The decalogues of Exodus 20-23 clearly represent the earliest canon
of the Old Testament. These are intended to define clearly the
obligations of the nation to Jehovah, and to place these
obligations before the people so definitely that they would be
understood and met. As the term "decalogue," that is "ten words,"
indicates, the Biblical decalogue originally contained ten brief
sententious commands, easily memorized even by children. Each of
the decalogues is divided into two groups of five laws or pentads.
This division of five and ten was without reasonable doubt intended
to aid the memory by associating each law with a finger or thumb of
the two hands. Exodus 20-23 and its parallels in Deuteronomy
contain ten decalogues, that is a decalogue of decalogues,
suggesting that originally a decalogue was associated with each of
the fingers and thumbs of the two hands even as were the individual
words or commands. This system of mnemonics was useful in teaching
a child nation. It is still useful to-day. It is important to
impress upon the child in this concrete way certain of the
fundamental obligations to God and man. The form of the ten
commandments in part explains the commanding place which they still
hold in religious education throughout Christendom.
The Biblical accounts of the two decalogues in Exodus 20 and 34
vary in details. The early Judean prophetic narrative in Exodus 34
states that these commands were inscribed by Moses himself on two
stone tablets. In the later versions of the story Jehovah
inscribes them with his own fingers on the two tablets which he
gave to Moses. That the older decalogue was written on two tablets
and set up in the temple of Solomon is exceedingly probable, for by
the days of the United Kingdom the Hebrews were beginning to become
acquainted with the art of writing and therefore could read the
laws in written form. The recently discovered code of Hammurabi,
which comes from the twentieth century B.C., was inscribed in
parallel columns on a stone monument. In the epilogue to this
wonderful code the king states: "By the order of Shamash, the judge
supreme of heaven and earth, that judgment may shine in the land, I
set up a bas-relief to preserve my likeness in the great temple
that I love, to commemorate my name forever in gratitude. The
oppressed who has a suit to prosecute may come before my image,
that of a righteous king, and read my inscription and understand my
precious words and let my stele elucidate his case. Let him see
the law he seeks, and may he draw in his breath and say: 'This
Hammurabi was to his people like the father that begot them!'"
Thus this devout king of ancient Babylonia graphically defines the
motive which, at a later period, led Israel's spiritual leaders to
set before the people those principles which made for the welfare
both of the nation and of the individual. Each was keenly
conscious that the laws which brought social and spiritual health
to mankind emanated from the divine power that was guiding the
destinies of men.
Hebrew tradition has described in a great variety of narratives the
way in which God made known his will to the people. The scene in
each case was Mount Sinai, which the ancient Hebrews as well as the
Kenites regarded as Jehovah's abode. In the early Judean version,
as some writers classify the accounts, Moses alone ascends the
mountain, while the people are forbidden to approach. In the
Northern Israelite version, the people approach, but being
terrified by the thunder and lightnings they request Moses to
receive for them the divine message. This later version implies
that a raging thunder storm shrouded the sacred mountain, while the
early Judean and late priestly narratives apparently suggest an
active volcano.
The element common to all these accounts is that under the
direction of their prophetic leader, Moses, a solemn covenant was
established between the nation and Jehovah, and that the
obligations of the people were defined in the decalogue with its
ten short commands. The problem is, however, complicated by the
presence of two decalogues, one now preserved in Exodus 34 and the
other, the familiar ten commandments of Exodus 20. Both agree in
emphasizing as primary the nation's obligation to be loyal to
Jehovah. The decalogue in Exodus 34, however, goes on to describe
in succeeding laws the ways in which the nation may show its
loyalty. This was through the observation of certain ceremonial
customs and especially the great annual feasts. Did most ancient
peoples show their loyalty to the gods by their lives and deeds or
by the ceremonies of the ritual and the offerings which they
brought to the altars? The first great prophet Amos declared that
Jehovah hated and despised feasts and ceremonies unless accompanied
by deeds of justice and mercy.
The decalogue in Exodus 34 may well represent the original commands
which Moses laid upon the nation, but the higher moral sense of
later editors has truly recognized the superiority of the ethical
commands of the familiar decalogue in Exodus 20 and given it the
commanding place which it richly deserves. (For a probable
literary history of this decalogue see _Hist. Bible_ I, 194-5.)
The two decalogues of Exodus 20 and 34 are not duplicates the one
of the other, but rather supplement each other. The one defines
the obligation of the nation, the other of the individual. The
Hebrews long continued to retain in their homes the family images
inherited from their Semitic ancestors. Not until the days of Amos
and Isaiah did the prophets begin to protest against the calves or
bulls and the cherubim in the sanctuaries of Northern Israel, and
even in the temple at Jerusalem. Hence the second command, "Thou
shalt not make for thyself any graven image," some believe comes
from a period centuries later than Moses. Possibly, as in Exodus
34:17, it originally read "molten image" and referred to foreign
idols. If so, it may come in this older form from Moses. The
tenth command which places the emphasis on the motive rather than
the act also suggests a maturer age; but with these possible
exceptions there is good reason for believing that the spirit and
teaching of Moses are embodied in this noble decalogue.
In what respects does the version in Deuteronomy 5 differ from that
in Exodus 20? (_Hist. Bible_ I, 195.) Which is probably the older
version? What later explanations and exhortations have been added
to the original ten words in Exodus 20? In Deuteronomy 5? What
was the object of these additions? Are they of real value? Is it
profitable to teach them to children to-day?