We all know the biblical story in the Book of Exodus about the Israelite prophet Moses ascending Mount Sinai and being given tablets of the Ten Commandments, supposedly written by the very finger of God himself. Over the past few centuries, many people have suspected this supernatural tale to be not "history" but myth, citing the similarities between the story itself to the myths of other cultures, as well as between the Commandments and the law codes or scriptures of other nations, such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, spell 125, and the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi.
Menu-Minos-Mises-Moses the lawgiver
The story of Moses resembles the tales of other lawgivers in a wide variety of places. As I relate in "The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ," the legend of Moses, rather than being that of a historical Hebrew character, is found in germ around the ancient Middle and Far East, with the character having different names and races, depending on the locale: “Menu” is the Indian legislator; “Mises” appears in Syria and Egypt, where also the first king, “Menes, the lawgiver” takes the stage; “Minos” is the Cretan reformer; “Mannus” the German lawgiver; and the Ten Commandments are simply a repetition of the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, among others.
Moreover, the historicity of the Exodus itself has been called into question many times over the past several decades, with experts in a number of fields citing a complete lack of scientific evidence for this dramatic event, which we can easily recall in our minds from DeMille's classic rendition of it in the movie "The Ten Commandments," starring Charlton Heston.
Now it appears that we may have yet another "smoking gun" showing how the Bible is not a "historical" account infallibly recorded by God's faithful scribes but a compilation of ancient myths and some later history, the former having been found in other cultures and essentially "borrowed" by the Hebrews, Israelites and Jews. This theory has the Jewish priesthood largely glomming onto Babylonian myths and stories during their "Exile" or "Captivity" in that nation in the sixth century BCE.
The "Ten Commandments" of Hammurabi?
New evidence that the biblical tale of Moses was neither historical nor written by him, as is widely believed, comes in the form of a small tablet found in northern Israel at the site of Hazor. This tablet dating to the 17th-18th centuries BCE and written in Akkadian appears to be similar to the famous Code of Hammurabi, found in Iran a century ago. Its presence in what is now Israel demonstrates that these "eye for an eye" laws as found in the later biblical book of Deuteronomy were already known centuries before Moses supposedly existed and brought down the Mosaic Law from Mount Sinai.
An article in Arutz Sheva, "Tablet Discovered by Hebrew U Matches Code of Hammurabi," reports:
For the first time in Israel, a document has been uncovered containing a law code that parallels portions of the famous Code of Hammurabi. The code is written on fragments of a cuneiform tablet, dating from the 18th-17th centuries B.C.E in the Middle Bronze Age, that were found in Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeological excavations this summer at Hazor, south of Kiryat Shmonah, in northern Israel….
The fragments that have now been discovered, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, refer to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters, bring to mind similar laws in the famous Babylonian Hammurabi Code of the 18th century B.C.E. that were found in what is now Iran over 100 years ago. The laws also reflect, to a certain extent, Biblical laws of the type of “a tooth for a tooth,” say the researchers.
As archaeologists and other scientists dig deeper into the soil of Israel and the surrounding environs, interpreting the finds without the bibliolater bias of past centuries, we continue to see more and more evidence of this sort, which essentially proves the Bible not to be the "Word of God" but a manmade artifact created by a certain group of people for a specific purpose. This former belief of divine origin has caused a huge amount of turmoil on this planet, so it is with great relief that we see the latter, more scientific analysis finally coming to light. Let us hope we do not experience any return to previous Dark Ages of superstition preventing us from continuing our progress toward human enlightenment and understanding.
D.M. Murdock is the author of controversial books and articles on comparative religion and mythology that can be found at Stellar House Publishing and Freethought Nation. For more articles from the Freethought Examiner, be sure to subscribe!
Sources & Further Reading
Tablet Discovered by Hebrew U Matches Code of Hammurabi
The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ
Comments
Wow, the mythicist position video is awesome.
Religion like most love is a lower level illusion that misses the deep, eternal love, or religiousness apart from the 'so called holy books, and their mythical characters. One must never forget that 'evolving in a self love is key.'
"Self-love?" What does that mean?
Great article and video. Confirms much of my own thinking since deconverting from Christianity.
What you fail to mention is that all of what you say about the sourcing of the books of Law and such is taught in Theological Seminaries on a daily basis. I am a seminary student and we know that there are similarities between the Law of Moses and Hammurabi. There are also differences. Also, much of the text criticism, form criticism, and other academic endeavors into the study of the Bible has come from Christians. Even Rudolf Bultmann who came up with demythologizing the text was a Christian who signed the Barmen declaration (anti-Nazism). Many Christians believe that such findings prove traditions and borrowing, but they do not disprove God. And sure, religion has given us its fair share of conflict, and for that, as a Christian, I repent, but so has enlightnment, human understanding, and free-thought.
We really need a full time satellite channel to counter act the mental brainwashing being inflicted on the sheep by the satellite ministries, which seem to be often funded by Jewish business interests. So many people have a vested interest in keeping people mired in false thought.
To me it interesting that the place where Moses was supposed to get the 10 commandments was Mt. Sinai. Mt. Sinai was named after and was the sacred place of the Moon God, Sin!
Now, if we could just convince the Texas Board of Education.
You must bring this and RAEL and Arthur C. Clarke and UFOlogy together in a comprehensible understanding of the Universe and our place in it. Make war a crime. Stop population growth.
Excellent and interesting.
Great article, Acharya. :)
This should convince the Justin Martyr wannabes.
In the begining was the word. The word created god in the image of man was god created. Such was the begining of all gods. ... and GOD smiled and put the stickman drawing upon the wall of time.
SOUPED-UP
In the 1950's, car designer, George Barris, would take a rusty jalopy & work it over with a magic wand.
He'd take out the dents; chrome plate the engine; alter the body design; hand rub 20 coats of candy apple red paint; all called "customizing." The rusty jalopy would look ten times better than the original leaving Henry Ford's factory. It was customized - altered - & not just restored. It looked different than the original. Looking at it, one could say that it was a Model A; yet it wasn't a Model A. It looked ten times better than a Model A. It was a stylish, colorful, powerful, "souped-up" version of the Model A.
When the Hebrews, Israelites & Jews got their hands on those rusty jalopies - the Babylonian Code, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Menu, Mises, etc., they customized em - "souped em up" on Mt. Sinai with the wand of George Barris! Whoops! I mean, Moses!
Didn't Dr. Jones discover the Ark of the Covenant in the 1930s or is it located at St. Mary's church in Ethiopia? Why are the Dead Sea scrolls and our Holy Bible so different from each other?
Dear Dorothy,
applying your critical methods I concluded that Pythagoras also is a myth, not a historical person. Have you noticed how the Pythagoras stories (writen 200 years after the supposed Pythagoras life) are similar to the Jesus stories? Pythagoras
Of course, the Pythagoreans existed (like the christians), but the original Pythagoras appears to be a Solar myth (Pythagoras was worshiped as a semi-divine man son of Apolo).
See the Stanford Enciclopedia of Philosophy: Pythagoras wrote nothing, nor were there any detailed accounts of his thought written by contemporaries. By the first centuries BCE, moreover, it became fashionable to present Pythagoras in a largely unhistorical fashion as a semi-divine figure, who originated all that was true in the Greek philosophical tradition, including many of Plato's and Aristotle's mature ideas. A number of treatises were forged in the name of Pythagoras and other Pythagoreans in order to support this view.
www.TruthRing.org
Our goal is to expose the Problem Reaction Solution paradigm, and expose the Bilderbergs, the CFR, WHO, WTO, the PNAC, and the rest of the Globalist Fascists and their New World Order. Globalism is nothing more than a Global Feudal system, where there is no middle class, just the Elite, and us (the Human Resources).
However, we are about to face the Greatest realization in the history of the Evolution: Consciousness and the Ethics are Infinite. Past, Present, and the Future are all Now. We are about to Leap in our Evolution, but we are in a grave danger of allowing a few Elites to gain control over us, to turn us into feudal slaves.
Lets do the right thing, lets allow ourselves to do be all that we can be, by exposing the evil, spreading the truth, so that we can take the Humanity, and not just the ruling elite, to the next level.
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www.LoveGodIsLove.org
It's posts like "swaps"'s that make not a few people think that atheists are antisemitic. Every atheist site seems to have one or two like him. No, not many - of course atheists aren't antisemitic as a group! - but there's ALWAYS one or two, and it stands out in people's minds.
I fully beleive in God and I practice the culture of my ancient ancestors from Africa. It is simple if you are looking for the truth you must look at the oldest source and that is the pyramids in Kemit, Ethiopia, Etc. How can you look at something that was written a little over 6,000 years ago as a source. We have been brain washed people into beleiving man created religions. Every story found in the Bible, Torah, and Quaran can be soured to the pyramids or other ancient civilizations. When you are in these man made religions research the history you will find the truth. They teach you in siminary thepartial truth research beyond siminary and you will find out that it is more than disagreement or similarities. Even the design of our nations capital is set up like Egyption Temples. Mason Lodges is also a representation. Research people the truth is there.
This is great article. Thanks for the news. After reading the Torah (OT) it is obvious even to a child that it is a man-made myth. That is obvious from book 1, page 1. The Earth is not 4000 years old. Cultures (unknown to the scribes) flourished much before. Written records and archeological evidence using carbon dating show man's presence tens of thousands of years ago, probably over a 100,000 years ago. A million people cannot live in a vast desert (without water or food) in a hostile nation for 40 years---and leave no trace. The numerous inconsistencies and the obvious fabrications and lies in the Torah leave no doubt that the Torah is merely a man-made "forgery" (--McCabe). It is no wonder America's founding father Thomas Paine noticed all the inconsistencies and declared the Old Testament "spurious" in his book, the Age of Reason. Joseph McCabe declared the Torah (OT) as forgery. They would be glad to to read this news today.
This is great article. Thanks for the news. After reading the Torah (OT) it is obvious even to a child that it is a man-made myth. That is obvious from book 1, page 1. The Earth is not 4000 years old. Cultures (unknown to the scribes) flourished much before. Written records and archeological evidence using carbon dating show man's presence tens of thousands of years ago, probably over a 100,000 years ago. A million people cannot live in a vast desert (without water or food) in a hostile nation for 40 years---and leave no trace. The numerous inconsistencies and the obvious fabrications and lies in the Torah leave no doubt that the Torah is merely a man-made "forgery" (--McCabe). It is no wonder America's founding father Thomas Paine noticed all the inconsistencies and declared the Old Testament "spurious" in his book, the Age of Reason. Joseph McCabe declared the Torah (OT) as forgery. They would be glad to to read this news today.
aka "GodmanEnki." If the Dali wants a woman to replace him, may I suggest the Mss. Beautiful-D.M. Murdock?
Madame,
Just because there are similar accounts in other writing does not prove that the Bible is wrong. You are making the same mistake as our so-called scientist that cannot understand that God used the same elements of design in his creation. Just because things are similar does not prove anything except that they are similar. There are many stories of flood throughout the earth. Does this mean that the Bible is wrong or that maybe several people recorded the flood?
Sorry, but you have missed the point of the article, which is to show that this is NOT history. It appears you do not understand mythology at all. Don't make the mistake of conflating it with "history." It's not, and the reason for the similarities is because it's based not on an actual event but on a mythical archetype.
The fact is that the Bible is not "God's Inerrant Word," as is demonstrated by this discovery, among others.
Acharya,
What is your take on the belief that the original name of Israel’s god before it was Yahweh was called Yahoo? Evidently, the person or persons referred to as Moses, after escaping Egypt, picked-up this god (and belief system) from Moab on his way back to Canaan. I believe I read this from material by Dr. Israel Finkelstein.
The Bible is the truth! Spending time trying to refute it is a waste of time. We can speculate all day long, but the truth of God's word does not change! Halelujah!
"Does this mean that the Bible is wrong or that maybe several people recorded the flood?".
Yes. Yes it does mean the Bible is wrong. Dumb ass.
@Jesus Christ Superstar - I will pray for you my lost friend. :=(
"That is obvious from book 1, page 1. The Earth is not 4000 years old"
Um, I think you meant 6000 y.o., However, nowhere in the Bible does it state that the earth is 6000 y.o. This is a funny-ass theory by a drunk Irish Bishop named Ussher during the 17th century.
I look forward to your elucidation of the relationship between the Ten Commandments (whichever version you prefer) and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. That sounds like non-sense.
Also, is the French/English word "Menu" also related to "Moses"?
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