The Ten Commandments Thing

Edmond H. Weiss, Ph.D.

edweiss@aol.com

The First Bullet Memo

A movement is afoot to make the Ten Commandments (as the King James
translation calls them) into a surrogate for the entire Bible, or even for the
entire Judeo-Christian value systemwhatever that is. Enthusiasts want
the Decalogue posted in various deliberative chambers and even mounted
on public buildings.
The popularity of the Ten Commandments is understandable. As the earliest
example of what today would be called a bullet memo, the Decalogue is
relatively easy to follow, even to memorize. Although the text is in paragraph
form in the Hebrew and English versions of the Bible, the Ten
Commandments are usually displayed (in somewhat abbreviated form) in
readable lists or graphical representations of the two tablets on which they
are said to have been inscribed. (Incidentally, the shape of the tablets in
most renderingsrectangles with an arc on tophas no basis in the Bible or
any historical artifact.)
But, like most bullet memos, the Ten Commandments raise as many
questions as they answer. Because nearly every sentence in them requires
thousands of words of commentary and clarification, any attempt to elevate
the Decalogue into a Code of Conduct, popular radio personalities
notwithstanding, will ultimately fail. Furthermore, serious students of the
Bible, especially those who study the Hebrew original, will raise many
questions as to what the Ten Commandments actually are.
The Ten What

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Although the King James translation of the Bible is one of the great
monuments of the English language, even a relatively young student of
Hebrew knows that it is filled with translation errors. (Even the characteristic
way of beginning sentences with and, a biblical style later imitated by
Hemingway, is actually a mistranslation of the Hebrew va, which sometimes
means and, but at other times indicates the tense of the verb.)
The phrase aseret hadevarim, translated in the KJV as Ten
Commandments, appears in three places in the Hebrew Bible: Exodus
34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, and Deuteronomy 10:4. And, despite the tradition,
the term devarim (Strongs Concordance H1696/97) does not mean
commandment. Dabar, the singular form, means many things: word, item,
theme, object, concept, category Indeed, Devarim is the Hebrew name for
the fifth book of the Bible (Deuteronomy), because that word appears in the
first sentence of that book: These are the words that Moses spoke
The Hebrew word for commandment is mitzva (plural: mitzvot) and it is
among most important words in Judaism. The core of traditional Judaism is
that the contract or covenant between God and Israel contains 613
commandments, not ten. In contrast, the contract between God and Noah
(and therefore the non-Jewish part of the world) is said to contain only
seven, the so-called Noachide commandments:

The Seven Noachide Commandments

Mankind SHALL NOT:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.

Deny God or worship idols

Blaspheme God
Murder
Engage in unsanctioned sex
Steal
Eat meat torn from a living animal

Mankind SHALL:
7. Set up courts of law to enforce the first six

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In the Jewish tradition, (according to the revered Moses Maimonides) the

passage in which the Ten Commandments appear for the first time (Exodus
20:2-17) contains fourteen mitzvot, not ten.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

To know that there is God the Eternal

There is no other God besides the only One God the Eternal
Not to make any kind of image or likeness for idolatrous practices
Not to practice idolatry or take part in any way in idolatrous practices
Not to engage in any idol worship whatsoever
Not to swear falsely, not to take an oath for no valid reason; Not to
utter the name of God to no purpose
To bear in mind that the Sabbath must be observed in all its sanctity
No manner of work may be performed on the Sabbath
One must honor one's parents
Not to commit murder
Not to commit adultery: not to have any illicit relations with the
opposite sex
Not to steal (and not to kidnap or deceive)
Not to give false testimony (and not to slander or spread false rumors)
Not to covet

Which Version
But even putting the translation issue aside, there is a still a question as to
which Ten Commandments are to be etched in stone.
As is often the case in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament), there are two
versions of the Ten Commandments: Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:621. Although there are no outright contradictions between the versions, there
is a theologically interesting difference.
In the Exodus 20 version the commandment is to:
8

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor
thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11For in six days the LORD made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and
hallowed it.

In the Deuteronomy 5 version, it is:

12

Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath
commanded thee. 13Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:

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14

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou
shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any
of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy
manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 15And
remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the
LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by
a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to
keep the Sabbath day.

The first version says to remember (zachor), the second say to keep
(shamor) the Sabbath. (Actually, guard is a better translation of shamor;
observant Jews often describe themselves as shomer shabbes, guardians of
the Sabbath).
While the meanings of these two injunctions may be close enough for
modern readers, the difference should concern those who want to represent
the Decalogue as the literal word of God. That is, one of these two versions
must be incorrect! (Theres a wonderful Hebrew poem in the liturgy that
contains the line: zachor and shamor are one word. The earliest Rabbis
decided that God had spoken both words at the same time; this ruling
effectively papered over the problem.)
But, even if that difference is ignored, there is the rest of the passage as
well. The Exodus version says that the Sabbath commemorates the seventh
day of creation; the Deuteronomy version says that it honors the Exodus
from Egypt. Again, one may ask: Which is the incorrect version of what God
inscribed on the tablets? Which one should be chiseled on the building?
I, II, III, IV
Of course, most enthusiasts for the Ten Commandments are unconcerned,
because they do not really want the entire text of the commandments
displayedonly the terse little injunctions and prohibitions that are so easy
to remember. But, here again, there are problems.
Jews, Protestants, and Catholics disagree on what the Ten actually are. Most
Jewish scholars consider the first and second commandment to be:
I.
I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

II.

Ten Commandments

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve
them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of

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the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of
them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that
love me, and keep my commandments

In contrast, Roman Catholics and Lutherans tend to fuse the first two Jewish
commandments into one and split the tenthcovetinginto two. And still
other Protestants assert that the injunction against graven images (actually
graven things) is the first commandment, with further subdivisions of the
later ones.
Again, how can we go about publishing and mounting the Ten
Commandments if even the numbering scheme is religiously divisive?
Problems for Christians
And then theres the text itself of the early commandments. Although the
Christian Right seems to think that the commandments will reinforce the
hegemony of Jesus, in fact the text denounces the worship of any
intermediary representing the God of Israel. Indeed, the text of the Second
(or First) Commandment, far from encouraging Judeo-Christian values,
makes clear the sharp distinction between the Jewish and Christian faiths.
The covenant between God and Israel is transparent: Israel observes the
(613) commandments and God redeems the nation. Period. It calls for no
redeemers, intermediaries, or messiahs and goes on to prohibit all forms of
saint-worship, religious statuary, icons. . .
There is also the significant question of the Sabbath, the seventh day. With
few exceptions, Christians observe Sunday, the first day, as their Sabbath.
Further, there is the even more theologically divisive question of whether
Christianity (as Paul conceived of it, at least) replaces the Law (as embodied
in the Commandments) with faith in the Christ. Paul (like most Pharisees of
that period) believed that the arrival of the Messiah would supersede the
need for, the power of, the code of Moses. (This is what Paul preached, not
what Jesus preached.) Indeed, the theme I hear most often when I listen to
Protestant ministers is that the Law will not get anyone into heavenonly
Jesus can do that. By this Paulistic reasoning, essential in Protestant
theology, one can observe every injunction in the Old Testament and still
be unredeemed. Indeed, this, as I understand it, was one of the core issues in
the rebellion of Martin Luther.

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The Original Ten Commandments

While traditional Jews and Christians believe that all of the Pentateuch was
written at one time by Moses, scholars understand that it was transcribed
and edited over a period of about 600 years. It is obvious to the linguist or
anthropologist that the text of the Ten Commandments is much later (more
recent) than that of other Exodus material. The Hebrew Bible also contains,
according to some less religiously observant scholars, an earlier, original
version of the Ten Commandments, containing far fewer of the important
ethical principles we associate with the Decalogue and more of the cultic,
priestly ritual that appears elsewhere in this generally priestly discourse.
According to K. Budde (History of Ancient Israel), the first version is found in
the verses below:
Exo 34:
14
17
18
19
21
22
25
25
26
26

Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is
a jealous God.
Do not make cast idols.
Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread
made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed
time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.
The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the
firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock.
Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even
during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.
Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest,
and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything
containing yeast,
And do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until
morning.
Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD
your God.
Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

Other Translation Problems

In addition to endless disagreements about the meaning of the early
commandments, there is a theologically profound disagreement about
Number Six (or Five). The famous King James Version says: Thou Shalt Not
Kill. Nearly every modern translation, Christian or Jewish, changes that to:
You Shall Not Murder. (Could one chisel a divine injunction against killing on
courthouses in states that still use capital punishment?)
Actually, the translation problem is even thornier. According to Gunther Plaut,
a better translation would be: You shall not kill in revenge. Indeed, there are
numerous passages in the Hebrew Bible providing safe haven for those

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fleeing the vengeance of aggrieved family members. Thus, the verse gives
us an insight into the likely prevailing culture at the time of its writinga
society beset by vendettas and feuds.
The Real Issue
Of course, all this theological and linguistic analysis is largely irrelevant to
the advocates for public display of the Ten Commandments. Their
motivation was expressed in a 1995 U.S. Senate resolution: "The Ten
Commandments set forth a code of moral conduct, observance of which is
acknowledged to promote respect for our system of laws and the good of
society. Is this claim true?
From the standpoint of secular law, only three of the ten are relevant: the
prohibitions against murder, theft, and false testimony. Clearly, no
agency of American government has any role in promoting a particular
religion, a particular version of the divine, specific rules of worship, or
Sabbath observance. Nor is it the governments legitimate concern whether
children honor their parents, whether consenting adults have sex, or whether
someone lusts after his neighbors new SUV. In other words, about 80% of
the text of the Ten Commandments supports particular religious beliefs and
values that are neither universally, nor, in some cases, even widely held.
(Coveting, after all, drives a capitalist economy.)
Obviously, displaying the Ten Commandments in a government building
violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. It also, by the
way, violates the Fourth (or Third or Second) Commandment against using
the divine name in vain.

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