This legal text provides a small but substantive proportion of the mitzvot (religious duties) within the Torah, and hence is a source of Jewish Law.
According to Joel Baden, "The Covenant Code is a part of E; the priestly laws [of Leviticus and Numbers] are part of P; and the deuteronomic laws [of Deuteronomy 12–26] stand at the center of D."[3] Regardless of precise positions on the process, scholars agree that the Covenant Code was produced by a long process in which it changed over time.
[4] A study of continuing importance is that of Albrecht Alt, who in 1934 published an analysis of the Covenant Code which hinges on the distinction between casuistic and apodictic law.
[5] The Covenant Code consists largely of case or casuistic law (often in the form of an "if-then" statement, in which specific situations are addressed),[6] as for example Exodus 21:33–36.
[5] Scholars do, however, agree that the contrast between the apodictic and casuistic forms is a clue to how multiple sources of law were edited together into the Covenant Code,[5] although there remain disagreements over the precise details.