Letter ignores the basic facts of history, context

This is in response to Dan Mackey's letter ("Ten Commandments basis of legal system and are fitting in courtroom," Monday). Mr. Mackey claims that the Ten Commandments formed "the foundation of our modern legal system." However, he uses several blatant inaccuracies to support his claim.

First, he states that the Ten Commandments were introduced "roughly in 1700 B.C." Even if one accepts that Moses gave the Ten Commandments during the exodus from Egypt, as the biblical narrative claims, this could not have occurred long before 1300 B.C., given that the Davidic monarchy was not established until 1010- 970 B.C. It would seem Mr. Mackey is getting his facts mixed up, for it was the Code of Hammurabi which was produced in the 18th century B.C.

Second, he claims that, prior to the Ten Commandments, "the whole of legal thought was based on the Hammurabi Code." This is absurd. Hammurabi's authority did not extend outside the Old Babylonian empire he created, and this empire did not include large areas of the ancient Near Eastern world, among them Syria-Palestine. Mr. Mackey is also somewhat unfair in his portrayal of the Code of Hammurabi as a completely casuistic system. It contains clauses which allow for the mitigation of punishments through admission of forgiveness and extenuating circumstances, notably in cases involving adultery by women.

Finally, and most importantly, he claims that the Ten Commandments represented a ground-breaking new development in legal history, a change from casuistic to apodistic law. However, the Ten Commandments are quite clearly casuistic; that is, they are part of a total legal code, the Mosaic law, which is based largely on the principle of "'x' crime receives 'y' punishment" - "If a man commit adultery with another's wife, that is with the wife of a fellow-countryman, both adulterer and adulteress must be put to death." (Leviticus 20:10) One cannot take the Ten Commandments out of context. They were part of the larger code of the Mosaic Law. If were are talking about ground-breaking legal codes, look to Roman and English law, which formed the basis for Western legal thinking, and which owed nothing to the Jewish legal system.

By Jason Posey (letter)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 31, 1997