[JoeRedskin]

As for the chapter from Exodus you quoted earlier, while I haven't gone through all of it in detail, much of it strikes me as being in the same manner of Hammurabi's code (the original eye for an eye) which was a way to limit damages b/c prior to that it was "your family for my eye". It was probably a codification of general punishments acceptable at the time created to ensure equal treatment under the law.

Does that mean it is word for word applicable today? Of course not. Does it, when its context, is understood show a beginning of where the commandment "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" originated? Maybe. Maybe in the context of humanity's journey the quoted rules represented a great and radical leap forward from the mores of the day. Maybe it IS the beginning of the concept of equal treatment under the law.

These all are questions that may be correct or may not, but only an understanding of the context will get you anywhere close to an understanding of how this one chapter fits into a few millenia of articulated wisdom.