Part 8

II. Thou shalt make no molten gods,

III. Thou shalt observe the feast of unleaven bread.

IV. Every first-born is mine.

V. Six days shalt thou toil, but on the seventh thou shalt rest.

VI. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks and ingathering at the end of the year,

VII. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven. VIII. The fat of my feast shall not be left until morning.

IX. The best of the first-fruits of thy land shalt thou bring to the house of Jehovah.

X. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.

These laws bear on their face the evidence of their primitive date and origin. They define religion not in the terms of life, as does the familiar prophetic decalogue of Exodus xx., but, like the old Babylonian religion, in the terms of the ritual. Loyalty to Jehovah, as the God of the nation, and fidelity to the demands of the cult is their watchword. Their antiquity and the central position they occupy in Old Testament legislation are shown further by the fact that all of them are again quoted in other codes, and most of them four or five times in the Old Testament. Three of them apply to agricultural life; but agriculture is not entirely unknown to the nomadic life of the wilderness. Possibly in their present form certain of these commands have been adapted to conditions in Canaan, but the majority reflect the earliest stages in Hebrew history. In all probability the decalogue in its original form came from Moses, as the earliest traditions assert, although comparative Semitic religion demonstrates that many of the institutions here reflected long antedated the days of the great leader.

Although in part contemporary, the next stage in the development of Israelitish law is represented by the civil, social, and humane decalogues in Exodus xx. 28 to xxiii. 19. The best preserved group is found in xxi.1 to xxii.20, and bears the title Judgments, which recalls Hammurabi's title to his code, The Judgments of Righteousness. Like this great Babylonian code, the Hebrew Judgments deal with civil and social cases, and are usually introduced by the formula, If so and so, followed by the penalty or decision to be rendered. They are evidently intended primarily for the guidance of judges. The parallels with the code of Hammurabi are many, both in theme, form, and penalty, although there is no conclusive evidence that the Hebrew borrowed directly from the older Babylonian. Undoubtedly many of the striking points of resemblance are due simply to common Semitic ideas and institutions and to the recurrence of similar questions. But on the whole, the Hebrew laws place a higher estimate on life and less on property. They reflect also a simpler type of civilization than the Babylonian.

When three or four obviously later additions have been removed, the Judgments are found to consist of five decalogues, each divided into two pentads which deal with different phases of the same general subject. They are as follows:

First Decalogue: The Rights of Slaves.

First Pentad: Males, Ex. xxi. 2,3a, 3b, 4,5-6. Second Pentad: Females, xxi. 7, 8, 9,10, 11.

Second Decalogue: Assaults.

First Pentad: Capital Offences, xxi. 12, 13,14, 15, 16.

Second Pentad: Minor Offences, xxi. 18-19, 20, 21, 26, 27.

Third Decalogue: Laws regarding Domestic Animals.

First Pentad: Injuries by Animals, xxi. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32.

Second Pentad: Injuries to Animals, xxi. 33-34, 35, 36; xxii. 1,4.

Fourth Decalogue: Responsibility for Property.

First Pentad: In General, xxii. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Second Pentad: In Cattle, xxii. 10-11, 13, 14, l5a, I5b.

Fifth Decalogue: Social Purity.

First Pentad: Adultery, Deut. xxii. 13-19, 20-21, 22, 23-24, 25-27.

Second Pentad: Fornication and Apostasy, Ex. xxii. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

Many of these laws anticipate the settled agricultural conditions of Palestine. Society, however, is very simple. The decalogue and peatad form also points clearly to an early period, when the laws were transmitted orally. Many of the laws probably came from the days of the wilderness wandering, and therefore go back to the age of Moses, in some cases much earlier, as is shown by close analogies with the code of Hammurabi. Although in their present written form these oral Judgments bear the marks of the Northern Israelitish prophetic writers who have preserved them, the majority, if not all, may with confidence be assigned to the days of David and Solomon.

The remaining verses of Exodus xx. 23 to xxiii. 19, contain, groups of humane and ceremonial laws. In the process of transmission they have been somewhat disarranged, but, with the aid of the fuller duplicate versions in Deuteronomy, four complete decalogues can be restored and part of a fifth. The following analysis will suggest their general character and contents:

HUMANE AND CEREMONIAL LAWS