Seven inscriptions

The question as to why there aren't explicit prohibitions of personal abuse against wives (and presumably husbands) and children in the Law of God is interesting. Can it be that, as evil as they sometimes could be, the children of Israel didn't stoop so low or hadn't even thought of such a thing?

True, the Ten Commandments make no direct reference to such practices, but neither do they refer to other perversions either, at least not directly. But if you study carefully, even without the help of rabbinical authorities and Church fathers, you can find them in the scriptures.

The way the Law works is this: First, a single commandment (a prohibition, simply to test our basic attitude—obedience or rebellion).

Second, the seven laws (called the Noachic laws, also binding on all humans descended from Noah).

Third, the ten commandments (binding originally only on the people Israel, but extended by the prophets, particularly by King David in his psalms, to include ‘all those who fear the Lord,’ that is, everyone who believes in and worships Yahweh).

Those ten commandments being broken even before they were given, the Fourth inscription, all the commandments of Torah, traditionally 613, and binding only on Israel. As these couldn't be kept either, Christ reduces them back to two:

Fifth, the first and great commandment and the second like unto it: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.’ This is proven, by Christ's ongoing manifestation as human beings, to be one:

Sixth, ‘Whatsoever you do to the least of these, that you do unto Me.’ Brotherly love, or hate, are both theological. ‘If you say you love God (whom you can't see) but hate your neighbor (whom you can see), you are a liar.’

The kinds of crimes against humanity that we are concerned with are actually covered in six ‘inscriptions’ of the Law, and we expect to see them spelled out, but we don't find them in the way we want to, so we ‘improve’ on the Law.

This improving on the Law is not blasphemous or mankind taking things out of God's hands: He expected us to do what we have done, make systems of human laws. He knew ahead of time that our specificistic laws were, like His, directed against law breakers.

The righteous have no need of any but the inscription of the Law on their hearts, which is wordless but not meaningless, and a preventative and protective shield rather than a punitive construct.

We need not look for a written law against something we know to be wrong. That we know it to be wrong is proof positive that the Word of God has established it. Even the six inscriptions of the Law cannot vie with this one, the Seventh:

Deep within them I will plant My Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be My people.
Jeremiah 31:33