Our law is NOT based on "the 10 Commandments" in any way, shape, or form.

[Tyler Durden]

Our laws DID NOT originate with the 10 c's.



http://www.duhaime.org/Law_museum/hist.htm

How about this for a legal timeline?

<snip>

2350 BC: Urukagina's Code

This code has never been discovered but it is mentioned in other documents as a consolidation of existing
"ordinances" or laws laid down by Mesopotamian kings. An administrative reform document was discovered
which showed that citizens were allowed to know why certain actions were punished. It was also harsh by
modern standards. Thieves and adulteresses were to be stoned to death with stones inscribed with the
name of their crime. The code confirmed that the "king was appointed by the gods".

2050 BC: Ur-Nammu's Code

The earliest known written legal code of which a copy has been found, albeit a copy in such poor shape that
only five articles can be deciphered. Archaeological evidence shows that it was supported by an advanced
legal system which included specialized judges, the giving of testimony under oath, the proper form of judicial
decisions and the ability of the judges to order that damages be paid to a victim by the guilty party. The Code
allowed for the dismissal of corrupt men, protection for the poor and a punishment system where the
punishment is proportionate to the crime. Although it is called "Ur-Nammu's Code, historians generally agree
that it was written by his son Shugli.

<snip>


1700 BC: Hammurabi's Code

This Babylonian king came to power in 1750 BC. Under his rule, a code of laws was developed and carved on
a huge rock column. The expression "an eye for an eye" has come to symbolize the principle behind
Hammurabi's code. It contains 282 clauses regulating a vast array of obligations, professions and rights
including commerce, slavery, marriage, theft and debts. The punishments are, by modern standards, barbaric.
The punishment for theft was the cutting off of a finger or a hand. A man's lower lip was cut off if he kissed a
married woman. Defamation was punished by cutting out the tongue. If a house collapses because the
builder did not make it strong enough, killing the owner, the builder was put to death. If the owner's son
died, then the builder's son was executed.

1300 BC: The Ten Commandments

<snip>

I didn't include commentary due the the "3 paragraph rule."


As you can see, the codification of law in civilization dates back to (guess where?)

TA DA....ANCIENT IRAQ! And the NEWEST of them predates the 10c's by over 400 years.


The 10 Commandments are just that; COMMANDMENTS, issued by a deity. Even the Talmud doesn't refer to them as "laws."

[Maple]

1. Yes there is also the

Edicts of Asoka

http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html

and the

Laws of Manu

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/manu-full.html

Laws to govern society are as old as society...or very old indeed, predating the commandments.

[Kbowe]

20. Truth is that whoever Moses was, he used writings that pre-dated

him as the basis for the ten commandments and the laws that governed the Israelites. Several ancient writings much earlier than Moses penned Genesis tell of "the flood", "burning bush" and other stories told in the Old Testament. The laws for marriage and business did not originate with Moses and the Israelites.

[damnraddem]

2. Oh, you mean ...

the Ten Suggestions!

[MGKrebs]

3. And as others have also pointed out..

if you want to put 4 or 5 commandments up there, that might be OK. But the other 5 or 6 have NO business on government property.

[esse_quam_videri]

4. "The code confirmed that the king was appointed by the gods"...

and now, he's appointed by the Supreme Court! ;-)

[Blue_Chill]

5. How do you know that?

The guy that put pen to paper may very well have had the commandments in mind. Can you say he did not?

Ssying that the ideas did not originate in the form of the 10 is one thing, but claiming to know that no law was based on them is laughable.

BTW - I think laws they are based on what special interest groups want.

[Interrobang]

6. English common law, where applicable...

Goes back longer than Christianity was in England. It has been evolving ever since, through at least two major religious schisms, but it still probably has more to do with codes of law from the early Anglic, Jute, Saxon, and other kings than the Ten Commandments, sorry. (In fact, I'd wager that the basis of Common Law has more in common with the Code of Hwel Dda than the 10 Commandments.)

[BiggJawn]

9. Blue, as explained elsewhere...

...Other than the prohibitions against Theft and Murder, there is NOTHING in our modern system of laws that has descended from Moses' tablets.

NOTHING.

[CO Liberal]

12. Blue_Chill, Could You PLEASE Show Us......

....which US law was based on "Honor thy father and thy mother"?????

[Tyler Durden]

19. On the other hand....

"BTW - I think laws they are based on what special interest groups want. "

That is one of the biggest reason JUST legal systems are enacted: to protect citizens from the tyranny of the majority and special interests.

Really, this whole business is just plain stupid.

OK, you can HAVE your 10c's, but I want Magna Charta, Sharia, etc. posted as well. Fair is fair.

[kachun]

7. Solon's Ten Commandments

Richard Carrier has an article

here

showing that the ancient Athenian Solon was the greatest influence on the West's legal system. He is the founder of Western style democracy and the first person that we know of to promote equal rights for all citizens (which at the time meant males; it took a couple of millenia for the other half of the population to get their dues), to advocate for the defense of the state by its armed citizens, advocated laws for the defense of private property, to remove geneology as a requirement for rule, and the idea of majority democratic vote for making decisions. Solon's Ten Commandments, detailed in the above link, are similar in a few ways to Moses' Ten, but are much more crucial to the workings of modern democratic society.

Now look at the Biblical Ten Commandments. The first three or four, (depending on whether it's the Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish versions) basically command you to be loyal to Jehovah above all other gods, to not disrespect Him, and to spend your seventh day paying homage to Him. These are all about respecting the head honcho, and this goes back to our primate/tribal roots where the alpha male/chieftain has to be appeased. There's nothing ethically enlightening about such edicts. In fact our modern ideal of free speech and open dissent is opposed in many ways to the first
several commandments.

The next five (honoring your parents, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony) are rules that can be found in all cultures, and predate Moses; they are fundamental to the smooth workings of any human society. Carrier points out they could easily be summed up as "Do no harm."

Finally the last commandment (do not covet your neighbor's wife) is practically extraneous; it's just a repeat of the adultery commandment. Not only should you not commit adultery, but don't even think about it!

[Iris]

8. "remove geneology as a requirement for rule"

what a novel idea!

[BiggJawn]

10. And eat your wieners with NO condiments...

...or Hank will kick your ass.

http://www.jhuger.com/kisshank.mv

[newyawker99]

15. Hi kachun!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[solinvictus]

11. US Law

US law is based largely on Anglo-Saxon common law, which gave us such things as trial by jury and due process, quite unlike Mosaic stonings.

[ThorsteinVeblen]

17. British Common Law Folks

Right you are solinvictus.

Anyone who tells you that US law is in anyway based on the ten commandments might as well be trying to sell you a bridge.

[IggleDoer]

13. You mean it was OK to kill before the 10 Commandments?

I didn't know that.

[Kbowe]

21. Did killing take place before the 10 commandments?

Was there punishment for killing before the 10 Commandments?

You bet!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Look at Japan

a country that had no contact whatsoever with the West before the 1500s.

They had laws against murder, against theft, and against adultery, although as in every society, the powerful found ways to make exceptions for themselves.

Like all the East Asian cultures that were influenced by China, they had the concept of filial piety, or honoring your father and mother. It is reflected in Japanese law even today in a curious way: killing a parent is the type of murder that is punished most severely.

Since they weren't monotheistic, and neither Buddhism nor Shinto has a Sabbath, they didn't have anything comparable to the first few commandments.

By the way, in the Catholic/Lutheran version of the Ten Commandments, the tenth commandment is about not coveting anything. It starts out with "wife," goes on to "house," continues with a list, and ends with "nor anything that is they neighbor's." I suppose the thought was that covetousness can lead to the "big three" sins of murder, theft, and adultery.

When it comes to our legal system, our law is based on English common law, which goes back to the old Anglo-Saxon traditions and which was unique in Europe. Most Continental Western European countries today follow a legal system based on the Napoleonic Code. (I'm not sure what they had before Napoleon. A variant of old Roman law, perhaps?)

[thinkingwoman]

16. the commandment not to covet is PROOF

that our country is NOT based on the big 10--

Coveting is the basis for capitalism, and capitalism is essential to America as we know it!

[sandnsea]

18. The Constitution was adopted

White people came here with a Bible.

They slaughtered the native peoples.

They bought and captured Africans, chained them into ships and sold them into slave labor.

After that, they adopted a Constitution. They used the Bible to justify a variety of unjust acts. But they also created the Constitution, which is the document we use to correct injustice. Endorsing Biblical Law as US Law would be another unjust act; and once again the Constitution has corrected that injustice.

So it doesn't really matter if this country was founded on Christianity or not, our founders created the Constitution and that is the Law of the Land now.