The great highlight of visiting the Louvre a number of years ago, was getting to see the Code of Hammurabi. What exactly is that?
Well, the physical artifact is a remarkably well-preserved Babylonian law code, inscribed on a 7.5 foot tall, index-finger shaped pillar of basalt. The code itself contains 282 socio-religious and commercial laws, inscribed in an early cuneiform form of Akkadian. It was commissioned by its namesake, the sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi. But most remarkable of all is is provenance as related to biblical history.
The Code of Hammurabi was created in Mesopotamia, very likely in the region of Ur, sometime around 1750 BC. Thus, it originated in the same general region and timeframe in which the young patriarch Abram lived, before his sojourn to the Promised Land.
In the 12th century BC the stone was taken as plunder by the Elamites and re-erected in their capital, Susa (where it was uncovered by archeologists in 1901). The pillar was a much-prized and shown-off possession of succeeding Persian kings that ruled Susa, among whom were Nebuchadnezzar II and Cyrus the Great. As such, the royal sage and Hebrew prophet Daniel - as well as the prophet Nehemiah - would almost certainly have been familiar with it, as Jewish and other ancient traditions are unified in saying Daniel often operated from and was eventually buried in Susa (KJV Shushan - cf. Daniel 8:2; Nehemiah 1:1).
In the 5th century BC, King Ahasuerus - aka Xerxes I, aka Darius I - resided and reigned in Susa (Esther 1:2), where he married his Jewish queen, Esther. So she too would undoubtedly have seen the pillar on many occasions.
Mind-boggling...
Well, the physical artifact is a remarkably well-preserved Babylonian law code, inscribed on a 7.5 foot tall, index-finger shaped pillar of basalt. The code itself contains 282 socio-religious and commercial laws, inscribed in an early cuneiform form of Akkadian. It was commissioned by its namesake, the sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi. But most remarkable of all is is provenance as related to biblical history.
The Code of Hammurabi was created in Mesopotamia, very likely in the region of Ur, sometime around 1750 BC. Thus, it originated in the same general region and timeframe in which the young patriarch Abram lived, before his sojourn to the Promised Land.
In the 12th century BC the stone was taken as plunder by the Elamites and re-erected in their capital, Susa (where it was uncovered by archeologists in 1901). The pillar was a much-prized and shown-off possession of succeeding Persian kings that ruled Susa, among whom were Nebuchadnezzar II and Cyrus the Great. As such, the royal sage and Hebrew prophet Daniel - as well as the prophet Nehemiah - would almost certainly have been familiar with it, as Jewish and other ancient traditions are unified in saying Daniel often operated from and was eventually buried in Susa (KJV Shushan - cf. Daniel 8:2; Nehemiah 1:1).
In the 5th century BC, King Ahasuerus - aka Xerxes I, aka Darius I - resided and reigned in Susa (Esther 1:2), where he married his Jewish queen, Esther. So she too would undoubtedly have seen the pillar on many occasions.
Mind-boggling...
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