154 HAROLD M. WIENER, M.A., LL.B., ON THE 



Mr. St. Chad Boscawen acknowledged the ability and interest 

 of the paper, but differed from the writer in some not unimportant 

 points. In the first place he did not think that the religious 

 element was so absent as Mr. Wiener would have the meeting 

 believe, from the code of Hammurabi. He would instance the 

 perpetual reference made to the oath by god — that was of course 

 the private god and goddess whom each man had in honour 

 (reference to this would be found in the Babylonian penitential 

 psalms). The whole introduction to the code and the first few para- 

 graphs of the epilogue were full of strong nationalist and religious 

 feeling, and the laws were alleged to emanate from the sun god. 



To what extent the government and religion had been centralised 

 might be seen from the stele placed in the Temple of the god 

 Merodach. The state was just on the edge of a transition from 

 local to centralised government, and so it was in religion : the 

 ■change was due to Hammurabi. Merodach, the local Babylonian god, 

 was fast becoming the national deity. For religious sincerity they 

 might look to the prayers of Nebuchadnezzar to Merodach. If the 

 name of Merodach were taken from these they might well be 

 prayers from the Bible, with their references to " the city thou 

 lovest " and "the people whom thou favourest." 



In his opinion the code of Hammurabi stood by no means alone, 

 but was founded on a code four or five centuries older (not merely 

 Sumerian fragments), which was drawn up on much the same lines, 

 as might be seen from the cylinders of Godir, The object of this 

 ■earlier code is laid down as being " to protect the weak from the 

 strong, that the poor be not oppressed, and the widow and orphan 

 be not robbed." 



He diflfered from Mr. Wiener in his remarks on p. 163. It 

 could not be said that Hammurabi's code was in any degree thrown 

 away. From it came all the commercial legislation of Babylonia to 

 within a century of the Christian era, and it was used and studied 

 right up to the Christian era (the cuneiform script was known to 

 have been in use as late as 47 B.C.). 



A grave fault of the lecturer would seem to be the enormous 

 weight attached to the book of Deuteronomy : is this really a 

 Mosaic book 1 



Mr. Wiener. — Certainly, in his opinion it was (hear, hear). 



Is it not rather the legislation of a settled people with a 



