A Comparative Analysis of Exodus 20:1–17 (Sinaitic Covenant) with Ancient Near Eastern Covenants and Treaties

Seminary N235

In the first half of the twentieth century, several ANE law-codes were discovered and deciphered. Many of those laws have shown a striking similarity with some of the Mosaic laws of the Old Testament. This fact forced Old Testament critics to review their final date for the Pentateuch but gave rise to another form of criticism. Hence, the following questions can be asked: What type of ANE covenant/treaty does the Sinaitic covenant resemble? Are the parallels between the law-codes of ANE civilizations and the Sinaitic law the result of similar intellectual and cultural antecedents? What is the relationship between the Sinaitic covenant and the treaties and covenants of other ANE civilizations? This research is a comparative study of Exodus 20:1–17, which is part of the Sinaitic covenant, with the law-codes/treaties of other ANE civilizations. This research has demonstrated that Moses seems to have made use of the common-use suzerainty treaty in his own days to express the covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel at Sinai. Moreover, Exodus 20 has a preamble and a historical prologue very similar to the Laws of Ur-Nammu and Lipit-Ishtar, the Hittite treaties, and the Code of Hammurabi. Also, the first four and the tenth command of Exodus 20 are unparalleled in the ANE covenants/treaties. On the other hand, half of the Ten Words is found in practically all ancient cultures.