Evidence #229 | August 31, 2021
Book of Mormon Evidence: Law of Eshnunna
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Scripture Central
Abstract
The monetary system established by King Mosiah has several parallels with the Law of Eshnunna.The Nephite Monetary System
During their ministry among the people of Ammonihah, Alma and Amulek were confronted by a lawyer named Zeezrom, who offered Amulek a bribe of “six onties of silver” if he would “deny the existence of a Supreme Being” (Alma 11:22). Just prior to reporting this dialogue, Mormon provided an overview of the Nephite monetary system to help readers grasp the significance of Zeezrom’s bribe. For instance: “an amnor of silver was as great as two senums. And an ezrom of silver was as great as four senums. And an onti [which Zeezrom used for his bribe] was as great as them all” (v. 7).1 The following chart summarizes all the monetary designations and equivalencies presented in Alma 11:
The Law Code of Eshnunna
Mormon noted that the Nephite monetary system had been “established by king Mosiah” (Alma 11:4). This agrees well with ancient precedents. As explained by legal scholar John W. Welch, “Ancient kings typically implemented their economic progress by means of official decrees. … For example, similarities appear almost effortlessly in the law code of Eshnunna, which was compiled about 1800 B.C. in a Babylonian city by that name.”2 The system of exchange established by Eshnunna begins as follows:3
1 kor of barley is (priced) at 1 shekel of silver,
3 qa of “best oil” are (priced) at 1 shekel of silver,
1 seah (and) 2 qa of sesame oil are (priced) at 1 shekel of silver,
1 seah (and) 5 qa of lard are (priced) at 1 shekel of silver, …
Similar Phrasing
While differences are present, several descriptions in Mosiah’s system have similar phrasing with the conversions mentioned in the Law of Eshnunna, as seen in the following examples:
Law of Mosiah: “A senum of silver was equal to a senine of gold” (Alma 11:7)
Law of Eshnunna: “1 kor of barley is (priced) at 1 shekel of silver”4
Law of Mosiah: “Now an antion of gold is equal to three shiblons” (Alma 11:19)
Law of Eshnunna: “1 qa of sesame oil … – its (equivalent in) barely is 3 seah”5
Based on Barley and Precious Metals
Another resemblance concerns the primary commodities of exchange upon which the systems were apparently based. In the Law of Eshnunna, the values of all the commodities were given in measures of either barley or silver. “Thus, precious metal and grain measures were convertible into each other. The law of Mosiah featured the same conversion capability: the basic measure for either gold or silver was equated with ‘a measure of barley’ (Alma 11:7).”6
Conversions for Various Commodities
As noted above, under the Law of Eshnunna, various commodities—such as lard, wool, salt, copper, and different types of oil—could all be converted into measures of silver or barley.7 Similarly, gold and silver in Mosiah’s system could be exchanged either for barely or “for a measure of every kind of grain” (Alma 11:7; emphasis added).
Establishing Wages
As proposed by Welch, “the ideal, practical motivation behind the Laws of Eshnunna seems to have been to undergird the rental market and to standardize values on daily wages and the computation of various damages and penalties.”8 For instance, concerning wages, the law makes the following declarations:
- “hire for a wagon together with its oxen and its driver is 1 pan (and) 4 seah of barley. If it is (paid in) silver, the hire is 1/3 of a shekel. He shall drive it the whole day.”9
- “The hire of a boat is 2 qa per kor (of capacity), and 1 sūt (and) 1 qa is the hire of the boat man. He shall drive it the whole day.”10
- “The hire of a donkey is 1 seah of barley, and the wages of its driver are 1 seah of barley. He shall drive it the whole day.”11
Mosiah’s law also established wages, specifically the compensation to be received by judges in the new system of government: “And the judge received for his wages according to his time—a senine of gold for a day, or a senum of silver, which is equal to a senine of gold; and this is according to the law which was given” (Alma 11:3).12 Not all compensation in the Law of Eshnunna was calculated for a day’s worth of labor or service,13 but most of its statutes required “the whole day,” similar to the wages “for a day” in Mosiah’s system.14
Conclusion
The monetary system established by King Mosiah is not a carbon copy of the Law of Eshnunna. They were different laws, given at different times, in different languages, under different circumstances, and in different parts of the world. And yet, their resemblances suggest they may be economic cousins, separated by time and place but stemming from the same Near Eastern heritage. As concluded by Welch, “Such similarities between the Laws of Eshnunna (discovered and translated in the mid– twentieth century) and Mosiah’s economic system show yet another way in which the Book of Mormon presents a truly complex civilization with roots in ancient society.”15
John W. Welch, “Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 2 (1999): 40–41.
John W. Welch, “The Laws of Eshnunna and Nephite Economics,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 147–149.
John W. Welch, “The Law of Mosiah,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 158–161.
- 1. Although the heading and index information found in some prior editions (1920, 1981) of the Book of Mormon describe the monetary labels in this chapter as “coins” or “coinage,” the chapter heading of the current (2013) edition simply notes: “The Nephite monetary system is set forth” (Alma 11; emphasis added). This update is consistent with the text itself, which never mentions coins and instead discusses the “measure” and “reckoning” of “different pieces of their gold, and of their silver, according to their value” (v. 4). The change in wording also better reflects historical realities from the ancient world. Coinage isn’t known to have existed in ancient America and wasn’t introduced in Israel until after Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem. See John W. Welch, “Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 2 (1999): 40, 43.
- 2. Welch, “Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon,” 41.
- 3. Albrecht Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research
- 4. Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” 24.
- 5. Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” 25.
- 6. John W. Welch, “The Laws of Eshnunna and Nephite Economics,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 148. While measures of other types of grains could be traded for precious metals, barley is the only grain specifically named in Mosiah’s system.
- 7. See Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” 24–25.
- 8. Welch, “The Laws of Eshnunna and Nephite Economics,” 148.
- 9. Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” 33.
- 10. Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” 35.
- 11. Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” 41.
- 12. See John W. Welch, “The Law of Mosiah,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 159.
- 13. See, Goetze, “The Laws of Eshnunna,” 41: “The wages of a hired man are 1 shekel of silver; his provender is 1 pan of barley. He shall serve for one month” (emphasis added). For commentary on this topic, see pp. 46–48.
- 14. A day’s worth of labor or service, clearly demarcated by the rise and fall of the sun, may be a fairly natural—and therefore widespread—unit of compensation, especially for economies based on agriculture. For instance, concerning the standard compensation for labor among the Q’eqchi’-Maya, one scholar has noted that “payment probably originated on plantations, in which labour is usually paid in terms of the quantity of bananas or coffee beans collected in a one-day period, rather than the amount of time one engages in some particular task. In sum, money may substitute for men in certain cases, but only at the level of moos: one man’s daily labor for one lump sum of money. The fineness of the calculation usually goes no further.” Paul Kockelman, “Number, Unit, and Utility in a Mayan Community: The Relation between Use-Value, Labour-Power, and Personhood,” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13, no. 2 (2007): 411.
- 15. Welch, “The Laws of Eshnunna and Nephite Economics,” 148.