Updated American Standard Version
Giving Bible readers what God said not what translators think God meant
After the collapse of urban civilization, powerful states reappeared beginning about 2000 B.C. In southern Mesopotamia the city-state of Ur had already gained control of the surrounding territory. Ur-Nammu, greatest king of the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2113–2006 B.C.), erected a great ziggurat (temple tower) and encouraged art and literature.
Amorites. Semitic people found throughout the Fertile Crescent of the Near East at the beginning of the second millennium BC. Amorites are first mentioned in the Bible as descendants of Canaan in a list of ancient peoples (Gen 10:16; cf. 1 Chr 1:13–16).
Secular historians regularly associate the Amorites of the Bible with the people called the Amurru in early Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) cuneiform texts. The Amurru are represented as invading Mesopotamia early in the second millennium B.C.E. and as having had a kingdom in Babylonia for several centuries. Hammurabi, famed lawgiver of that period, is often referred to as of “Amorite” origin.
The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia, dated to about 1754 BC (Middle Chronology). It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code. Some scholars have often been likened the Ten Commandments to the Code of Hammurabi.
David P. Wright argues that the Jewish Covenant Code is “directly, primarily, and throughout” based upon the Laws of Hammurabi. In 2010, a team of archaeologists from Hebrew University discovered a cuneiform tablet dating to the eighteenth or seventeenth century BC at Hazor in Israel containing laws clearly derived from the Code of Hammurabi. Is David P. Wright correct, was Moses a plagiarist? Very detailed answer in this article.
Customs and culture in Bible times: beard, burial, child care in a polygamous family, deeds to property, eating:, gifts, hair; head covering, king’s concubines, marriage, mourning, ripping of garments, washing of hands, whitewashing graves, women captives, and so on.
We have determined that, the Dead Sea Scrolls were the library of the Qumran community, who were its people? Early on, in 1947 Professor Eleazar Sukenik obtained three scrolls from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; thereafter, suggesting that these scrolls had belonged to the Essene Community.