Moral Codes before the 10 commandments?

[Arto]

Are there any documents found of moral codes before the 10 commandments were published? Could someone provide me the source and to which civilization it belonged?

[Kaznecki]

Perhaps the Hammurabi code from Babylon?


Any of the old Assyrian laws as well....

[Gurkhal]

Not to forget Sumerian and Hittite law codes as well. You could probably also find a bunch of them in old hinduistic epics along with probably things from Eastern and South-Eastern Asia. But I don't know enough of these areas to say anything with certinity.

[NogaOsibisa]

Codex Hammurapi is more a law collection. There are other compositions with sentences that could be qualified as moral from the Near East. I am not sure if the "Ten Commandments" are really a moral code in our sense as they are introduced as laws. You bring up a good question, that is not so easy to answer. Moral texts or texts with an ethical plot seem to come from pedagogical contexts and are at least in the Near Eastern literature part of curricula for persons who learn to write.

[Haakon]

Are there any documents found of moral codes before the 10 commandments were published?

I find some of the 10 commandments to be immoral.
Not having sex before marriage, not lying, no other gods and all of that stuff is pretty immoral. The only one thats any valid is the thou shall not kill one.

[Chaigidel]

you must have a strange view of morality-- but yeah I agree with another poster I think the law of hammurabi is the next best thing, but im not sure if it is before or after :/

[Visna]

Full text of "A contribution to the study of the moral practices of certain social groups in ancient Mesopotamia" available here:
http://www.archive.org/stream/contri...orich_djvu.txt

The Assyrians had them written down as well, I remember seeing one complaining about "the youth of today", that the youth disrespects their elders, that they have no respect for tradition etc etc. Take everything your parents have complained to you about when you were a teenager, and put it in an Assyrian context, and you'll see what the writer was getting at.
I'll try to dig up a link for you.

[Atatürk]

Are there any documents found of moral codes before the 10 commandments were published? Could someone provide me the source and to which civilization it belonged?

Maybe, but I'm not 100% sure.

[basics]

It is uncertain what is the earliest written code because the one that might be is in such a state that it cannot be read properly. But the two that appear to be the finalists, Chaldean and Babylonian are what remains for us to observe.

Does that mean that no other written laws were made? That we may never know yet it seems unlikely that this is the case. However what we do know is that natural law did exist if only because no civilisation could aspire to be such without there being any law.

[Serious Spamurai]

I'm pretty sure that there is some stuff relating to morals in the Rig Veda, dated from around 1500bc, but I haven't really checked it out.

I'd imagine the Egyptians probably had a religious moral code too, considering the weighing of the heart ritual carried out by Anpu (Anubis). The oldest Egyptian sacred (Funerary inscriptions from the pyramids at Sakkara) text is estimated to date from 3000bc, making it the oldest sacred text in the world. With the oldest sacred text in the world, I wouldn't be surprised if they had other religious texts either undiscovered or destroyed relating to a moral code that predate anything else.

Oldest sacred text relating to Judaism is from 1000bc IIRC, so there are several cultures that could have an edge on them.

[basics]

" Oldest sacred text relating to Judaism is from 1000bc IIRC, so there are several cultures that could have an edge on them."

Serious Spamurai,

For sure that may well be the case since from Noah to Moses the Gospel, the Oracles, were passed on orally. That is until God commanded Moses to write down all that was given him to write.

Yet the commandments given then to the people were a guideline for them in their everyday lives. It was not until Moses came down from the mount that a written code regarding worship to Him and Him alone was seen.

During the days and years between Noah and Moses civilisation was expanding not just as small kingdoms or whatever but as other religions derived from the original yet bastardised for the benefit of man.

Where hierarchy assumes position that position is only assured by law, law made by hierarchy. And so it was as seen from the two already mentioned, the Chaldean and the Babylonian. The connection being that Chaldean and Aramaic being one and the same I believe.

[Copperknickers II]

Are there any documents found of moral codes before the 10 commandments were published? Could someone provide me the source and to which civilization it belonged?

The Ten commandments are not a big milestone in morality. The idea of morality is a human instinct that has been around since the ice age. Besides, the philosphies of Jainism and Buddhism, which are older than Judaism, were developed separately from the Jews, and they are if anything even more modern and moral than the dogmatic totalitarianism of the ten commandments.

[NogaOsibisa]

Example for a moral sentence

ל אַל-תרוב (תָּרִיב) עִם-אָדָם חִנָּם-- אִם-לֹא גְמָלְךָ רָעָה.
Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
(Proverbia 3 30)



Example for a legal sentence

If a man gives silver to another man, gold or anything else on
deposit in the presence of witnesses and the latter disputes with
him (or denys it), they shall call that man to account and he
shall double whatever he has disputed and will repay it.

(CH XX 53-65, §124, after Robert Francis Harper, 1904)

[chilon]

Codex Hammurapi is more a law collection. There are other compositions with sentences that could be qualified as moral from the Near East. I am not sure if the "Ten Commandments" are really a moral code in our sense as they are introduced as laws.

It could certainly be said that in most general sense (at least historically) laws just codify morals. And of course this begs the question of where does the moral originate? Some of the old Jewish 'morality' regarding kosher eating derived from earlier health considerations rather than the spiritual veneer they took on.

In that sense Codex Hammurabi definitely would qualify as a codifying morality.

for example:
1. If any one ensnares another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.

you can see the moral basis for this law.

[NogaOsibisa]

Kosher rules are cultic laws, if you hurt them, you are asked to abstain from service.

The laws in CH are privilege laws for persons that stand probably in a relation to a palace domain and who are subject to royal courts.

The example you have chosen refers to sorcery or witch-craft. It is a law how to treat a case where a person is seen as being influenced by a sorcerer in a negative way. It is not really a rule for sorcerers about how sorcerers should behave. If it was, then it could be called a moral rule in this historic society. Legal rules, laws stand of course in a connection with morals without doubt.

Still, I would keep them separate, simply because we know from our own experience that legal rules and moral imperatives can sometimes conflict and that hasn't been so different in the old days. And what is seen as moral and legal has of course been subject to change many times. I mean sorcerers are not really a topic of morals nowadays not to speak of being a legal issue here. It is different in Africa, though.

[Arjun]

There were many belief systems around the world which had moral codes. The south asian religions belong to a religion tradition that's very different from that of the near-east(middle east).


there were many such rules that are followed even today..as they were seen part of the culture itself than of religion. Its so taken for granted that the south asian religions go about saying "these are our moral codes" at every given opportunity cos its a given.


one of the best moral code in my opinion is
"matha pitha Guru Deivam"


which translates into "mother, father, teacher, deity(god)".....Mother, father and teacher are to be revered more than god/goddess itself. (the order of importance being from left to right, mother being the most important; and god the least)

this moral is followed even today; in the practitioners of Hinduism and its derived religions.

[kingman33]

During the days and years between Noah and Moses civilisation was expanding not just as small kingdoms or whatever but as other religions derived from the original yet bastardised for the benefit of man.

Where hierarchy assumes position that position is only assured by law, law made by hierarchy. And so it was as seen from the two already mentioned, the Chaldean and the Babylonian. The connection being that Chaldean and Aramaic being one and the same I believe.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

The first "moral codes" are called your conscience

[MaximiIian]

Codex Hammurapi is more a law collection..

As far as empires of the ancient period are concerned (and, actually, as far the very concept of jurisprudence is concerned), there is no discernible difference between a code of law and a code of morality.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Are there any documents found of moral codes before the 10 commandments were published? Could someone provide me the source and to which civilization it belonged?

lol, yeah, there's quite a few. The Hittite Law Code I know quite well. The Hittite Law Code is indeed, far more moral than any Jewish tradition. It relies on compensatory not retaliatory justice. So whereas Jews will kill you for most offenses the Hittites will make sure you make repayments to anyone you have injured. The death penalty was reserved solely for crimes against the Gods or King.