The phrase “an eye for an eye” is often quoted to suggest that the Torah simply copied the legal traditions of Mesopotamia, especially the famous Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi ruled Babylon in the eighteenth century BCE, and his code was carved on a monumental stone stele and displayed publicly. Long after his reign, scribes continued to copy it, and later kings imitated its style to legitimize their own rule. By the time Israel received its law at Sinai, whether in the fifteenth or thirteenth century BCE, Hammurabi’s code had already become part of the cultural memory of the ancient Near East. Its ideas shaped how people thought about authority, justice, and civilization.
From a biblical perspective, however, the code’s prestige masked a deeper reality. It represented not only human legal wisdom but also a system of power and hierarchy that mirrored the Serpent’s vision of order: a structure where the strong ruled over the weak and justice served the throne of empire rather than the dignity of every person.
Shared Forms and Familiar Language
The Torah’s laws undeniably resemble the older Mesopotamian tradition in outward form. Both use the casuistic style of “if…then…” case laws. Both address similar concerns: injury, theft, property, and family obligations. Both embrace the idea that punishment should be proportionate to the offense. These similarities reflect a shared legal heritage, not plagiarism. In the ancient Near East, this was the language of law itself.
Yet simply sharing forms does not mean sharing values. While Hammurabi’s code claimed to bring order to chaos, its conception of order was deeply shaped by social stratification and royal dominance. This was a vision of law in which a noble’s life was worth more than a commoner’s, and justice ultimately protected the power of the king who claimed divine sanction for his rule.
A Different Foundation and Purpose
In the Torah, law is given not to establish royal authority but to create a covenant community that reflects God’s holiness. Hammurabi declared that the sun god Shamash granted him the laws to secure his throne. The Torah, by contrast, presents law as coming from Yahweh, who rescued a nation of slaves and bound them to Himself in a relationship of mutual obligation and faithfulness. This difference in purpose transforms every aspect of the legal code.
In Hammurabi’s system, penalties were literal and stratified by social class. If a man destroyed the eye of a noble, his own eye was destroyed. If the victim was a commoner, he paid a fine. If a slave, the penalty was lower still. The underlying assumption was that justice had to preserve the established order. In the Torah, the law insists that every person stands equal before God. Leviticus commands that the same law applies to the native-born and the sojourner. There is no hierarchy of worth. Justice is not a means to entrench power but an expression of divine righteousness.
The Meaning of “An Eye for an Eye”
The phrase “an eye for an eye” appears in both systems, but in the Torah, it is not a license for vengeance or a proof of Babylonian influence. While Hammurabi’s version prescribed literal mutilation in many cases, the Torah’s use of the phrase served to establish proportion and restraint. Other passages in the Torah explain that restitution and compensation are the standard remedies for injury. Later Jewish tradition consistently interpreted “eye for an eye” as referring to the monetary value of the injury rather than its literal replication. From the perspective of Israel’s faith, this was not simply a different penalty. It was a declaration that true justice does not spring from power or revenge but from equity and restoration.
Compassion and Protection of the Vulnerable
Perhaps the most decisive difference between Hammurabi’s code and the Torah is the way each treats the most vulnerable. Hammurabi’s laws show little concern for those without property or status. They prioritize the rights of owners, nobles, and officials. The Torah commands special care for widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. Repeatedly, God warns Israel that He will hear the cry of the oppressed and hold the community accountable if they are neglected or mistreated. This ethic does not merely modify existing legal norms. It exposes and rejects the Serpent’s counterfeit order, the claim that might makes right and that the powerless are expendable.
Murder and the Limits of Restitution
While most offenses in the Torah are resolved through restitution and compensation, murder is treated differently because no payment can restore a lost life. The law explicitly forbids accepting a ransom in place of justice for the victim, declaring, “You shall not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death; he shall surely be put to death” (Numbers 35:31). This is not an act of vengeance but a recognition that human life is sacred and uniquely created in God’s image. In this way, the Torah upholds the principle that justice must restore what can be repaired, but when restoration is impossible, accountability must be complete.
A Confrontation Between Two Visions of Law
If Hammurabi’s code represents the Serpent’s idea of justice, the Torah stands as its direct and holy answer. Where the Code of Hammurabi enshrined hierarchy and domination in the name of divine authority, the Torah calls for justice rooted in the character of God Himself, who shows no partiality and defends the oppressed. Where Babylon boasted that it brought civilization through royal power, the God of Israel revealed a law that protected the dignity of every human life. Where the Serpent offered a counterfeit of order based on fear and violence, the Torah unveiled a law of covenant, compassion, and moral clarity.
This is why the similarities between the two systems matter as much as their differences. The Torah’s law did not arise in a vacuum. It took familiar legal forms and reoriented them around the holiness of God and the equal worth of all people. It did not simply offer another version of imperial justice. It proclaimed that true justice is the domain of the Creator, not the throne of empire. In doing so, the Torah unmasked the illusion of the Serpent’s law and declared a standard that has challenged every counterfeit ever since.
Discussion Questions
- How does understanding the Code of Hammurabi as a system designed to protect hierarchy and royal power change the way we read its similarities to the Torah’s laws?
- In what ways does the Torah’s emphasis on protecting the vulnerable challenge the idea that ancient law codes were only concerned with property and social order?
- Why do you think the phrase “an eye for an eye” has often been misunderstood as a call for harsh literal punishment, despite the broader context of proportionate and restorative justice?
- How does viewing Hammurabi’s code as the Serpent’s counterfeit version of law help explain the biblical critique of Babylon and its legacy of domination?
- What lessons can modern societies draw from the Torah’s vision of justice as rooted in compassion, equality, and holiness rather than in power and hierarchy?
Want to Know More?
- Raymond Westbrook, Law from the Tigris to the Tiber: The Writings of Raymond Westbrook, Volume 1: Law in the Ancient Near East. Eisenbrauns, 2009: This is a comprehensive study of ancient Near Eastern legal systems, including the Code of Hammurabi and its cultural influence.
- Martha T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Society of Biblical Literature, 1997: This volume provides accessible translations and commentary on Hammurabi’s code and other law collections from the region.
- Bernard S. Jackson, Studies in the Semiotics of Biblical Law. Continuum, 2000: This book examines how biblical law reworks and transforms ancient legal conventions, including a detailed discussion of the meaning of “eye for an eye.”
- Christopher J.H. Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God. IVP Academic, 2004: This work discusses the ethical foundations of the Torah’s law and how it differs fundamentally from the surrounding cultures’ legal systems.
- Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel. Schocken Books, 1986: This book provides historical and cultural context for the giving of the law at Sinai and how it contrasts with the ideologies of Mesopotamian empires.
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