|
"The 'eye for an eye' code of law that you say is a perversion, has therefore been pinned onto Moses as a rivision, hasn't it, Peter?"
I nodded again. "There exists a still earlier perversion of the Mosaic code, the principles that you referred to as the principles of civilization. That revision predates even Leviticus. This earliest revision has been quietly inserted into the Scriptures, almost the moment when the Mosaic code was put forward. We find this revision inserted right behind the original version of Moses' Ten Commandments. The revision stands in total contrast to the Mosaic Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments present a collection of passive requirements that are essential for the functioning of a civilization. They are instructing society that one should not do this or that, like, thou shalt not kill' and so forth. But as you seemed to have already discovered, behind each passive demand stands an active principle that assures that the passive demand is met. For example, once the principle of life as a reflection of God is recognized, the resulting acknowledgment of this principle would close the door on killing forever."
"You are saying that Life is a universal principle, a divine expression? That makes us a divine people, Peter. Is that what you are saying?"
"Well, isn't it? The more we discover about the wondrous intricacies of the human body, and of all life really, the more the human body appears like a miracle indeed. We see the effects of life, and that only barely, but we are far from understanding the principle that underlies all life. We have some theories, but they are all superficial. We can count the DNA sequences, but even they hold only a tiny fraction of what we are. We are a miracle, really, and we all share that miracle right across the world. If we kill another person, we really kill what we are ourselves. We are a holy people in that respect. We are human beings reflecting a truly divine Life. When we can see ourselves that way, killing ends, war end, imperialism ends. On the platform of this higher principle becoming actively understood the passive demand "thou shalt not kill" will never be violated. This beautiful sense of universal principles is reflected throughout the original Decalogue. We find the statement of these principles presented in the second book of Moses, called Exodus. But right behind this gentle statement of principles, in the very next chapter, an old barbaric penal code has been inserted. That is where we find the "eye for an eye" code. This code has nothing gentle about it. It's actually anti-civilizational. And so, the gentle code of universal principles has been turned upside down with the immediate insertion of a brutal affirmation of barbarism."
"Mahatma Gandhi once said that this 'eye for an eye' brutality makes the whole world blind. Did you know this, Peter? He saw this barbarism as a stab into the heart of our humanity."
"This inserted code is a code of rape, Indira," I said to her. "Historically it appears to be rooted in an ancient code of Babylonian law, the Code of Hammurabi dating back to the 18th Century B.C., a thousand years before Isaiah, predating even the Brahmin Dark Age in India. The Code of Hammurabi, so it appears, became reflected in the 'eye for and eye' code that was inserted behind the code of Moses. The Hammurabi code appears to have been inserted since it was designed to bring a certain measure of civilization to the barbarism of ancient Babylon. Hammurabi had imposed a few limits on retribution for crimes. The code of Hammurabi appears to have been intended to curb the arbitrary mistreatment of slaves and arbitrary oppression of the poor by the imperial officials and the priests of old Babylon. It also imposed a limit on the fraud by contracts and to excesses in litigation. The Code of Hammurabi had been a brave attempt to level the playing field and bring a certain sense of humanity to society. It had been a radical departure from the brutal excesses in corporal punishment that had become rather shocking in Assyrian law that might also have had an Aryan root. While the Code of Hammurabi didn't match the leniency of the Hittites, it stands nevertheless as a significant milestone in the advance of civilization."
Next Page
|| - page index -
|| - chapter index -
|| - Exit -
||
|
