1780 BC

THE CODE OF HAMMURABI

Translated by L. W. King

With commentary from

Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. (1915)

and

The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910-

by the Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, M.A. Litt.D.

PUBLISHERS INTRODUCTION

The Code of Hammurabi -

World Library is proud to include a complete translation of the Code

of Hammurabi. We have also included two excellent monographs on the

code which shed much light on this ancient achievement. The first

monograph briefly outlines the origin of the code and its

importance. The second monograph, much more extensive, was written

only ten years after the complete code was discovered. It deals with

Hammurabi's code in the context of Babylonian law and summarizes

many of the codes' 282 provisions.

The Code of Hammurabi has long been out of print, and translations are

not readily available. We thank Les Heiser for his efforts in locating

the edition used here.

CHARLES HORNE MONOGRAPH

The Code of Hammurabi - (from an Introduction written in 1915 by Charles F. Horne, Ph.D.) -

. . .[Hammurabi] was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world's first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi's reign ([1795-1750 BC]) have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King . . . as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. . . -

. . . [B]y far the most remarkable of the Hammurabi records is his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It begins and ends with addresses to the gods. Even a law code was in those days regarded as a subject for prayer, though the prayers here are chiefly cursings of whoever shall neglect or destroy the law.

The code then regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society. The judge who blunders in a law case is to be expelled from his judgeship forever, and heavily fined. The witness who testifies falsely is to be slain. Indeed, all the heavier crimes are made punishable with death. Even if a man builds a house badly, and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be slain. If the owner's son was killed, then the builder's son is slain. We can see where the Hebrews learned their law of "an eye for an eye." These grim retaliatory punishments take no note of excuses or explanations, but only of the fact--with one striking exception. An accused person was allowed to cast himself into "the river," the Euphrates. Apparently the art of swimming was unknown; for if the current bore him to the shore alive he was declared innocent, if he drowned he was guilty. So we learn that faith in the justice of the ruling gods was already firmly, though somewhat childishly, established in the minds of men.

Yet even with this earliest set of laws, as with most things Babylonian, we find ourselves dealing with the end of things rather than the beginnings. Hammurabi's code was not really the earliest. The preceding sets of laws have disappeared, but we have found several traces of them, and Hammurabi's own code clearly implies their existence. He is but reorganizing a legal system long established. - Charles F. Horne, Ph.D.

CLAUDE JOHNS MONOGRAPH

BABYLONIAN LAW--The Code of Hammurabi. - By the Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, M.A. Litt.D. from the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910-1911 - (The Rev. John's spelling has been changed from Khammurabi to Hammurabi throughout this article for clarity) -

The material for the study of Babylonian law is singularly extensive without being exhaustive. The so-called "contracts," including a great variety of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts and, most important of all, the actual legal decisions given by the judges in the law courts, exist in thousands. Historical inscriptions, royal charters and rescripts, despatches, private letters and the general literature afford welcome supplementary information. Even grammatical and lexicographical works, intended solely to facilitate the study of ancient literature, contain many extracts or short sentences bearing on law and custom. The so-called "Sumerian Family Laws" are thus preserved. The discovery of the now celebrated Code of Hammurabi (hereinafter simply termed the Code) has, however, made a more systematic study possible than could have resulted from the classification and interpretation of the other material. Some fragments of a later code exist and have been published; but there still remain many points upon which we have no evidence.