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TEN COMMANDMENTS

A series of commands given by God to his covenant people through Moses. The Bible records the Ten Commandments twice. In Exod. 20:1-17 they are the words that God speaks to Israel at Mt. Sinai. In Deut. 5:6-21 they are the words of Moses, who recounts what God revealed to him on Mt. Horeb. Both versions are embedded in the story of Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. To detach the commandments from this narrative framework risks misunderstanding the significance of the commandments themselves. The commandments, then, are not arbitrary stipulations but the revelation of the God who freed the Hebrew slaves.

The biblical tradition presents the commandments as the basis upon which Israel’s continuing relationship with God becomes possible. God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt established that relationship. The Ten Commandments provide Israel with the moral framework for maintaining it. The metaphor that the Bible uses to express this relationship is covenant. While the metaphor comes from the sphere of international law, it is wrong to understand the commandments merely as a summary of Israel’s legal obligations toward God. They were not contraints on Israel’s freedom but the way that was to lead Israel to the fullness of life in the land that God was to give them. Also, Israel’s obedience to the commandments was not a matter of submission to the divine will as much as it was a response of love. God’s goodness and love, experienced by Israel in its liberation from slavery, elicited a response of love from a grateful Israel.

The Bible does not suggest how the commandments are to be divided or numbered. References to the “ten commandments” (Heb. “ten words,” hence “Decalogue”) do not appear in either Exod. 20 or Deut. 5 but in Exod. 34:28; Deut. 4:13; 10:4. The Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions follow Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and Augustine, who considered the prohibition of worshipping other gods and the making of images as one commandment and who separated the prohibition of coveting the wife and possessions of one’s neighbor into two commandments. The rabbinic and Reformed traditions join the two commandments prohibiting covetousness and separate the prohibition of false worship and the making of images into two commandments.

There does not appear to be a logical order to the commandments, though the series begins with obligations Israel has toward God and then continues with the obligations that the Israelites have toward each other. The content of the commandments is not unique in the Israelite tradition. What is unique is their association in this group of 10. The simplicity of the commandments is also striking. They are straightforward and require no expert legal interpretation. The Deuteronomic tradition underscores the comprehensiveness of the Decalogue when it notes that after giving the commandments God “added no more” (Deut. 5:22).

The understanding of divinity in the ancient Near East set the parameters of the commandments dealing with Israel’s obligations toward God. The commandments forbid any activity that implies human control over the divine. People set up images of their gods in their temples to assure the divine presence in their midst, but no image could compel the divine presence in Israel. The mythological worldview in the ancient Near East imagined the heavens to be populated by many gods, while the commandments require Israel to serve its God exclusively. The God of Israel was not to serve as a guarantor of unnecessary oaths. The prohibition of working on the sabbath shows that Israel’s God was going to determine the pattern of its life.

The commandments that deal with the Israelites’ obligations toward each other have parallels in the law codes of other ancient Near Eastern peoples, and reflect a time when people begin to live together in groups. To maintain group solidarity members need to trust each other, to respect each other’s life, marital relationships, and property. What society could last very long if people regularly lied to each other, stole from each other, did not respect marital bonds, and condoned murder? What made ancient Israel’s approach to these common obligations unique was its belief that people’s relationship with God was dependent upon the creation and maintenance of just intrasocietal relationships. Any breech in these relationships compromised Israel’s relationship with God. The Ten Commandments have no penalties attached to them because the ultimate penalty for stealing, lying, murder, and adultery is not a penalty that the community can impose but one that only God can impose.

The commandment that requires the Israelites to honor their parents (Exod. 20:12; Deut. 5:16) is atypical because it carries with it the implied threat that a lack of respect for one’s parents may lead to an abrupt end to one’s days in the land that God is giving to Israel. The commandment that forbids murder (Exod. 20:13; Deut. 5:17) sees the killing of another human being as an act incompatible with the covenantal relationship that binds Israelites to God and each other. It does not forbid capital punishment (Deut. 17:2-7; 19:12) or war (chs. 20–21); other legislation deals with accidental killing (19:1-13). The Ten Commandments forbid adultery (Exod. 20:14; Deut. 5:18) but not other forms of illicit sexual activity; other laws deal with these (chs. 22–25). The biblical tradition views the violation of marital fidelity as a threat to the integrity of Israel’s relationship with God (Job 24:13-17; Jer. 5:7; Hos. 4:2).

There is a question about what the commandment against theft (Exod. 20:15; Deut. 5:19) prohibits: simple theft or the taking of a person by force for sale as a slave. Both crimes undermine social relations. The commandment forbidding lying (Exod. 20:16; Deut. 5:20) is designed to uphold the integrity of the legal system by insuring truthfulness in testimony. Still, such truthfulness is not a legal necessity but a requirement from God. The commandments that forbid covetousness (Exod. 20:17; Deut. 5:21) deal with motivation rather than overt actions. They form a fitting conclusion to the Decalogue, since they forbid fostering the desire that leads to overt actions against the other commandments.

The Ten Commandments reflect the insight that the God of Israel is a God who governs all spheres of human life and that this God requires obedience. Still, it is essential to see the commandments in context of Israel’s covenant with God. The obedience that God requires of Israel flows from God’s liberating action on Israel’s behalf. Freeing the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian bondage established a relationship between them and their God. The Ten Commandments are the means by which ancient Israel was to maintain that relationship. Finally, the individual stipulations that make up the Ten Commandments show that the status of Israel’s relationship with God was a by-product of harmony within the Israelite community.

Bibliography. C. M. Carmichael, Law and Narrative in the Bible (Ithaca, 1985); W. Harrelson, The Ten Commandments and Human Rights (Philadelphia, 1980); A. Phillips, “The Decalogue — Ancient Israel’s Criminal Law,” JJS 34 (1983): 1-20; E. Nielsen, The Ten Commandments in New Perspective. SBT, 2nd ser. 7 (Naperville, 1968).

Leslie J. Hoppe

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TEN COMMANDMENTS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)