Code of Hammurabi

This set of laws, falling in the middle of the Code, constitute the core of Babylonian family law. While these laws are fewer in number than those in both the preceding and following sections, the overall length of the section is comparable. Many of the laws in this section involve discussions of multiple contingencies, and so they often run on to lengths of a full paragraph instead of merely a line or two. While the Code itself makes no distinction between its various sections, the cohesive nature of the subject matter in this section shows that it nonetheless has an internal organization into various categories of content.

Several notable features, associated with the theme of Social Position as a Measure of Legal Rights, address gender and the status of women. First, the position of women in Babylonian society is demonstrated to be relatively higher than was the case in several comparable ancient cultures. Women remained in possession of the assets that were included in their dowries, rather than having those assets immediately folded into their husbands’ assets. In certain cases, this could amount to a significant measure of wealth. There were other circumstances, too, in which women could serve in roles of ownership or tenancy over family property, and they were afforded rights and protections in situations of divorce. 

Further, the law provided ample means of defense for them if they were brought to court on accusations of adultery, though it is nonetheless worth noting that it is women, not men, who are assumed to be the main recipients of such accusations. This reveals that in Babylonian society, while many men were assumed to be involved in sexual infidelity (as many of the laws amply demonstrate), it was unfortunately more common for women to be brought to trial on a direct accusation of having an affair.

Second, this section illustrates the way in which marriage was a financial arrangement in Babylonian society more than it was an institution of romantic partnership. A significant proportion of the laws deal with issues of property that arise in the context of marriage and family life: Purchase-prices, dowries, and the division of family estates foremost among them. The laws of the Code implicitly acknowledge the primary financial meaning of marriage by assuming a romantic partnership as a secondary consideration should the first form of marriage not work out—as Law 137 establishes, in the case of divorce the woman is endowed with the assets proper to her (her dowry and the usufruct of some of the family property), and after this, “She may then marry the man of her heart” (39). The financial considerations of the union are primary, and romantic concerns are essentially the backup plan.

These laws provide further insight into the place of enslavement in ancient Babylonian society. While enslaved persons were regarded as property, this set of laws implies that they may have had a broader set of opportunities open to them than was the case in other ancient societies. For example, these laws provide rules for governing cases in which a free-born woman marries an enslaved man, which is an arrangement that would not have even been considered a possibility in many other forms of institutional enslavement.

This section also provides an intriguing cultural and literary link to another ancient text set in the same time period—the narrative of Abraham from the Book of Genesis, found in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Part of Abraham’s story includes the family interrelationships between himself, his wife Sarah, and Sarah’s maidservant Hagar, whom Sarah gives to Abraham to conceive a child when their own efforts have proven fruitless. This situation is directly addressed in the Code of Hammurabi, in Laws 144-147. Since Abraham and Sarah were themselves Mesopotamian in origin, Hammurabi’s Code offers an important literary illumination of a complex text that lies at the heart of three of the world’s major religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.