Legal Codes in the Torah

The Torah contains many different legal codes, a distinction and comparison between them enlightens us to the fact that the same persons did not write them and that the different authors did not have the same background, perhaps not even the same culture. Nevertheless, in comparing the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant, one notices the similarities more so than the differences, one would say that the vast majority of laws in the Book of the Covenant have a respective law in the Ten Commandments. From this one establishes that these legal codes have a common purpose.

Scholars recognize seven different law codes in the Torah and speculate that they were combined during the Babylonian exile, yet it is not necessary to read all the codes to notice the differences in writing style, emphasis, and details. These differences are very apparent in the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant. For example the Ten Commandments is a list of simple rules, the kind of rules that a small group of people, such as a nomadic clan, would make so as to keep some level of order. The Book of the Covenant maintains the list format but adds details to it, details regarding particular situations that the simple Commandments could not resolve. The Book of the Covenant can be perceived as an evolvement from the more primitive Commandments, almost as if the same group of people, after encountering difficulties with the more primitive law code, modified it so as to solve specific matters and distribute just retribution.

Some Commandments manifest obvious specifications in the Book of the Covenant while other specifications are not as evident. An example of an obvious specification would be the sixth commandment; while the Commandments in...

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... such as the sixth commandment ("...do not slay the innocent..."), and the eight and ninth ("And you shall take no bribe").

The evolution of laws is not unique or separate between cultures, one culture may adopt a mode of thought from another, or find some ancient scroll of laws that they adapt and call their own. This is most likely what happened in the case of the Israelites and the Torah. Although it has already been established that the authors of the different law codes are not the one and the same, it is evident through the similarities of the codes and the parallels noted between them that the Israelites wrote and rewrote some of them and adopted others from foreign cultures most probably during the Babylonian exile during which the Israelites became a more distinct people in the area of religion, creating new traditions and rites.