ABSTRACT
The structural parallels between Exodus Law and Mesopotamian parallels are not so complete as to be identical in structure, function; nor do they match in all or even most, details. In respect of these senses, it is wrong to maintain that the Exodus narrative could not be the first such expression of an original concept. In the semantics of Exodus, the Ten Commandments have the status of something comparable with axioms; ones on which logical systems are founded. A more complicated series of interrelations than the foregoing item on proper names is the description of the Mosaic law in relation to its literary parallels. The provenance for the Amorite laws on which parts of the Hammurabi forms are probably based, and position the Amorite forms as the partners of the Canaanite forms. In Exodus theistically-based system whose conditional inferences are relative to a different basis of rationality and ethical value from the Mesopotamian codes.
