant:

• Exodus 21:2–6: Law governing the length of service of a male slave and circumstances regarding marriage, children, and when the slave chose to remain in the master’s service at the end of his obligated time of service.
• Exodus 21:12–14 A law related to accidental homicide.

A second code of law was the Deuteronomic Code found in Deuteronomy 12–26, formulated by the Deuteronomists in the 7th century BCE. This set of laws was in response to Israel’s apostasy (renunciation of belief in Yahweh and worship of the gods of Canaan). Its goal was to purify the worship of Yahweh, eschewing the worship of Canaanite gods in the high places, cutting down the sacred groves found there, and restricting worship to Jerusalem.

From the Deuteronomic Code:

• Deuteronomy 14:3–21: Dietary laws of clean and unclean foods or those permitted and prohibited.
• Deuteronomy 15:1–3: Law regarding the retiring of debt owed in the case of a fellow Israelite, which must be written off, but for a foreigner the debt could be collected.

A third group of laws, thought to have originated after the period of Babylonian exile, was called the Priestly Code. A major portion of this body of law is the Code of Holiness found in Leviticus 17–26, also parts of Exodus and a major part of the book of Numbers. These codes highlighted ceremonial, institutional, and ritualistic practices.

From the Priestly Code:

• Leviticus 1–5: Laws governing various types of offerings to be made for various offences, animal and grain offerings.
• Leviticus 5:7–10: Sin offerings for those who could afford a lamb and the poor who could not and were allowed to sacrifice 2 doves or pigeons in keeping with their financial status.

Numbers 19:11–21 Laws pertaining to incidences of coming in contact with a dead body and the ritual care of the deceased. Further guidance directs how such persons would perform actions that would restore them to ritual purity and permit them to rejoin their usual routine and resume worshiping in the community.

Hebraic law follows the law codes of Sumer and Babylon with references to preference given to free persons over slaves, males over females, and virgins over married women.

• Special regard is given to the underprivileged and poor by letting them harvest from fields and vineyards at the end of the harvest and during the seventh year when lands were to lie fallow (Exodus 23:10–11).
• Special consideration was given to draught animals, slaves, and migrant workers on the weekly Sabbath that they might have rest (Exodus 23:12).
• Mistreatment of widows and orphans was prohibited and warranted a special animosity by Yahweh (Exodus 22:22–24).