20:1-17 The Ten Commandments 20:1–17. apodictic law. A number of collections of legal material have been found from ancient times, including Sumerian, Babylonian, Hittite and Assyrian collections. The most famous is the Code of Hammurabi, dating from several hundred years earlier than Moses. These collections consist primarily of sample rulings in particular types of cases. As case law they present what penalties were assigned to a wide range of offenses, rather than indicating certain behavior