For a long time, humans have had ethical systems, usually associated with beliefs about a non-physical or spiritual reality and a Divine Source of morality. In fact, in the field of evolutionary psychology and human evolution there are speculative theories about the mental capacity required in order to form religions and the religious impulse exerting selective pressure favoring increased brain capacity in early humans, as such capacities facilitated cooperation and honesty among early Homo species. Such beliefs (and the capacity to hold and understand such beliefs) would constrain violence and resulting injuries amongst a tribe of related creatures. If an individual’s ability to avoid death and have persons with similar DNA survive to reproduce is enhanced by being surrounded by a supportive social group that limits violence and acts benevolently, then mental capacities that help people create and maintain such social systems would enhance evolutionary fitness for individuals within those groups.

So, ethics and moral codes and religion probably existed tens of thousands of years ago, at least. Beliefs about righteousness and evil were probably used by people to coerce others in ways that diminished anti-social behaviors—at least those anti-social behaviors that would reduce chances of survival. And, likewise, beliefs about goodness would promote pro-social behaviors likely to increase lifespans and health of members of a group. In this way perhaps religious impulses and stories about human behavior in the context of spiritual or moral interpretation were part of the impulse for the evolving human brain and language ability.

But that is all speculative. We only really get records of moral codes and religious teachings about righteousness in the last half of the third millennium before the common era. In particular, we can date several texts that promote social welfare and benevolence and philanthropy to a period in the 24th century before the common era. Such texts mark a distinction between organized religions used to promote good fortune and ward off catastrophe versus religions that provided standards of good behavior, including ethical principles to constrain the power of elites (as opposed to religions primarily concerned with justifying supreme power of elites).

Toward the end of Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty and early in the Sixth Dynasty (from about 2350 to 2250 BC) we find “Pyramid Texts” and “Ideal Biographies” on the tombs of prominent Egyptians. These texts seem to have been formulaic, extolling the virtues of an ideal powerful human, and not always accurate or person-specific biographies. That is, the tombs all have certain claims that are practically identical in most of the biographies.

These early texts extol virtues we hold today. People were not supposed to engage in quarrels or enrage others. Some texts say things like, “I was well-loved, and had a true heart, and created a peaceful place wherever I was. I did not spend the night being angry with anyone else, and I never did anything evil to anyone, nor did I ever allow anyone to to go to bed at night with anger in their heart directed at me.”

A common claim in these idealized tomb biographies was, “I did not allow that a noble take for himself the property of a poor man.” Also common was the claim that: “I rescued the wretched one from the one who is stronger than he; I gave bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked.” Many tombs claimed that the official in the tomb had “ferried over him who had no boat, buried him who had no son, provided for orphans…” and things of that sort. See “Biographical Texts from the Memphis Region” in Texts from the Pyramid Age edited by Ronald J. Leprohon for examples.

Such texts tell us that already by 2400 BC people in Egypt witnessed the problem of powerful persons and nobles taking property from poor persons, and there was concern about taking good care of orphans, hungry people, and those who couldn’t afford clothing. People recognized that this was an important issue, and they believed supernatural powers were aligned on the side of philanthropy and distribution of resources from the wealthy to the poor.

At almost exactly the same time, in the 24th century BC, we find in Sumer (in the city of Lagash) a popular revolt against oppressive government and injustice, and the installation of someone named Urukagina as the new leader. According to the historians of Urukagina’s time, this Urukagina reformed society so that powerful and important people couldn’t push poor and common people around. He would not allow orphans and widows to be victimized by people who held power. Urukagina lowered taxes (which in his predecessors had been used to fund militarism and conquest), forbade officials from using common property (temple property) to enrich themselves, and he promoted freedom. The Sumerian gods Utu, An, and Enlil were all supposedly in favor of these practices of protecting people from abuse at the hands the mighty. The Lagashite goddess Nanshe, for example, seems to have presented a radical archetype, not unlike some later religious figures, for she made it her business to do things like:

To comfort the orphan, to make disappear the widow [see to it that widows could remarry]
To set up a place of destruction for the mighty,
To turn over the mighty to the weak….
Nanshe searches the heart of the people.

(from Samuel Noah Kramer’s History Begins at Sumer, page 104)

The people of Sumer continued to emphasize moral behavior in their religions and legal codes in subsequent centuries. The prologue of the Ur-Nammu Law Code (c.2100-2050 BC) contains this passage: “The orphan was not delivered up to the rich man, the widow was not delivered up to the powerful man, the man of one shekel was not delivered up to the man of one mina” (Kramer, p. 263).

There is also a hymn of Ishme-Dagan (c. 1935-1593 BC) , which includes the lines:

To see to it that brother speaks truth to brother, that the father is respected
That the older sister is not contradicted, that the mother is feared,
That the weak are not delivered up to the strong, that the frail are protected,
That the powerful should not work their will, that man should not strive against man...
...The strong oppresses not the weak;
The noble mistreats not the freeman,...,
The poor dares to talk back to the rich,.... (Kramer, p. 263).

The Chinese show evidence of similar early concern for social welfare going back to perhaps 1000 BC, around the time they began using their writing system for literature and other things beyond soothsaying and recording major events. We have, for example, this passage from the the Book of Poetry, Minor odes of the kingdom, Decade of Bei Shan: Great Field 大田  (dates to Western Zhou, 1046 BCE - 771 BCE

大田:

有渰萋萋、興雨祁祁。
雨我公田、遂及我私。
彼有不穫穉、此有不斂穧。
彼有遺秉、此有滯穗、伊寡婦之利。

The clouds form in dense masses,
And the rain comes down slowly.
May it rain first on our public fields,
And then come to our private!
There shall be young grain unreaped,
And here some sheaves ungathered;
There shall be handfuls left on the ground,
And here ears untouched:-
For the benefit of the widow.

 

All this goes to show that moral and religious codes of behavior sometimes worked to constrain the power of elites and urge the protection of the interests of marginalized and downtrodden persons. We have evidence of this going back to the very earliest centuries of writing, over 4400 years ago in Sumer and Egypt, and over 3,000 years ago in China.

Links about Moral Codes and Ethics in ancient religions and philosophies:

1. The BBC outlines some of the primary text sources for Old Kingdom Egypt.
2. Although Egyptologists claim that the Pyramid Texts of the late Old Kingdom are the earliest religious texts, there are in fact some tablets from Sumer with religious content that are just as old and possibly older. Still, Joshua Mark provides useful information about the Pyramid Texts at the Ancient History Encyclopedia.
3. Drawing much from the work of Miriam Lichtheim, Encyclopedia.com offers a good essay with some of the same sources we found in academic literature as we were preparing this article.
4. Gerald Larue’s chapter on ancient ethics is available online.
5. The online library of liberty has an entry on Urukagina, giving him credit for giving civilization the first written reference to freedom.