Adoption
Although legal adoption was recognized in the ancient Near East as far back as the Code of Hammurabi around 1700 BCE, there is no clear evidence that this institution existed in ancient Israelite law. Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses as her son (Exodus 2: 10) but this is stated in the context of Egyptian norms. Similarly, the statement in
the book of Esther
(2: 7) that Mordecai took his orphaned cousin Esther to be his daughter may be intended to reflect conditions in the Persian Empire. The Talmudic Rabbis rely on the biblical stories of Pharaoh's daughter and Esther to teach that if anyone brings up an orphan in his household, Scripture considers it as if he ...