Hammurabi and Moshe

"And, similarly, when Assyriology entered the world, it raised doubts in people's hearts through the similarities that it found, according to its baseless conjectures, between our holy Torah and what is found in the cuneiform inscriptions, with respect to doctrines, morals, and practices. Do these doubts have even the slightest rational basis? Is it not well known that among the ancients there were those who recognized God, prophets and spiritual giants, such as Metushelach, Chanokh, Shem and Ever, and the like? Is it possible that they had no effect on the members of their generations? Even though their achievements do not compare with those of Avraham Avinu, how could their influence have left no impression whatsoever upon their generations? Surely [their teachings] must have resembled those that are found in the Torah!

As for the similarity regarding practices, surely already in the days of Rambam, and before him in the words of Chazal, it was well-known that prophecy operates upon man's nature. For man's natural inclinations must be raised through Divine guidance, for the mitzvot were only given for the purpose of refining man. Therefore, anything that through the teaching that preceded the giving of the Torah found a place in the nation and the world, as long as it had a moral foundation, and it was possible to elevate it to an eternal moral height, was retained in God's Torah…

(14) All these books which I have mentioned are works on idolatry translated into Arabic; there is no doubt that they form a very small portion in comparison to that which has not been translated, and that which is no longer extant, but has been lost in the course of time. But those works which are at present extant, include most of the opinions of the Sabeans and their practices, which are to some degree still in vogue in the world. They describe how temples are built and images of metal and stone placed in them, altars erected and sacrifices and various kinds of food are offered thereon, festivals celebrated, meetings held in the temples for prayer and other kinds of service: how they select certain very distinguished places and call them temples of Intellectual Images (or Forms); how they make images "on the high mountains" (Deut. 12:2), rear asherot, erect pillars, and do many other things which you can learn from the books mentioned by us. The knowledge of these theories and practices is of great importance in explaining the reasons of the Mitzvot. For it is the principal object of the Torah and the axis round which it turns, to blot out these opinions from man's heart and make the existence of idolatry impossible. As regards the former Scripture says: "Lest your heart be persuaded," etc. (Deut. 11:16), "whose heart turneth away to-day," etc. (ibid. 29:17). The actual abolition of idolatry is expressed in the following passage: "You shall destroy their altars, and burn their groves in fire" (Deut. 7:5), "and you shall destroy their name," etc. (xii. 3). These two things are frequently repeated; they form the principal and first object of the whole Torah, as our Sages distinctly told us in their traditional explanation of the words "all that God commanded you by the hand of Moses" (Num. 15:25); for they say, "Hence we learn that those who follow idolatry deny as it were their adhesion to the whole Torah, and those who reject idolatry follow as it were the whole Torah." (B. T. Kidd, 40a.) Note it.