Any Bible thumpers in the house?

[GingerSnaps]

I need help with deciphering my homework from my Western Civilization class.

I'm not sure if this is one issue or three different issues. My Professor's instructions does not make sense to me and to be honest I haven't attended Church since my christening.

This is our homework assignment as it appears on our syllabus.
Write: Your opinion of the Code of Hammurabi and the Covenant & The Ten Commandments.

Does he want us to write 3 separate papers or 1 paper?

I would email him but he is out of the country for 2 weeks and I wanted to do the assignment so that I wouldn't fall behind.

[Alleycat]

1. 1 comparing all three

I would think he would like you to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between all three. I have heard of the Code and the Commandments but not the covenent. You should be able to find alot of inf on line about these.

[stray cat]

2. My guess would be one paper

He doesn't make it very clear but I would guess one paper. A compare and contrast paper of the Code of Hammurabi and the ten commandments would not be a surprise at all. I assume by the covenant, he means the covenant between God and the Israelites meaning Abraham and then Moses.

Good luck on the paper.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. You are to compare/contrast the two

Remember that the Jews were held captive by Babylon, and there was a certain amount of cultural intemingling. For example, prior to the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish concept of God was that all, both good and evil, came from Him. Afterwards, the concept of the Devil came into the Bible-this concept came from Zoroasterianism. (Check out A History of God for more on this if you are interested).

I'm not sure of the timeline between the code of Hammurabi and the Covenant & the Ten Commantments, though, so I don't know if they were concurrant or which apparently came first. As for the Covenant, I assume this means the covenant between God and Abraham, which, of course, predates the Ten Commandments.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. It's my understanding that

the Code of Hammurabi is the earliest written legal code in existence. I don't know how much it predates the tradition of the Ten Commandments, but I believe by at least a thousound or two years.

So far as I know, the original Ten Commandments, if they ever actually existed, do not anymore, and their origin is more mythical than historical, in contrast to the Code of Hammurabi, which is still in existence, and whose history is well documented.

It's my understanding that much of Old Testament mythology and tradition is derived from the more ancient traditions of Mesopotamia, including such things as the creation myths and flood mythology.

It must be remembered that Mesopotamia, aka Iraq, was the first place on Earth that human civilization took root, and it's culture strongly shaped and influenced those of surrounding civilizations, including Hebrew, for thousands of years.

[GingerSnaps]

7. I created a message thread a few weeks back

I had an argument with some freepers in my class when we were discussing Mesopotamia aka Iraq. I couldn't concentrate after the argument because they kept talking about me and they were sitting in behind me. One of the freepers said that Bush was elected by God and all hell broke lose. I think that is why I missed something.

[GingerSnaps]

5. I appreciate your responses

I tried looking up the Covenant and I couldn't find anything on it in my textbook. I did find something on the Hebrews and I guess that is what my Professor meant.

[DebJ]

6. the code oh Hammurabi predates the Ten Commandments.

I saw the actual code in Europe this summer.

[fknobbit]

8. research sourses included

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

[GingerSnaps]

9. That will do

I can start my homework now thank you very much.