Importance Of Religion To The Law Code Of Hammurabi

Throughout the ancient world, many different religious views existed in places such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, and Persia. When you look at Mesopotamian religion, it seemed to stay uniform throughout the entire reign until Hammurabi became king. A polytheistic religion with a few major Gods, as well as thousands of minor Gods which were worshiped differently throughout the empire. When he introduced his laws also known as the Code of Hammurabi, he also tried to change the religion by requiring everyone to worship Marduk, the patron God of the city of Babylon. He told his followers that Mudak had become victorious over all other Gods and Goddesses, and thus named Marduk as the supreme deity. This enacted the start of a long history of using religion to justify war, as he and many other religious leaders cited their faith to proclaim war. However in Egypt, religion was more tight-knit as the Pharaohs ruled over all the land with absolute control, meaning everyone followed his or her beliefs. This was also

The law code of Hammurabi relates to established principles of law in the Western world today because it is similar to both a religious text such as the Ten Commandments and a text establishing order and rights such as The Constitution. Similar to both the Ten Commandments and The Constitution, the law code of Hammurabi was written and displayed for all to see which further proclaimed its power and importance. Also, it seems like it was an open to interpretation in court cases, much like how The Constitution was written for interpretation so that way it could be applicable to court cases of today even though it was written 223 years ago. Even though it didn’t cover every possible social issue, it could be used as a starting point to know where to take the case. One major difference between the code and current day laws is the code believed in an “eye for an eye” mentality, while today we believe in humane punishments such as fines and jail