10 commandments a hoax?

[Pirate24]

the jewish 10 commandments look very similar to the "Code of Hamurabi" in ancient Mesopatamia/Babylon. I wonder why...

[Sephardic-male]

Christianity is similar to pagan mithraism and zorostrianism i wonder why

[the dauer]

Do you have a point, pirate? Or are you just spamming in an attempt to provoke hostility?

[duckandmiss]

How about I make his point for him, how is it that a code of laws that claims to be directly from G-d himself handed down to his prophet, is strikingly similar to a code that existed before the time of moses?

I figure thats what he was getting at, don't you?

[the dauer]

Yeah, but as a liberal Jew I don't have a problem with that. And I don't claim Torah was recieved as Sinai. I have no clue who the Historical Moses was. I consider all texts only sacred because we make them so, but I consider this a useful way to extend the Divine into our world.

Dauer

[Disarm]

If you wanna talk about the 10 commandments... A book I read said Moses was handed down the 613 mitzvot and the 10 commandments at the same time..the author seemed a bit confused on it. All of the 613 relate to certain passages which prohibit or condone certain practices, passages which I THINK already existed.. I really doubt that 2 sets of commandments were handed down!

So this thread made me think a bit, maybe the 10 commandments did echo already existing ones as a basic code... maybe the 613 are just the amalgamation of existing rules or ideas put down in the texts (unless something spectacular happened and they each related perfectly to existing texts)..or maybe the texts were written afterwards to reinforce the 613.. *is so confused* Does anyone have knowledge on this? It's always troubled me.. Especially because it surfaced as the basis of christian rules..How did it happen!

[the dauer]

It seems some of the portions of the mitzvot are adaptations of older codes, and other portions were specific to the Hebrews. Like many things, something that already existed was made use of. There were other sacrificial systems. There were other codes of law and morality. There were other flood stories. This is the combination specific to the Jewish people, especially as it developed over the ages instead of being absorbed by conquering nations.

There are actually important differences between the Jewish code and Hamurrabi's, between the biblical flood and the one in the Epic of Gilgamesh. These differences are significant and worth researching.

But if you're looking for a traditional answer, it is hard to know exactly how Moses recieved all of the mitzvot from God and I'd suggest looking at a few medieval commentaries to get some ideas. Remember that he recieved both the oral and written torahs. The oral torah was passed down by word of mouth as explained at the beginning of Pirkei Avot -- which is available on Chabad's site -- and the written Torah was brought down on Sinai. I know that all of the 613 can be found in the 10.

Dauer

[feministhippy]

Most religions overlap in some way. I consider that a good thing.

[Mui]

no shit.

[mynameiskc]

just shows the universality of doing the right thing.