Excerpt: ...place a higher estimate on life and less on property. They reflect also a simpler type of civilization than the Babylonian. Sidenote: Their arrangement and contents 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, ...
Read More
Excerpt: ...place a higher estimate on life and less on property. They reflect also a simpler type of civilization than the Babylonian. Sidenote: Their arrangement and contents 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. Sidenote: Their date 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. Sidenote: The early humane and ceremonial laws The remaining verses of Exodus xx. 23 to xxiii. 19, contain, groups of humane...
Read Less
