976. Hammurabi is best remembered for a code of law, set down toward the end of his reign on clay tablets and on stelae, or stone pillars. Clear parallels as well as clear differences can be drawn between Hammurabi's code and the law Moses received from God on Mount Sinai. Sadly the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written disappeared with the ark of the covenant, but Hammurabi's laws were uncovered by French archaeologists in the ancient city of Susa and remain on display in the Louvre in Paris.
977. Towers known as ziggurats, which literally means "houses that lift up their heads," were erected throughout the Babylonian Empire and were probably intended as stairways for men to ascend and meet the gods. A ziggurat resembles a pyramid, but its sides are steplike. In constructing the tower, the builders "had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar" (Gen. 11:3 KJV). The bricks were made from mud and the "slime" was asphalt, found all over the Iranian oil fields even today.
978. Pottery, made from clay and baked in a kiln, is one of the most durable materials ever made. Glass flakes away, metals corrode and rust, wood and fabrics are destroyed by dampness and insects. Pottery alone survives. Although a pottery jar easily be shattered, the broken pieces or shards may last for centuries and give clues to when the pottery was made, who made it, and its relationship to pottery made by neighboring people.
979. Archaeologists have studied the shards discovered in the Negeb that date from about the time Abraham crossed it. All the pottery made throughout this vast area was almost exactly the same, revealing that those were settled times and that the people of the Negeb traded peacefully with one another.
980. The Shema is the central confession of the Jewish faith: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." It is originally found in Deuteronomy 6:4, and Jesus quoted it, saying that the verse that follows ("Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength") is the greatest commandment.
