Letter: Moses not "original lawgiver"

In signing a new state law mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public-school classrooms, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry referred to Moses as the “original lawgiver.” Though there is no direct archeological evidence for the existence of an individual named Moses, archeologists do have evidence that people from Canaan were enslaved in Egypt around the year 1200 BCE, and that some did in fact escape to freedom. However, we also know that a number of “lawgivers” existed centuries before that time, including Ur-Nammu (2100 BCE) and Hammurabi (1792 BCE). Louisiana students, already inundated with sources of misinformation on social media, would be well advised to take Gov. Landry’s words with a grain of salt.