Do Shared Moral Laws Come From A Common Source?

Q: If the Code of Hammurabi predates the written Torah but forbids similar sins, are these shared moral laws from a common source?

A: That's a great question, and I would say both. I see a common moral code descending throughout humanity. You could say that it comes to us from natural law. You could say that it comes from the commands that God gave to civilization after Noah, the Noahide commandments and such. There could be a few contributing factors.

C.S. Lewis does some great work on this. Look in the appendix to C.S. Lewis's book, The Abolition of Man. In that book, C.S. Lewis points out that the idea that morality has been entirely subjective and completely different from generation to generation, culture to culture, is just nonsense. There has been a generally agreed-upon morality among human beings.

For example, some cultures differ on who might be deserving of death and who isn't, but no culture just says you can kill whoever you want. Cultures have debated whether or not a person could properly have one wife or five wives, but no culture basically said, 'You can have whatever woman you want.' Courage and bravery are always lauded and praised, while cowardice is always condemned. Lewis does a good job compiling quotations from different ancient writings, showing that there has been a common morality among humanity for a long time.

I think that there is a moral root that predates the Mosaic law and probably goes back to the Garden of Eden in some ways.