Christians love the Ten Commandments and are devoted to them — or so they say. They generally know these rules were delivered to Moses by God upon the summit of Mount Sinai (or Horeb), and they knew they formed the nucleus of a code followed by the ancient Hebrews, later the Jews, and by them currently. Many Christians may even be able to recite them (but there’s a problem with that, which I’ll get to). But the Commandments’ role in their faith is complicated in ways virtually no Christian is aware.
As I just stated, these rules were given to Moses by God after the Hebrews had escaped Egypt. Exodus 19 relates how the Hebrew encampment was at the foot of Mount Sinai/Horeb, and YHWH prepared them for an announcement by letting Moses know it was coming. YHWH arrived at the summit of the mountain as promised, amid lightning and smoke. Exodus 20 relates what he then propounded:
Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Ex 20:1-17)
These words were heard — it would seem, according to the narrative — by the entire Hebrew assembly. At the end of this announcement, YHWH instructed Moses to approach closer and delivered another, much longer list of rules to follow, presumably just to him. These are found in Exodus 21:1 through 23:19. This is followed, in verses 20-33, of promises YHWH makes about what he’ll do for the Hebrews and admonishing them not to have dealings with other peoples or their gods.
Chapter 24 continues describing how Moses relayed all of these additional rules to the Hebrews and also wrote them down (one presumes he also wrote the first ten, publicly-announced, rules down as well). Moses then spent 40 days and nights inside a cloud at the summit of the mountain, with YHWH, and emerged with two tablets containing “the testimony” inscribed by “the finger of God.” At that point he discovered the Hebrews had given up on him while he’d been gone so long, thinking he’d met his demise. They had set up a golden calf and an altar to worship it, so they’d have a new god to replace the one that who’d apparently abandoned them.
Having been warned about this by YHWH and then returning to the camp, Moses promptly hurled the tablets on the ground in a fit of rage and shattered them. This is a rather famous tale. YHWH rather thoughtfully replaced them with two new tablets (as described in Exodus 34:1, which will become important later). Those would then be placed in the Ark of the Covenant that YHWH had described to Moses, as related earlier in Exodus 25:10-16 (as anyone who’s seen Raiders of the Lost Ark would know).
The extra forty or so rules that followed the original ten (in Ex 21:1-23:19) don’t get very much attention, at least in Christianity. And it’s not hard to see why. They hadn’t been announced to the assembly by YHWH, but were given privately to Moses. And some of them are — to put it as kindly as possible — stupid. The last of them, for example, is “You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.” (Who would do such a thing? Although some contend it had been a pagan ritual, hence it was forbidden to Hebrews, there’s no evidence of this. Milk was then, as it is now, far too valuable a commodity to waste using it as a cooking medium.)
However, the extra forty (or so) rules were delivered at the same time as the much-more-famous Ten Commandments and there’s no reason to think they were any less enforced. Moses wrote them all down, and so did later Hebrew scribes and subsequent generations (thus, we know about them). Also, it’s not clear based on the narrative, but the additional forty might have also been on the two sets of tablets that YHWH magically inscribed (and which Moses smashed in his juvenile and sanctimonious fit of pique).
Even so, these forty or so rules have had, overall and through the following millennia, far less impact on Abrahamic religious tradition than the first Ten. As time went on, especially under the influence of rising apocalypticism, the Ten took on added significance. But that was by no means universal within Judaism. The Pharisaic movement took a different tack, emphasizing all of the many rules laid down by YHWH as recorded in Judaic scripture — which were by no means limited to the Ten and the additional forty or so. Many more rules were included, including repetitions of rules delivered earlier.
A lot of ink has been spilt through the millennia — and over the past few decades, many bytes transmitted — about the reason YHWH ordered his people, the Hebrews and later the Jews, to follow all of these rules, many of which are (as noted) pointless and/or deranged. (It takes no effort, for example, and imposes no burden at all, to refrain from boiling goats in their mother’s milk.)
The bottom line, though, based on the texts themselves and taking into account some of the specific rules, is that they’re intended to set the Hebrews/Jews apart from all other peoples in a definitive way.
The rule that best points in this direction is the requirement that males be circumcised. In particular, this practice had been common among the Egyptian priesthood. Based on that tradition, having all Hebrew/Jewish men circumcised made them, literally, a nation in which all of its men were priests (per Ex 19:6a, “you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”).
Apocalyptic Judaism’s view of the Commandments was like many other aspects of the religious tradition: A different way of viewing it. Having emerged from the teachings of an apocalyptic Jewish preacher (i.e. Jesus of Nazareth), it’s no surprise the earliest Christians had their own way of comprehending them.
We see this rethinking of the Commandments in the gospels. For example, in the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is asked by a lawyer “which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus response is:
And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 22:37-40)
Still, this restatement and condensation isn’t actually new. It’s a reference to Judaic scripture, specifically Deuteronomy 6:5 and 10:12b. Much the same is recorded in the gospel according to Mark (in Mk 12:29-31). Also, in Mark, Jesus explicitly lists some of the Commandments:
You know the commandments, “Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.” (Mk 10:19)
This summation isn’t new either, it’s found in Exodus 20:12-16 (curiously leaving out Ex 20:17 which concerns coveting one’s neighbor’s belongings, spouse, etc.). The gospel according to Luke also reports Jesus had quoted this same summation (in Lk 18:20).
Although these summations or condensations of the Commandments are found in Judaic scripture, they’re embedded within documents that, nevertheless, also contain all of these detailed rules — which, in total, number in the hundreds. These summations/condensations are intended, apparently, as explanations for the hundreds of rules. What Christians did with them, in light of their decision that following Mosaic Law wasn’t necessary for followers of their faith, is to decide these summations/condensations weren’t explanations of, or justifications for, all the rules. Instead, these summations/condensations replaced the hundreds of rules.
All of this aligns perfectly with a much-larger Christian trend. By the end of the 1st century CE, Christianity had developed a generalized principle of “replacement.” Christians viewed themselves as “God’s devoted nation,” replacing Hebrews/Jews who’d previously been YHWH’s chosen nation. Many of them, in fact, referred to their movement as “the New Israel.” They viewed their faith overall as a replacement for Judaism. Mosaic Law, which had embodied YHWH’s sacred covenant with Hebrews/Jews, had been replaced by Christianity along with its dogmas, doctrines, and rites. The careers of Moses, the Judges, the prophets, and the kings of Israel and Judaea, had been replaced by the ministry of Jesus and his divine sacrifice for the sins of all.
What made the summations/condensations in Judaic scripture and the gospels convenient for Christians, is that they enabled them to be able to tell each other they were obeying all of the Commandments dictated to the Hebrews and Moses by YHWH simply by the twin expedients of loving God and loving humanity.
Something else Christians did was to de-emphasize the additional forty (or so) commandments that had followed the first Ten. To a large extent, this made a lot of sense; as noted, many of those forty (or so) rules are nonsensical to begin with. No one in their right mind would ever boil a goat in its mother’s milk, nor was anyone likely to eat meat that had been “torn to pieces in the field” (i.e. animal carcasses that had already been fed on by other wildlife).
Despite having been “replaced” by expedient shortcuts originally found in Judaic scripture and reportedly referred to or quoted by Jesus, Christians still claimed to revere the Ten Commandments and — ostensibly at least — follow them. This is in spite of the fact that they otherwise set aside Mosaic Law (of which the Ten Commandments are the initial, and most important, part) as being no longer necessary.
A number of passages in canonical Christian literature make this point. In Romans 7:7-25, Paul aka Saul of Tarsus explains that Mosaic Law existed only to illustrate to humanity that sin was not only possible, but easy to fall into. He also points out the irony of the Law itself being the trigger for sin; if there were no Law to follow, and thus break, there’d be no sin. Hence, as he sees it, the Law has already served its purpose. There’s no longer any need for Christians to follow it. (Still, he did favor Jews inside the movement continuing to obey it.)
Acts 15:1-25 even describes, literally, how the Apostles arrived at a decision about Mosaic Law. Gentile Christians need not be forced to follow it; they were only instructed not to eat meat that had been strangled or sacrificed to other deities. They also had to abstain from fornication. That was all.
Despite this explicit dismissal of any need to follow Mosaic Law, or the Ten Commandments which were included in it, reverence for the Ten Commandments continued through Christianity’s history. Christians told themselves over and over that, as long as they loved God and their fellow human beings, they were living up to the Ten Commandments. (The Acts prohibition on eating meat sacrificed to other deities ceased to be a thing, once pagan religion died out; and let’s face it, Christians have in practice never been keen on the prohibition against fornication even if they often pay it lip service.)
It took time for Christians’ reverence for the Ten Commandments to develop added dimensions. This added dimensionality became partly evident as Christianity progressed from being a number of large institutions during the Middle Ages (the Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Coptic Church, the Armenian Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, etc.) and on into the Reformation which led to the various Protestant churches, the Anglican Church, etc.
These shades of thinking about the Ten Commandments came to light in how they were delineated. In Roman Catholic tradition, for example, the 9th commandment forbids coveting one’s neighbor’s wife while the 10th forbids coveting one’s neighbor’s property. In Lutheran tradition, though, those are swapped.
In fact, this is actually a major problem with how the Ten Commandments are approached by Christians. All of them believe the Commandments to be well-known and precisely delineated, but that’s not entirely the case, given how the various sects have managed, over the years, to list them differently.
There’s a potential reason for at least some of this confusion. Although I quoted the Commandments, above, as listed in Exodus 20, they’re actually found in two other places in the Old Testament: In Deuteronomy 5:6-21, and later in Exodus 34:11-26. Interestingly, the text in Exodus 34 is a different list, even though a preamble to this passage describes Moses being instructed by YHWH as follows:
Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered.” (Ex 34:1).
It appears that, within a short span of time, YHWH decided to alter his original Ten Commandments, using the breaking of the tablets by Moses as an excuse to rewrite them. As it turns out, scholars believe the two passages to have been written by different authors, but stitched together, later, by a single editor (or Redactor) into the one text of Exodus that survived for us to read. (This same phenomenon of two different but similar passages being tacked onto one another can be seen elsewhere in a number of places, perhaps most famously the first two chapters of Genesis. Either on its own — without the other being present — could act as the opening of Genesis, explaining how the earth and humanity were created.)
Despite being a different list of rules, most Abrahamic worshippers consider the Exodus 34 rules to be the same as those in Exodus 20. Scholars, on the other hand, know them to to be different and refer to them by a distinct name, “the Ritual Decalogue.”
By contrast, the list in Deuteronomy is an all-but-exact copy of what’s found in Exodus 20, which explains why they’re the basis for what most Christians call “the Ten Commandments.” Still, the Exodus 34 list of commandments has remained part of Abrahamic religious tradition in spite of it being different, and this has affected how the many different sects within that tradition have interpreted the Ten Commandments.
As noted, followers of most Abrahamic traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and some others are unaware that there are, effectively, two different sets of Ten Commandments in their sacred scripture. What makes Christians different is the degree to which they do two things that contradict each other on their faces: They claim to revere the Ten Commandments and follow them obsessively; but reject any mandate to follow Mosaic Law, of which the Ten are a component.
Effectively, they’re conflicted on the subject. Thus, it almost goes without saying that even their professed reverence for the Ten Commandments has its limits … since by definition it’s all but impossible for them to take them seriously.
The lack of seriousness about the Ten Commandments has, in turn, led Christians to lose any understanding of their nature, and even their place in their lives as Christians. In their zeal to show how they revere the Ten Commandments, despite their obvious lack of seriousness in viewing and following them, they’ve taken to concocting various myths about them.
Perhaps the most important of these is the principle that western civilization is based on the Ten Commandments. This is absurd on its face. While it’s true that Abrahamic religious tradition — which includes the Ten Commandments — is a component of western civilization, there are many other sources for it, including other Near Eastern traditions, Hellenic tradition, Roman tradition, Celtic tradition, and even Germanic/Teutonic tradition. All of those had their own principles, mores, and cultural imperatives. Western civilization is a synthesis of those; none of them, in themselves, is ”the” foundation for it.
In the modern United States, Christians also like to insist that the Ten Commandments are the foundation of the country, its legal system, etc. As with western civilization, this is untrue. The American legal system followed from the English legal system (and its common law basis), which in turn followed from ancient Germanic/Teutonic legal tradition. It’s true there is some overlay from Roman law (with its statute law basis), but overall, that’s secondary, especially given that even statute law in the US can be, and often is, interpreted in light of common law — meaning that the entire system itself is subject, overall, to common law. Nothing about the Ten Commandments, or anything else in Abrahamic religious tradition, has the slightest relation to the notion of common law.
Let’s be clear about all of this: Despite Christians’ claimed reverence for the Ten Commandments, they are part of overall Mosaic Law. As such, they’re not imperative for Christians to follow — according to nearly all Christian sects — virtually all of which claim Mosaic Law was voided by Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection.
So, why do Christians yammer and bleat so much about the Ten Commandments? Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that it’s a way for them to express at least some modicum of obedience of their deity … but without actually having to obey said deity, given they’ve granted themselves permission to ignore all the rules YHWH had imposed on the Hebrews and Jews.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation.
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