The Ten Commandments

(Exodus 20:1-20:17)

All of these words were spoken by Jehovah:

I am Jehovah, your god, who brought you out of Egypt and freed you from bondage.

Exalt no foreign gods above me. 

Create for yourself no crafted images or representations of objects or beings that exist above and beyond the earth in order to revere them as idols.  Do not worship and adore them!  (I, Jehovah, am your god, and a jealous god I am -- and powerful. I will punish the descendants of the sinners who reject me, to the third, even to the fourth generation, but will faithfully reward a thousand generations of those who are true to me and keep my commandments.)

Swear no oath by Jehovah falsely or lightly.  (For I will not pardon those who abuse my name.) 

Remember to observe the Sabbath, setting the day aside for religious devotion.  (Accomplish all your work for the week in six days, for the seventh day is the Sabbath and belongs to Jehovah.  From Friday evening to Saturday evening, refrain from your labor, and do not allow your children, your slaves, your beasts of burden, even visiting strangers to take up work.  Jehovah created the earth and sea and sky and all they contain in six days, but he rested on the seventh day, which he therefore blessed and made sacred.)

Treat with respect your father and your mother (so that you may enjoy a long life in the land that Jehovah will bestow upon you.) 

Do not take a human life unlawfully.

Do not have sexual relations with any woman who is married or betrothed to another man.

Do not abduct or enslave one of your own people.

Do not testify untruthfully and maliciously against a neighbor.

Do not desire to wrongfully acquire the property of a neighbor -- not his house, his wife, his slaves, his livestock, or any of his possessions.

Notes
1.  The situation in which the Ten Commandments were presented to Moses is not here made clear.  They seem to be abruptly inserted into the narrative.

2.  Ten Commandments is a term so familiar that to refer to the ten utterances that Jehovah conveyed to Moses and the Hebrews by any other name would be unacceptably incongruous.  "Commandments" is not quite the right word for this moral framework of Hebrew law, but other English words such as "precepts," or "directives," are less apt.  The original Hebrew text actually only refers to ten "words," "verses," or "matters."

3.  The Commandments are more moral than legal in nature in that they itemize what is right and wrong, proper conduct.  Criminal law proscribes certain behavior and mandates a punishment for it.  Many contend that the Ten Commandments is the first historical instance of a moral code, but that is probably not true.  In fact, it may have been derived from a similar, longer list of moral precepts to which the Egyptians subscribed.  (A major difference: the Egyptian gods weren't jealous and they loved graven images.)  Among the Greeks, religion did not encompass morality, the purview of philosophy.  But the Buddhist religion (of India and later China) and Zoroastrian religion (of ancient Iran)  promulgated moral codes and philosophical precepts.  And the legal Code of Hammurabi from early Babylon long predates the Ten Commandments.

4.  Subsequent passages refer to these commandments as being ten in number, but there is no biblical list that specifies each commandment, so that we know with certainty what was Commandment 6 or Commandment 9.  Subsequently, there have been differing opinions as to exactly what comprises the Commandments.  In Judaism, the statement of Jehovah that he led the Hebrews out of Egypt and freed them from bondage is considered the First Commandment, although it's simply a statement and not any kind of a law.  The warning about foreign gods and prohibitions against idol making and worshiping are thus combined into a single commandment.   Catholic and Lutheran teaching (from Saint Augustine) also combines those commandments, but separates the last commandment, so not coveting your neighbor's wife and not coveting your neighbor's property become two commandments.  (This is suggested by the reiteration of the commandments in Deuteronomy.)  On the other hand, most Protestants do not include the preamble as a commandment, and do not separate the coveting commandment.  But they do separate the prohibition against other gods and that of idol worship so that these are two discrete commandments.  (In truth, the idol commandment could also be divided, since it contains two prohibitions, creating idols and worshiping them -- but that would result in eleven commandments and there's supposed to be ten.)  To confuse matters further, some faiths also alter  the order of the commandments.

5.  "Exalt no foreign gods above me," is a more accurate translation than the familiar King James rendering, "Thou shalt have no gods before me."  "Above me" is less ambiguous than "Before me."  The idea is that Jehovah takes precedence over all other gods.   Again, there is no contention that other gods don't exist or that they are false, only that Jehovah must come first.  The aforementioned translation is also incomplete.  The Douay-Reims Version correctly refers to "strange gods," "strange" meaning foreign.  This commandment does not actually prohibit or condemn the worship of other gods.  The next commandment forbids the creation and reverence of idols, but still does not ban the non-idolatrous worship of other gods.

6.  The commandment in which the King James Version famously refers to "graven images" is a prohibition against the creation and worship of idols.  Jehovah was almost unique among ancient gods in that he was not worshiped through his image.  Statues, statuettes, carved images, and pictures of gods were always intended to focus the thoughts and emotions of the worshiper.  (Crucifixes and images of saints in modern churches function in the same way.)  However, ancients also believed that the spirit of the god might visit the temple and inhabit its statue.  The god, or goddess, could then hear the prayers of its devotees that had come to the temple, the earthly home of the deity.   (This makes a certain amount of sense, more than the concept of an omniscient deity hearing all prayers wherever that may be said).  Household gods had their images as well and there was some idea that the image, venerated for what it represented, also possessed some numinous power.  Although Jehovah, like other gods, is thought to visit the places in which he is worshiped, he emphatically did not wish to be adored through images.  There is no stated reason for this.  That idol worship was a primitive idea best discarded to make way for more progressive concepts of religion would not, however, have been one.  Perhaps Jehovah was what we would call camera shy.  Eschewing idolatrous images would be explicable if Jehovah were an incorporeal spirit, as most moderns conceive God to be, but time and again biblical encounters reveal Jehovah as a flesh-and-blood man, even if he manifests himself in burning bushes and pillars of fire.

7.  The images prohibited in the idol commandment are those of beings, as well as objects, things, places that are outside the terrestrial world.  It must be remembered that the writers of the Bible envisioned a flat earth encased in a dome that was the sky.  The heavenly bodies moved inside that dome.  Rain water fell from a sea existing above the dome.  Above that sea and below the earth and the waters of the terrestrial oceans was another realm, Heaven, the abode of Jehovah, his angels, and one supposes, other gods.  (There was, as yet, no conception of Hell or the Devil.)  It is not clear whether this realm and its denizens are not to be depicted at all, or whether it is prohibited only to depict them with the intention of idolatrous worship.  Islam and Protestant Puritans came to the former conclusion and forbade all religious images in their places of worship.  Indeed, Muslims regard any representation of Mohammed as well as Allah, as sacrilege.  Catholics, obviously coming to the latter conclusion, favor images of the Christ, Mary, and the saints.

8.  In a sort of postscript to the idol commandment, Jehovah makes it clear he will punish those who reject him while rewarding those who accept him and keep his commandments.  Moreover, he will punish and reward the descendants.  Collective guilt is a common theme in ancient times and in the Bible.  The individual counted for little, save as a member of a family and tribe.  When a member of a family or tribe committed an offense, it was common for the whole family or tribe to pay for it.  With Jehovah, a son, a grandson, perhaps even a great-grandson are to suffer for the sins of the father.  This seems unfair to modern sensibilities, but quite acceptable morally to most ancient peoples.  Jehovah is certainly OK with it.

9.  The contract, a promise to do this or that, to pay or perform a service, is a significant element in the establishment of civilization.   In preliterate societies there was no such thing as a written contract.  Even when written language was invented, most people would not know how to read or write and all but important contracts would remain verbal.  Thus, the critical importance of oaths, a replacement for the written contract and the "Submit" button.  The swearing commandment is about this, not using Jehovah's name to take an oath that will not be honored or which is frivolous or insincere.  It has nothing to do with cussing.  Interestingly, there is no condemnation of breaking any oath that was sworn in the name of someone other than Jehovah.  (Violating the Hippocratic Oath, still taken today by physicians, would not then be a commandment breaker, for it is sworn by Apollo.)

10.  The Sabbath commandment is really the only commandment that had been already laid down by Jehovah earlier.   Strict observance seems to be demanded.  It is important to remember that the Sabbath is from Friday evening to Saturday evening, as those practicing Judaism observe it today.  The Sunday Sabbath was established by Christian theologians centuries after the crucifixion.  One wonders why those who regard the commandments as derived from God would approve and abide by an alteration in those commandments made by men with self-serving interests.  (The change was basically a public relations move to distinguish Christianity from Judaism.)

11.  The first four commandments (by Protestant reckoning) concern only Jehovah and the demands he makes of his followers.  Save for keeping oaths, there is little moral component here.  They are all about Jehovah protecting his turf, preserving his interests and prerogatives, and ensuring his importance in the lives of his devotees.

12.  "Honoring" one's father and mother is the usual translation for the parental commandment, but "honor" as it is used today is too strong a word.  Honoring someone involves how we feel about him or her.  How can you command feelings?  The Ten Commandments are not about attitudes, feelings, thoughts, intentions, but about actions.   Honoring an unworthy, perhaps despicable and dishonorable parent does not seem fitting.  However, treating that parent with respect, regardless of how you feel about them or think of them, is proper and that is what is demanded.  In a tribalistic, traditional, clan-oriented society familial respect is always very important.

13.  The commandment prohibiting killing or murdering requires a knowledge of the implied subtext to be really meaningful.  It does not prohibit killing per se.  Killing what, a cockroach, a yearling steer?  It would have been understood that it meant the unlawful killing of a human being, what we regard as murder and also much of what we see as  manslaughter.  It certainly would not have prohibited killing an enemy in battle, executing a criminal, or killing in self-defense, or, for that matter, some vengeance killing.  But the Hebrews took a less lenient attitude than we do to varieties of manslaughter such as accidental death, and so some types of manslaughter would be considered unlawful killing.

14.  The adultery commandment is also more nuanced than one might expect.  While other forms of sexual misconduct might be considered wrong, the Hebrews had a definite idea of what constituted adultery.  The commandment only addresses a man having sexual relations with a woman who is married or betrothed, and, who, therefore, is the property of another man.  That man has an absolute right to expect exclusivity in regard to her favors and certainty that her children are his and not another man's.  Society and the family structure is contingent upon this.  On the other hand, a husband calling upon a prostitute or having sex with his slave is not a threat to society.  ---  This is the first commandment that is directed exclusively toward men.  The adulterous woman is apparently not violating the Ten Commandments, (but she would probably be stoned to death anyway).   One may regard the commandments as enumerating capital offenses, serious felonies.  Lesser crimes and offenses are to be itemized later in some detail.

15.  The stealing commandment has been mistranslated and misunderstood.  It is not "do not steal," but rather "do not steal away."  It would have been understood by the ancient Hebrews that the reference is to the abduction of persons for the purpose of enslaving them or selling them into slavery.  It is necessary to add this explanation in the translation to make sense of the commandment.  Illustrated by the story of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery, this was a common crime and detestable even to a society that approved of slavery.  We regard kidnapping as a capital offense, and it would be surprising if a crime of such seriousness were not included among the Ten Commandments.   It is most likely, though, that this pertained only to one's own people.  One must remember that with all tribal societies, a person has different relations and moral obligations to one's own people than he has to neighbors who are not of one's own tribe, and to foreigners who are not neighbors and perhaps enemies.  Stealing a sheep from a fellow Israelite would be very wrong indeed, stealing a sheep from a neighboring Canaanite would be imprudent, stealing a sheep from an enemy Amalekite would be an act of heroism.  It is also unlikely that kidnapping an Amalekite and selling him as a slave to an Edomite would be considered a wrong sufficient to be a commandment violation.

16.  The ancient Hebrews appreciated, as we do, the moral difference between mere lying and committing perjury, testifying falsely and maliciously.  It is more serious because perjury causes great harm, perhaps the unjust conviction and execution of an innocent person, and undermines even the most primitive legal system.  It is likely that this obligation would pertain to a neighbor, but not necessarily to a foreign enemy.  --- There is a considerable history of Hebrew patriarchs telling lies and practicing deception; even Abraham was anything but "Honest Abe."  The Greeks didn't place a great premium on truth telling either (eg. Odysseus), but the Persians and later, the Romans valued absolute honesty very highly.

17.  The so-called coveting commandment is the only one that does not involve action.  It is a thought crime and it is hard to see how it could prosecuted.  The prohibition is most likely not just against wanting or craving in a casual way, but desiring, even plotting, to acquire illegally, to steal or appropriate. 

18.  Wives are including among the property that should not desire to appropriate.  It must be remembered that women were considered the possessions of their fathers and husbands.  One gains the impression they were barely people, yet, ironically, the Bible is filled with strong and influential women.  The myths of ancient Greece and the epics of Homer are similarly populated with significant and powerful women, some of them goddesses, but in classical Greece women, unless they were courtesans, had little stature.  In ancient Persia there is little historical or archaeological evidence that women even existed, while in Egypt the situation is radically different: some of the best remembered Egyptians were women, Pharaohs even.

19.  Not making the cut as a commandment was the off-repeated demand of Jehovah for circumcision.  Also in the commandments there is also no expressed prohibition of treason, slavery, wife-beating, abortion, sodomy, fraud, reneging on a contract, pre-marital sex, sorcery and divination, or heresy.  Some of these things will be gotten to later.

20.  One wonders whether those living before the receipt of the Ten Commandments could be guilty of their violation.  Were these laws always in force, or did they only come into effect after Moses presented them to his people?  For instance, was the murderer Cain guilty of a crime, if Jehovah had not yet proscribed murder?

21.  Jehovah in his past behavior hardly lived up to his own laws and he regularly encouraged his people to violate them, or at least tolerated their violation.  He committed murder on a vast scale.  He encouraged, if not commanded the Israelites to appropriate Egyptian property.  He didn't punish most of those guilty of breaking his commandments, although he did try to kill Moses for not circumcising his son soon enough.

22.  The Ten Commandments were a set of rules devised for a small, primitive tribe of nomads living in the 2nd Millennium B.C. supposedly given to them by their god, who, if he existed, was most likely a human from either an advanced earth society or an extraterrestrial civilization.  While all peoples, even primitive ones, have laws, what is remarkable about the Hebrew ones is that they were written down, preserved, and cherished.   (It is totally astonishing that so many in the 21st Century, even those of education and sophistication, regard them as an infallible and absolute guide to behavior!)  It is most probable that the commandments and the system of laws and customs recorded in the Bible were developed over a period of time, even if it is very possible that Moses was the original law giver.  In modern society laws have authority because they are written by an elected legislature or mandated by an autocrat.  In ancient times the origin of laws was often ascribed to the divine.  King Minos, the lawgiver of ancient Crete ascended Mount Dicta to receive laws from Zeus.  The Spartan Lycurgus got his laws from Apollo, while Numa Pompilius of early Rome was schooled by a nymph.  Zoroaster, very much like Moses, ascended a mountain and was presented with the Zend Avesta, the word of the single universal god Ahura-mazda.  The Greek Bacchus also seemed to have experienced divine communion similar to what Moses knew and came down from a mountain with two tablets inscribed with laws.  Perhaps these are retellings of the same story or variations of an archetypal myth embedded in the collective unconscious.