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Easton's Bible Dictionary
(FROM COMMANDMENTS)
( Exodus 34:28 ; Deuteronomy 10:4 , marg. "ten words") i.e., the Decalogue
(q.v.), is a summary of the immutable moral law. These commandments were first
given in their written form to the people of Israel when they were encamped at
Sinai, about fifty days after they came out of Egypt ( Exodus 19:10 - 25 ). They
were written by the finger of God on two tables of stone. The first tables were
broken by Moses when he brought them down from the mount ( Exodus 32:19 ), being
thrown by him on the ground. At the command of God he took up into the mount two
other tables, and God wrote on them "the words that were on the first tables"
( Exodus 34:1 ). These tables were afterwards placed in the ark of the covenant
( Deuteronomy 10:5 ; 1 Kings 8:9 ). Their subsequent history is unknown. They
are as a whole called "the covenant" ( Deuteronomy 4:13 ), and "the
tables of the covenant" ( Deuteronomy 9:9 , 9:11 ; Hebrews 9:4 ), and "the
testimony."
They are obviously "ten" in number, but their division is not fixed, hence different
methods of numbering them have been adopted. The Jews make the "Preface" one of
the commandments, and then combine the first and second. The Roman Catholics and
Lutherans combine the first and second and divide the tenth into two. The Jews
and Josephus divide them equally. The Lutherans and Roman Catholics refer three
commandments to the first table and seven to the second. The Greek and Reformed
Churches refer four to the first and six to the second table. The Samaritans add
to the second that Gerizim is the mount of worship. (See LAW.)
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
(no entry)
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The popular name in this, as in so many instances, is
not that of Scripture. There we have the "TEN WORDS," ( Exodus
34:28 ; 4:13
; 10:4
) the "COVENANT," Exodus, Deuteronomy 11. cc.; ( 1
Kings 8:21 ; 2
Chronicles 6:11 ) etc., or, very often as the solemn attestation of the divine
will, the "TESTIMONY." ( Exodus
25:16 , 25:21
; 31:18
) etc. The circumstances in which the Ten great Words were first given to the
people surrounded them with an awe which attached to no other precept. In the
midst of the cloud and the darkness and the flashing lightning and the fiery smoke
and the thunder like the voice of a trumpet, Moses was called to Mount Sinai to
receive the law without which the people would cease to be a holy nation. ( Exodus
19:20 ) Here, as elsewhere, Scripture unites two facts which men separate.
God, and not man was speaking to the Israelites in those terrors, and yet, in
the language of later inspired teachers, other instrumentality was not excluded.
No other words were proclaimed in like manner. And the record was as exceptional
as the original revelation. Of no other words could it be said that they were
written as these were written, engraved on the Tables of Stone, not as originating
in mans contrivance or sagacity, but by the power of the Eternal Spirit, by the
"finger of God." ( Exodus
31:18 ; 32:16
) The number Ten was, we can hardly doubt, itself significant to Moses and the
Israelites. The received symbol, then and at all times, of completeness, it taught
the people that the law of Jehovah was perfect. ( Psalms
19:7 ) The term "Commandments" had come into use in the time of Christ. (
Luke
18:20 ) Their division into two tables is not only expressly mentioned but
the stress is upon the two leaves no doubt that the distinction was important,
and that answered to that summary of the law which was made both by Moses and
by Christ into two precepts; so that the first table contained Duties to God ,
and the second, Duties to our Neighbor . There are three principal divisions of
the two tables:
(1) That of the Roman Catholic Church, making the first
table contain three commandments and the second the other seven.
(2) The familiar division, referring the first four to our duty toward God and
the six remaining to our duty toward man. |
The division recognized by the old Jewish writers, Josephus
and Philo, which places five commandments in each table. It has been maintained
that the law of filial duty, being a close consequence of Gods fatherly relation
to us, maybe referred to the first table. But this is to place human parents on
a level with God, and, by purity of reasoning the Sixth Commandment might be added
to the first table, as murder is the destruction of Gods image in man. Far more
reasonable is the view which regards the authority of parents as heading the second
table, as the earthly reflex of that authority of the Father of his people and
of all men which heads the first, and as the first principle of the whole law
of love to our neighbor; because we are all brethren and the family is, for good
and ill the model of the state. "The Decalogue differs from all the other legislation
of Moses:
(1) It was proclaimed by God himself in a most public and
solemn manner.
(2) It was given under circumstances of most appalling majesty and sublimity.
(3) It was written by the finger of God on two tables of stone. ( Deuteronomy
5:22 )
(4) It differed from any and all other laws given to Israel in that it was comprehensive
and general rather than specific and particular.
(5) It was complete, being one finished whole to which nothing was to be added,
from which nothing was ever taken away.
(6) The law of the Ten Commandments was honored by Jesus Christ as embodying the
substance of the law of God enjoined upon man.
(7) It can scarcely be doubted that Jesus had his eye specially if not exclusively
on this law, ( Deuteronomy
5:18 ) as one never to be repealed from which not one jot or tittle should
ever pass away.
(8) It is marked by wonderful simplicity and brevity such a contrast to our human
legislation, our British statute-book for instance, which it would need an elephant
to carry and an OEdipus to interpret." |
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
In the Old Testament the Decalogue is uniformly referred
to as "the ten words" (Exodus 34:28 margin; Deuteronomy 4:13 margin; 10:4 margin),
or simply as "the words" spoken by Yahweh (Exodus 20:1 ; 34:27 ; Deuteronomy 5:22
; 10:2), or as "the words of the covenant" (Exodus 34:28). In the New Testament
they are called "commandments" (Matthew 19:17 ; Ephesians 6:2), as with us in
most Christian lands.
I. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, AN ISRAELITISH CODE
The "ten words" were spoken by Yahweh to the people whom He had but recently delivered
from Egyptian bondage, and then led out into the wilderness, that He might teach
them His laws. It was to Israel that the Decalogue was primarily addressed, and
not to all mankind. Thus, the reason assigned for keeping the 5th commandment
applies to the people who were on their way to the land which had been given to
Abraham and his descendants (Exodus 20:12); and the 4th commandment is enforced
by reference to the servitude in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15). It is possible, then,
that even in the Ten Commandments there are elements peculiar to the Mosaic system
and which our Lord and His apostles may not make a part of faith and duty for
Christians. See SABBATH.
Of the "ten words," seven were perhaps binding on the consciences of enlightened
men prior to the days of Moses: murder, adultery, theft and false witness were
already treated as crimes among the Babylonians and the Egyptians; and intelligent
men knew that it was wrong to dishonor God by improper use of His name, or to
show lack of respect to parents, or to covet the property of another. No doubt
the sharp, ringing words in which these evils are forbidden in the Ten Commandments
gave to Israel a clearer apprehension of the sins referred to than they had ever
had before; and the manner in which they were grouped by the divine speaker brought
into bold relief the chief elements of the moral law. But the first two prohibitions
were novelties in the religious life of the world; for men worshipped many gods,
and bowed down to images of every conceivable kind. The 2nd commandment was too
high even for Israel to grasp at that early day; a few weeks later the people
were dancing about the golden calf at the foot of Sinai. The observance of the
Sabbath was probably unknown to other nations, though it may have been already
known in the family of Abraham.
II. THE PROMULGATON OF THE DECALOGUE
The "ten words" were spoken by Yahweh Himself from the top of the mount under
circumstances the most awe-inspiring. In the early morning there were thunders
and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding
loud. It is no wonder that the people trembled as they faced the smoking and quaking
mount, and listened to the high demands of a holy God. Their request that all
future revelations should be made through Moses as the prophet mediator was quite
natural. The promulgation of the Ten Commandments stands out as the most notable
event in all the wilderness sojourn of Israel. There was no greater day in history
before the coming of the Son of God into the world.
After a sojourn of 40 days in the mount, Moses came down with "the two tables
of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." At the foot
of the mount, when Moses saw the golden calf and the dancing throng about it,
he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them in pieces (Exodus 31:18 ; 39:15
- 20). Through the intercession of Moses, the wrath of Yahweh was averted from
Israel; and Yahweh invited Moses to ascend the mount with two new tablets, on
which He would write the words that were on the first tables, which were broken.
Moses was commanded to write the special precepts given by God during this interview;
but the. Ten Commandments were written on the stone tablets by Yahweh Himself
(Exodus 34:1 - 4 , 27 - 29 ; Deuteronomy 10:1 - 5). These precious tablets were
later deposited in the ark of the covenant (Exodus 40:20). Thus in every way possible
the Ten Commandments are exalted as the most precious and directly divine of all
the precepts of the Mosaic revelation.
III. ANALYSIS OF THE DECALOGUE WITH BRIEF EXEGETICAL NOTES
That there were "ten words" is expressly stated (Exodus 34:28 ; Deuteronomy 4:13
; 10:4); but just how to delimit them one from another is a task which has not
been found easy. For a full discussion of the various theories, see Dillmann,
Exodus, 201-5, to whom we are indebted for much that is here set forth.
1. How Numbered
(1) Josephus is the first witness for the division now common
among Protestants (except Lutherans), namely,
(a) foreign gods,
(b) images,
(c) name of God,
(d) Sabbath,
(e) parents,
(f) murder,
(g) adultery,
(h) theft,
(i) false witness,
(j) coveting. |
Before him, Philo made the same arrangement, except that he followed the Septuagint
in putting adultery before murder. This mode of counting was current with many
of the church Fathers, and is now in use in the Greek Catholic church and with
most Protestants.
(2) Augustine combined foreign gods and images (Exodus 20:2 - 6) into one commandment
and following the order of Deuteronomy 5:21 (Hebrew 18) made the 9th commandment
a prohibition of the coveting of a neighbor's wife, while the 10th prohibits the
coveting of his house and other property. Roman Catholics and Lutherans accept
Augustine's mode of reckoning, except that they follow the order in Exodus 20:17,
so that the 9th commandment forbids the coveting of a neighbor's house, while
the 10th includes his wife and all other property.
(3) A third mode of counting is that adopted by the Jews in the early Christian
centuries, which became universal among them in the Middle Ages and so down to
the present time. According to this scheme, the opening statement in Exodus 20:2
is the "first word," Exodus 20:3 - 6 the second (combining foreign gods with images),
while the following eight commandments are as in the common Protestant arrangement.
The division of the prohibition of coveting into two commandments is fatal to
the Augustinian scheme; and the reckoning of the initial statement in Exodus 20:2
as one of the "ten words" seems equally fatal to the modern Jewish method of counting.
The prohibition of images, which is introduced by the solemn formula, "Thou shalt
not," is surely a different "word" from the command to worship no god other than
Yahweh. Moreover, if nine of the "ten words" are commandments, it would seem reasonable
to make the remaining "word" a commandment, if this can be done without violence
to the subjectmatter. See Eerdmaus, The Expositor, July, 1909, 21. |
2. How Grouped
(1) The Jews, from Philo to the present, divide the "ten
words" into two groups of five each. As there were two tables, it would be natural
to suppose that five commandments were recorded on each tablet, though the fact
that the tablets had writing on both their sides (Exodus 32:15) would seem to
weaken the force of the argument for an equal division. Moreover, the first pentad,
in the present text of Exodus and Deuteronomy, is more than four times as long
as the second.
(2) Augustine supposed that there were three commandments on the first table and
seven on the second. According to his method of numbering the commandments, this
would put the command to honor parents at the head of the second table, as in
the third method of grouping the ten words.
(3) Calvin and many moderns assign four commandments to the first table and six
to the second. This has the advantage of assigning all duties to God to the first
table and all duties to men to the second. It also accords with our Lord's reduction
of the commandments to two (Matthew 22:34 - 40). |
3. Original Form
A comparison of the text of the Decalogue in Deuteronomy 5 with that in Exodus
20 reveals a goodly number of differences, especially in the reasons assigned
for the observance of the 4th and 5th commandments, and in the text of the 10th
commandment. A natural explanation of these differences is the fact that De employs
the free-and-easy style of public discourse. The Ten Commandments are substantially
the same in the two passages.
From the days of Ewald to the present, some of the leading Old Testament scholars
have held that originally all the commandments were brief and without the addition
of any special reasons for their observance. According to this hypothesis, the
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and the 10th commandments were probably as follows: "Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image"; "Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh
thy God in vain"; "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"; "Honor thy father
and thy mother"; "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house." This early critical
theory would account for the differences in the two recensions by supposing that
the motives for keeping the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th commandments, as well as the
expansion of the 10th, were additions made through the influence of the prophetic
teaching. If accompanied by a full recognition of the divine origin of the ten
words in the Mosaic era, this hypothesis might be acceptable to a thorough believer
in revelation. Before acquiescing in the more radical theories of some recent
scholars, such a believer will demand more cogent arguments than the critics have
been able to bring forward. Thus when we are told that the Decalogue contains
prohibitions that could not have been incorporated into a code before the days
of Manasseh, we demand better proofs than the failure of Israel to live up to
the high demands of the 2nd and the 10th commandments, or a certain theory of
the evolution of the history that may commend itself to the mind of naturalistic
critics. Yahweh was at work in the early history of Israel; and the great prophets
of the 8th century, far from creating ethical monotheism, were reformers sent
to demand that Israel should embody in daily life the teachings of the Torah.
Goethe advanced the view that Exodus 34:10 - 28 originally contained a second
decalogue. Wellhausen (Code of Hammurabi, 331 f) reconstructs this so-called decalogue
as follows:
(1) Thou shalt worship no other god (Exodus 34:14).
(2) Thou shalt make thee no molten gods (Exodus 34:17).
(3) The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep (Exodus 34:18 a).
(4) Every firstling is mine (Exodus 34:19 a).
(5) Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks (Exodus 34:22 a).
(6) And the feast of ingathering at the year's end (Exodus 34:22c).
(7) Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread (Exodus
34:25 a).
(8) The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning (23:18b;
compare 34:25b).
(9) The best of the first-fruits of thy ground shalt thou bring to the house of
Yahweh thy God (Exodus 34:26 a).
(10) Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk (Exodus 34:26). |
Addis agrees with Wellhausen that even this simpler decalogue must be put long
after the time of Moses (EB, 1051).
Now, it is evident that the narrative in Exodus 34:27, in its present form, means
to affirm that Moses was commanded to write the precepts contained in the section
immediately preceding. The Ten Commandments, as the foundation of the covenant,
were written by Yahweh Himself on the two tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18 ; 32:15
; 34:28). It is only by free critical handling of the narrative that it can be
made to appear that Moses wrote on the two tables the supposed decalogue of Exodus
34:14 - 26. Moreover, the law of the Sabbath (Exodus 34:21), which is certainly
appropriate amid the ritual ordinances of Exodus 34, must be omitted altogether,
in order to reduce the precepts to ten; also the command in Exodus 34:23 has to
be deleted. It is interesting to observe that the prohibition of molten gods (Exodus
34:17), even according to radical critics, is found in the earliest body of Israelite
laws. There is no sufficient reason for denying that the 2nd commandment was promulgated
in the days of Moses. Yahweh's requirements have always been in advance of the
practice of His people.
4. Brief Exegetical Notes
(1) The 1st commandment prohibits the worship of any god
other than Yahweh. If it be said that this precept inculcates monolatry and not
monotheism, the reply is ready to hand that a consistent worship of only one God
is, for a people surrounded by idolaters, the best possible approach to the conclusion
that there is only one true God. The organs of revelation, whatever may have been
the notions and practices of the mass of the Israelite people, always speak in
words that harmonize with a strict monotheism.
(2) The 2nd commandment forbids the use of images in worship; even an image of
Yahweh is not to be tolerated (compare Exodus 32:5). Yahweh's mercy is greater
than His wrath; while the iniquity of the fathers descends to the third and the
fourth generation for those who hate Yahweh, His mercy overflows to thousands
who love Him. It is doubtful whether the rendering 'showing mercy to the thousandth
generation' (Exodus 20:6) can be successfully defended.
(3) Yahweh's name is sacred, as standing for His person; therefore it must be
employed in no vain or false way. The commandment, no doubt, includes more than
false swearing. Cursing, blasphemy and every profane use of Yahweh's name are
forbidden.
(4) As the 1st commandment inculcates the unity of God and the 2nd His spirituality,
so also the 3rd commandment guards His name against irreverent use and the 4th
sets apart the seventh day as peculiarly His day, reserved for a Sabbath. Exodus
20:11 emphasizes the religious aspect of the Sabbath, while Deuteronomy 5:14 lays
stress on its humane aspect, and Deuteronomy 5:15 links it with the deliverance
from bondage in Egypt.
(5) The transition from duties to God to duties to men is made naturally in the
5th commandment, which inculcates reverence for parents, to whom their children
should look up with gratitude, as all men should toward the Divine Father.
(6) Human life is so precious and sacred that no man should dare to take it away
by violence.
(7) The family life is safeguarded by the 7th commandment.
(8) The 8th commandment forbids theft in all its forms. It recognizes the right
of personal ownership of property.
(9) The 9th commandment safeguards honor and good name among men. Slander, defamation,
false testimony in court and kindred sins are included.
(10) The 10th commandment is the most searching of them all, for it forbids the
inward longing, the covetous desire for what belongs to another. The presence
of such a deeply spiritual command among the "ten words" shows that we have before
us no mere code of laws defining crimes, but a body of ethical and spiritual precepts
for the moral education of the people of Yahweh. |
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IV. JESUS AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Our Lord, in the interview with the rich young ruler, gave a recapitulation of
the commandments treating of duties to men (Mark 10:19 ; Matthew 19:18 ; Luke
18:20). He quotes the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th commandments. The minor variations
in the reports in the three Synoptic Gospels remind the student of the similar
variations in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Already in the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus had quoted the 6th and 7th commandments, and then had gone on to show that
anger is incipient murder, and that lust is adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:27
- 32). He takes the words of the Decalogue and extends them into the realm of
thought and feeling. He may have had in mind the 3rd commandment in His sharp
prohibition of the Jewish habit of swearing by various things (Matthew 5:33 -
37). As to the Sabbath, His teaching and example tended to lighten the onerous
restrictions of the rabbis (Mark 2:23 - 28). Duty to parents He elevated above
all supposed claims of vows and offerings (Matthew 15:4 - 6). In further extension
of the 8th commandment, Jesus said, "Do not defraud" (Mark 10:19); and in treating
of the ethics of speech, Jesus not only condemns false witness, but also includes
railing, blasphemy, and even an idle word (Matthew 15:19 ; 12:31 , 36). In His
affirmation that God is spirit (John 4:24), Jesus made the manufacture of images
nothing but folly. All his ethical teaching might be said to be founded on the
10th commandment, which tracks sin to its lair in the mind and soul of man.
Our Lord embraced the whole range of human obligation in two, or at most three,
commands: (1) "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind"; (2) "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"
(Matthew 22:37 - 40; compare Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). With love such
as is here described in the heart, man cannot trespass against God or his fellow-men.
At the close of His ministry, on the night of the betrayal, Jesus gave to His
followers a third commandment, not different from the two on which the whole Law
hangs, but an extension of the second great commandment upward into a higher realm
of self-sacrifice (John 13:34 ; 15:12 , 17 ; compare Ephesians 5:2 ; Galatians
6:10 ; 1 John 3:14 - 18). "Thou shalt love" is the first word and the last in
the teaching of our Lord. His teaching is positive rather than negative, and so
simple that a child can understand it. For the Christian, the Decalogue is no
longer the highest summary of human duty. He must ever read it with sincere respect
as one of the great monuments of the love of God in the moral and religious education
of mankind; but it has given place to the higher teaching of the Son of God, all
that was permanently valuable in the Ten Commandments having been taken up into
the teaching of our Lord and His apostles.
LITERATURE
Oehler, Old Testament Theology, I, 267; Dillmann, Exodus-Leviticus, 200-219;
Kuenen, Origin and Composition of the Hexateuch, 244; Wellhausen, Code of Hammurabi,
331; Rothstein, Das Bundesbuch; Baenstch, Das Bundesbuch; Meissaner, Der Dekalog;
Driver, "Deuteronomy," ICC; Addis, Documents of the Hexateuch, I, 136; R. W. Dale,
The Ten Commandments; G. D. Boardman, University Lectures on the Ten Commandments
(Philadelphia, 1889).
John Richard Sampey
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, define, moral law, moses, mount sinai, other names of the 10 commandments, tables of stone, tables of the covenant, ten commandments, ten words, the covenant, the decalogue, the testimony
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