Why is the story of Moses receiving the ten commandments from god?

Question

So similar to the story of Marduk giving the code to Hammurabi king of Babylon? Except the story of Hammurabi is several hundred years older and we have cuneform tablets of this that still exist?

Earlier collections of laws include the codex of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur (ca. 2050 B.C.E.), the Codex of Eshnunna (ca. 1930 B.C.E.) and the codex of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin (ca. 1870 B.C.E.).

Funny that the first time I asked this Yahoo decided to put a question about Moses and god into the mythology section. Perhaps Yahoo is coming to it's senses?
http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ag7jJKG3JxyrJpCTwdFzAg_AFQx.;_ylv=3?qid=20071107202421AAX5f8Y

Mike-the Hebrew bible has absolutely nothing to do with jesus. Until the Septuagint came along at least.

Answer 1

this is easy, the old testament was written as a story book for the children of Diaspora Jews in the first century. the writers used the common story's to convey moral lessons as we do today in children's books.the stories were parables

Answer 2

I think the mythical context would be quite correct, as the ten commandments serve as a mythological "type" for all legalistic impulses in Western culture:

"Legalism is a kind of arrested and atrophied religion of history [i.e. a religion / world-view which imbues history with significance, as opposed to one which views history as essentially meaningless]. In Hebraism it rests upon the idea that the God, who delivered Israel out of the land of Egypt, made the decalogue a part of the covenant between Himself and the nation. This legalism is therefore type and symbol of every form of legalistic religious consciousness which binds the counsels of God prematurely to a law which is contingent to time and place." - Reinhold Niebuhr, The Destiny of Man

I can't imagine that the mythological type was unique to Israel, it must have had expressions in other cultures before and since. And it's no mystery that Hebrew culture drew upon the surrounding cultures as influences. But in all Western culture, which is to a large degree derived from the synthesis of Judaism and Classical cultures, the decalogue remains our primary "type" for expressing religious legalism.

Peace to you.

Answer 3

The ten commandment based covenant was patterned after these codes you mention as they were the way these sort of agreements were made back then.

The "lord" (king) would make a pact with the people, and the major points of the pact would be copied and put on display for the people to see.

The king let it be known what his responsibilities were for the people, and the people were told what would be required of them.

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Answer 4

Yes...a lot of the stories in the Bible are very similiar or even exactly like the stories from earlier texts. God has been around a lot longer than Christianity or any other religion...Blessings!

Answer 5

At year 2513, Moses in Egypt world Empire #1, was in Exodus, no law and order, no law keepers, gives or enforcers until Moses gave it to 603,550 heirs of the family of Abraham [ he was 427 years after the flood ], 430 years after the Promised Land covenant, to 470 years after, year 2553 and [ Noah died year 2006, 2060 B. C. and Shem died year 2158, 1908 B. C ]; Moses is dead, 1513 before Christ in Rome world Empire #6.

Moses and Exodus 3560 years ago, now 4417 years after the flood and Noah, Daniel was in Babylon world Empire #3, 2613 years ago, Jesus was in Rome world Empire #6, 2007 years ago, bible in circulation in the world 396 years for last days and time of the end that beings the second coming of Jesus and his 1000 year reign to make all as perfect as before Eden again.

Answer 6

A lot of stories from the world religions are similar

Answer 7

Consider that the entire Old Testament points to Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Jesus arrives, performs miracles, is hung on a cross, buried then resurrected. These are some of the most well documented events in all of history. documentation beginning 30-40 yrs. after the death of Jesus. Jesus tells us that He is the only way to eternal life. I choose to believe the guy who was raised from the dead.

May God bless you.

Answer 8

Oh, yeah. You will find most of the bible stories in the Sumer and Babylonian texts. Plagiarism. Bad plagiarism at that.

Answer 9

Because apparently the ancient Hebrews were quite uncreative and found it far easier to take neighboring peoples' myths and mold them into their own.

Answer 10

So big deal nothing is so stupid as trying to prove history repeats itself. Isn't both stories a little far fetched and nonsense? This old washed out rhetoric is just repeated over and over nonsense.