Similarities with the Five Books of Moses and Other Ancient Beliefs

The Five Books of Moses (Torah) contain 613 commandments. Since there are only three Commandments (Mitzvot) in the Book of Genesis only the practice of circumcision is compared with other ancient civilizations. The other four Books of Moses have been divided numerically into 34 categories in Moses Maimonides' (Rambam) Mishnah Torah with each one followed by their total number of Torah Mitzvot. Rambam's categories have been listed in ascending order from those with the least number of Commandments to those with the greatest number of commandments. The Commandments are listed in each book by line and verse followed by similar practices in other ancient Middle Eastern civilizations: Egyptian, Greek, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Amorites, Ammonites, Moabites, Mesopotamia and the city-state of Babylon. Babylonia founded 4,000 years ago as a small port town on the Euphrates River was a state in ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is a region of southwest Asia in the Tigris and Euphrates river system that hosted the beginnings of human civilization. It is part of the Fertile Crescent, an area also known as "Cradle of Civilization" for the number of innovations that arose from the early societies in the area. It was in what is today large portions of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Kuwait from the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Persian Gulf in the south.