RE: Why does science always upstage God?
October 12, 2021 at 1:47 pm
(This post was last modified: October 12, 2021 at 1:58 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(October 12, 2021 at 12:12 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: And, hell, maybe those laws in Leviticus may have been progressive in their time. But anyone who looks at that and sees a moral standard that holds up today is bonkers.
I think it might be gone...and I figured you would enjoy this. There are a ton of direct, word for word parallels between mosaic law and laws we find on tablets we know to be centuries older. However....
One of the most progressive things we'd notice between mosaic law and..say, ur-nammu's code...is that crimes against people are often punished with fines in the code, and crimes against property punishable by death. Mosaic law flips this relationship, comparatively. Crimes against property are handled by fines, crimes against people, death.
Ur Nammu A2 If a man commits a robbery he will be killed.
Ex 22:1 If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, four sheep for a sheep.
Ur Nammu A3 If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay fifteen shekels of silver.
Ex 21:16 Whoever steals a man and sells him, or is found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
Ur Nammu A28 If a man appeared as a witness, and was shown to be a perjurer, he must pay fifteen shekels of silver.
Duet 19:18 Judges shall inquire diligently, and if a witness has been false and accused his brother, then you shall do to him what he meant to do to his brother.
so on and so forth.
Now, not arguing the progressiveness of death penalties for anything, I think we can say that the general relationship between capital punishment, fines, and crimes, we might consider progress. That if we're going to be dealing death, then it's probably more just when the crime is against a person, rather than property. Obviously, King Ur-Nammu did not think so...and that might have had something to do with him being a king. His laws seem designed to privilege property over people, mosaic law, the opposite.
There are exceptions, ofc. A jewish rapist was fined - but women were widely regarded as property in both cases...so...... Adulterers are put to death in mosaic law, but only the female adulterer is put to death in the code. We might interpret that as her having damaged herself as goods, and, ofc, in the case of mosaic law....the father was the aggrieved party when his daughter was spoiled in any way.
https://www.worldhistory.org/Ur-Nammu/
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