Chapter I: Anticipations of a Babylonian Code of Laws

In 1890, F. E. PEISER published in his thesis _Iurisprudentiae Babylonicae quae supersunt_ (Cöthen, P. Schettler’s Erben) a number of fragments of Babylonian Codes of Laws, and aptly illustrated them by relevant legal documents. In 1902, BR. MEISSNER published what proved to be some fragments of the Code of Hammurabi, from copies made for Ashurbanipal’s Library at Nineveh, now preserved in the British Museum. These appeared in the Third Volume of the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_ (Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1898), under the title _Altbabylonische Gesetze_ (pp. 473-523), and were commented upon by FR. DELITZSCH in the next volume (pp. 78-87) in an article entitled _Zur juristischen Litteratur Babyloniens_ and regarded as _Bruchstücke eines altbabylonischen bürgerlichen Gesetzbuchs_. Judging from the early forms of words and the old Babylonian measures used in these texts the writer called the laws the Code Hammourabi (1902). In his lecture before the German Emperor, which created so much stir in theological circles and excited such general interest in Germany and then over the whole world, FR. DELITZSCH stated that Hammurabi, after his conquest of Elam and expulsion of the Elamite power from Babylonia, was able to promulgate a great _Gesetzessammlung_, which should unify the civilizations of the united kingdom and fix the _bürgerliche Recht_ in all essential points. _Babel und Bibel_ (Leipzig, Hinrichs, p. 25, 1902: delivered Jan. 13).