mikem

This has to be quick I'm afraid. The 10 Commandments, and the Old Testament legal Law are derivative. The oldest written law code, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (282 laws) was in written form as early as the 18th century BCE, and is based on a much older law code. It contains most of what you will find in the OT. Law 196 for example, says "If a man put out the eye of another man, his own eye should be put out" Sound familiar?

There is nothing unique about the ten commandments or the other social and legal laws supposedly given by God to the Israelites. Try reading the 10 commandments as a rule about property rights (someone always belongs to someone else!) and you will see what I mean.

Like much else in the Bible, the OT law was adopted from the surrounding culture and adapted.