ABSTRACT
According to some scholars, the beginnings of Israelite monotheism stemmed from a disillusionment with Mesopotamian religion in the second millennium. Monotheism was thus a later development in the history of Israel; it occurred when foreign gods were seen as simply the work of men's hands. The older corpus of Biblical law is found in the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20-23). All condemn murder, robbery, incest and adultery; each requires respect for parents and strict justice in the courts. All Near Eastern cultures subscribed to the conviction that the sacred is a source of danger, and Biblical writers similarly were convinced that supernatural danger stems from God. The Code of Hammurabi was discovered in 1901. Hammurabi is believed to be the Amraphel referred to in Genesis 14:1; his date has been given as about 2130-2088 bce. There are parallels between this Code and the laws of the ancient Israelites.
