The Ten Commandments (Decalogue)

The Decalogue (Ex 20.2-17 / Deut 5.6-21)

1. Deut. God gave it to people face to face. (Deut 5.4) Direct speech from God is found only in here.
2. Written by the finger of God by himself. (Exodus 31.18) Directly from God. Divine. Repeated in Deut. (Deut 10.5) Commandments are Holy. Covenant relationship(Conditional Covenant). (Ex. 19.4-5) Holiness is all intertwined in here.
3. Universality (Everyone) and particularity (Israelites)
4. All commandments have both positive and negative meaning. ‘You should not kill’ means not only do not harm others but also giving our lives to the neighbors.
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Prologue of the first commandments.
1. Ex 20.2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”

• God tells who God is. Possessive. God cares. Gods is passionate toward His people.
• Given primary identities. God is a liberator and we are liberated.

2. Prologue automatically makes people to be grateful.

• Ex 1-18 is the narration of the prologue since it is the story of deliverance.
• Worship = ‘abad' : to serve, to worship
• Aphesis(gk) = Release = let go
• Service is the perfect freedom.

3. God loves His children

• As servants of God, we live as free people.
• The law of love and His great requirement (Deut 6.4-9; 11.18-20)
• All your heart (Deut 6.5; 10.12; Mt 22.37; Lk 10.27)= total commitment = loyalty even to death = all your stuff (property)

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1."You shall have no other gods before me." (Ex 20.3; Deut 5.7)
2. "You shall not make for yourself an idol." (Ex 20.4-6; Deut 5.8-10)

1. No other gods before me = beside me = in front of me = total dedication to God = complete trust
2. "Before me" (Alpanay)

• "before me,” that is, “in front of me” - For you, no other god goes in front of this deity or can take a place prior to the Lord of Israel.
• “beside me,” that is, “alongside me” - No other god may be placed in a pantheon alongside this deity for you.
• “beside me,” that is, “in my place,” or “instead of me” - No other god may take the place of the Lord for you.
• “over against me,” that is, “in hostile confrontation with me,” “against my face” - No other god may be set over against the Lord.

3. No other gods = following the Lord

• “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (1kgs. 18.21)
• “The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.” (Deut. 13.4)
• “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6.4-5)

4. It shows how closely that commandments is linked with what comes before it, the Prologue, and what comes after, the prohibition of making and worshiping images.

5. All theses passages and their different ways of connecting to the First Commandment are implicit reminder of why thanksgiving is one of the primary positive ways of keeping the First Commandment.

• Form of monotheism (Deut 4.19; Isa 40.25-26; Ps 96.4-5)
• This commandment is a call to say and believe: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear."(Ps 46.1-2) Thus, it is matter of either 'Obedience' or 'Disobedience.' (Deut 9.23, "you rebelled against the commnd of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him.") - cf. Ex 17.7
• The result of disobedience. Sarcasm (Jer 2.26-28; Isa 44.9-20) (Hos. 14) – repentance;
• Prosperity, success, and profit come only from the Lord and the Lord’s way. (Isa. 48.17-19)
• Martin Luther, “Moreover, what is the whole Psalter but meditation and exercise based on the First Commandemnt” (cf. Ps. 40.3-4; 81.9-10)

6. "make no images of God." (Ex. 20.4a; Deut.5.8a)

• Economic aspect of idols – usually made of silver and gold.

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3. "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit nyone who misuses his name." (Ex 20.7; Deut 5.11)

• The third commandment reinforces the first two while taking up another aspect of the reality of God with which the community has to do in approaching and responding to its Lord: the name of God.
• There are close connections between what is untrue and what is empty and without sobstance, between what is false and what is worthless.
• Various names for God. Elohim; El, YHWH.
• Whatever the possible linguistic relationships, the outcome is clearly the revelation of YHWH as the divine name.
• The name is the reality. The name tells who is God, who is at work, who will deliver the slaves.
• 1. The intimate connection between revering the name of God and the exclusive worship of the Lord is reiterated.
• 2. The primary place, the originating place, of the name of God is the sanctuary and worship.
• 3. It is the name of God that specifically characterizes the true and proper worship of God. The community of faith, church or synagogue, knows who it worships only through the words and deeds associated with the one whose name is proclaimed in worship.
• 4. The proclamation of the name marks off the proper worship of God from practices that come from outside the story and apart from or over against God’s self-revelation and instruction.
• Several aspects of the significance of oath taking in the name are evident.
• 1. Oath taking in the name of God is a commitment to an action – short term or long term. As such it has to do with keeping promises.
• 2. Oath taking in the name of God is an act of commitment to the truthfulness of what one says.
• 3. Taking and keeping oaths contributes to communal trust and the security of expectations within the community.
• 4. Invoking the name of God in grounding human actions by oath can be a way of wielding political power for personal ends and goals by putting a divine imprimatur on the ruler’s plans and decisions.
• 5. Oath taking in the name of God is a pointer within the affairs of human life to the center of meaning and value, the object of one’s devotion, trust, and obedience.

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4. "Remember the sbbath dy, and keep it holy." (Ex 20.8-11; Deut 5.12-15)
1. Ex : Deut = observe : remember (creation : Exodus story)

• Why do we need two versions? God is both transcendent and eminent.

2. Keeping the seventh day holy means to set it apart from all the other days of the week by dedicating it to the Lord and the Lord’s service.

• The first word about the Sabbath in both versions of the commandment is that it is to be sanctified, given over to the Lord. Because the Sabbath, or Sunday, is such a part of the human experience of time for many people, it is easy to ignore what a huge thing happens to time at this point.
• What is one to do in setting aside every seventh day to the Lord? Clearly, as the rest of the commandement states, that means stopping all one’s ordinary tasks and labors.

3. How does one keep the Sabbath holy?

• Part of the sanctification of the day is the cessation of labor.
• Work is required for human survival. Human toil is built into the system and the story of creation has made that clear (Gen. 2:15; 3:14-4:2)
• Every stops work = rest
  1. The service of God is routinized in the common life. Sanctifying the Sabbath means setting aside on a regular basis some time that is consciously intended to celebrate the glory of God – what Abraham Heschel has called “a sanctuary in time” – and to keep alive the memory of the created work (so the Exodus version) and the redemptive work (so the Deuteronomic version) of God. Like circumcision for the Jews, Sabbath was a visible sign of the covenant, of the relationship between the Lord and Israel.
  2. All human work is relativized. The power of work to control human life is forever relativized in the Sabbath. The Sabbath helps to guard against one of the primary idolatries to which many, if not all, are prone: idolizing our work by making it the center of value and meaning for our lives.
  3. The sabbatical principle is God’s provision of freedom and rest as a continuing possibility for human existence.

4. The Sabbath Commandment creates a principle of human existence, one that has two dimensions: 1. A regular release from work, a rest that can be counted upon always; 2. Inclusion of everyone in that provision.

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5. "Honor your father and your mother" (Ex 20.12; Deut 5.16)

1. Bible does not say love your parents but honor them.

• Honor = Kabbed, Hebrew, meaing, “to make heavy” in the sense of regarding someone as weighty. So to “honor” parents is to regard them as persons of great weight, to treat them with high regard.
• Duet. 21.18-21. Authority of parents.
• Perhaps the term “heed” may best convey both dimensions: the need to pay attention to what the parents say and take it seriously, but also the responsibility for doing what they say, not simply hearing and going on one’s way. (Prov 20.20; 23.22-25; 30.11)
• Appropriateness of obeying father and mother not absolutely obeying them. (Deut 13.7-12)
• Parental authority does not hold sway when it turns against the Lord. (Ezekiel 20.18-21a)
• Obedience is not simply doing whatever is required; but it also is generally to be expected, as Jesus’ immediate subjection in obedience to his parents’ authority makes clear. (Lk2.41-51)
• Abandoning family means letting go, leaving behind, of things that hold one back in order to follow Jesus. (Mk. 10.29-31) It may mean letting go of responsibilities that customarily belong to honoring parents, like giving them a decent burial when they have died (Mt. 19.21-22; Lk. 9.57-62)
• The natural family and the family of God are blended into a whole without the believer losing a sense of belonging to both families. (cf. 1Tim 5.3-16)

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6. "You shall not murder" (Ex 20.13; Deut 5.17)

• “Do not” (rasah) – complexity in its translation.
• Complicated - Abortion; capital punishment.
• The protection of human life is the starting point. Other important matter – protection of marriage, property, neighbor’s freedom – follows after.
• Translation. You shall not kill.(KJV, RSV, etc.); You shall not murder.(NRSV, NJPS) The problem is that the verb does not have a single narrow meaning or usage “to murder.”
  The meaning and force of the commandment, therefore, are discernible only as one looks carefully at its trajectory thorough Scripture.
• Trajectory of the commandment
• The positive force of commandment. To protect life.
• “The commandment “you shall not kill” entails by extension a positive commitment to enhance and protect life.”
• It covers up not only neighbors but enemies as well.
• Abel and Cain story. The account of Cain’s murder of Abel and God’s response never speaks about Abel without identifying him as “his brother” or “your brother” and eventually drops the proper name altogether as the Lord identifies what Cain has done solegy as a crime against “your brother”. The biblical story thus sets the relationship with the brother/sister as a moral issue and this implying the requirement to do no harm to the one who is brother, sister or neighbor.
• In some sense all the other responsibilities of human relationships flow out from this one, and the recognition of the other as brother or neighbor becomes definitive for how one lives in human community.
• Tension. The value of life is so high that nothing except human life can compensate. In such an act, however, the community, fallible in its procedures of justice, is always at risk of violating the first part of the tension.
• Human being is made in the image of God. Therefore, the murderer by his action despoils God. The person who bears the divine image is thereby protected by the one whose image the person bears.

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7. "You shall not commit adultery." (Ex 20.14; Deut 5.18)

• Shakab. Meaning to lie with.(=having sex w/) Gen.19.32-34 Lot. Lot’s daughter. Drunken. We will lie w/ him; Gen 39.
• Also the verb 'take' has been used. Take = laqach=rape. Gen 34. Rape of Dina. He took her.
• Commandment 7 is not used laqach, but na’aph, meaning according to Miller, man and woman. There is no object in this word.
• Other forbidening law against adultery. (Lev 20.10)
  Negative side: Don’t
  Positive side: protecting marriage (neighbor’s); family.
• Polygamy society. Man can have many women.
• Despite Gen 38 which excludes the condemnation agaisnt prostitution, it is condemned other parts. (Lev 19.29; Prov 7.10; 23.27)
• Prostitution as well as adultery may server as a metaphor for violating the relationship between God and the people. (Ex 34.15-16; Deut 31.16; Jer 13.27; Nah 3.4; Hos 1-3)
• Creation. Mutuality. Hetero-sexual marriage. Gen 2.21. ‘ish – man or husband. ‘ishah – woman or wife. Those two convey mutuality and equality, relationship. Gen 1.28. fruitful and multiply. Man of progeny. Why does the blood line is important?
• Divine jealousy. Ex 20.2. Relationship based on deliverance. People should be grateful. V5. Look at the motivation given for His commandment. I am the jealous God.
• Jealous = qana’h = passion. Negative side of Jealousy leads to anger. Positive side of J(passion) leads to protection. (Shema = hear oh Israel.)
• trajectory of jealousy. Hosea 1-3, Ez. Critique of a male is justified. Don’t lose the point. No other Gods before me. Renewal of the covenant.
• Divine. Jer 2.2. Israel’s breaking of the covenant. V20. 13.22,26. 2Sam 11.1-5

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8. "You shall not steal." (Ex 20.15; Deut 5.19)

• Ganab = stealing
• Duet 24.7 – purpose for kidnapping (ganab) – economic reason (Gen 37.26)
• Gen 40.15 Joseph uses the word, ‘stolen’ instead of ‘kidnapped’ and it caused him to lose home, status, family. Miller pointed out this broke the trust among relationship.
• Judah sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
• Giving back to the Lord. Tradition to give sth to God. Tiding.
• “The ethical consciousness of all men concurs that stealing is wrong”
• Economic restitution by the thief, not capital punishment. Joseph story.
• “Whoever kidnaps a person, whether that person has been sold or is still held in possession, shall be put to death.” (Ex 21.16; 24.7)
• One provides for giving the firstborn of sheep and oxen to the Lord, thus relativizing the possibility of setting an absolute worth on even those things that sustain and provide for life. (Ex 22.30) In this act the members of the community are reminded that their access to the land is through God’s allotment, that the first word about property is that it belongs to the Lord and only to the Lord – but importantly, secondarily to the family and the community.
• This is symbolized precisely in the relinquishment of the property that the statutes work so carefully to safeguard.
• Responsibility for each others property. (Deut 22.1-4) This is for protect and maintain the community.
• Community protect
  - Deut. 24.9-22; 22.1-4; Lev.25.35-38; Deut 10.17
  - Deut 23.20 - you may charge interest for foreigners. (This contradicts to Lev 25.35)
• Deut 24.8-25.4. The statute about the pledge of the poor in Deuteronomy 24.12-13 then leads into further statues having to do with the protection of the weaker members of the society and their material goods or means of life. V15.
• First Commandment. Human love of property and the acquisitive instinct in principle. What human beings possess and the desire to possess more – whether in material goods, influence (a form of possession of persons), sex(the possession of persons), or other matters – have the potential to become the primary center of meaning and value in life, the ultimate value and thus the claim that has the force of another god.
• Jesus, “You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Mt 6.24; Lk 16.13)
• Jacob and Laban story. Weaker side is a central concern of the commandment against stealing.
• Achan’s theft of the devoted things (Josh 6.18-7.26)

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9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Ex 20.16; Deut 5.20)

• Sheqer = false, 'ed = witness
• Telling the truth is a form of the love of neighbor and a significant aspect of upholding communal relations.
• Safeguarding the neighbor by safeguarding truth is an inevitable sequence to the protection of the neighbor’s marriage, life, and property, for lying against a neighbor creates a domino effect undoing the other safeguards.
• The resonance of this commandment with the one protecting use of the divine name serves to create a particular emphasis on speaking the truth as a critical responsibility deeply affecting one’s relation to God and the well-being of community life. Truth-telling is thus not a general virtue so much as it is a necessity for maintaining harmonious relationships.
• It is one of the clearest manifestations of love of God and love of neighbor.
• “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”
• “Deceit and violence – these are the two forms of deliberate assault on human beings” – Sissela Bok
• Malicious witness = a witness of violence – Ex 23.1; Deut 19.15-21; Ps 27.12; 35.11; Pro 25.18.
• False testimony – inevitable outcome in violence
• Deut 17.6-7. The execution cannot happen on the basis of the testimony of a single witness, but requires “two or three witnesses.”
• The witness of violence, the “malicious witness,” can injure another at a lower but no less real level than killing.
• Capital punishment. The necessity for thorough inquiry into the case (Deut 13.14; 17.4; 19.18)
• John Calvin saw in the Ninth Commandment a protection of both honor and property.
• Eph 4.25-5.2. The admonition to the Ephesians has to do with maintaining and enhancing the way in which a community lives together, its language, its interactions, its values, its aims, its economy.

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10. "You shall not covey your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Ex 20.17; cf. Duet 5.21)

• Covet = Chamad or hita’wweh
• Advertisement – uncontrollable
• Isa 5.8; Mic 2.5
• Deut 25.13-16
• Decalogue begins with I am the Lord your God and ends with your neighbor, or more specifically, anything that is your neighbor’s. Between those two subjects lies all the moral space of the Commandments.
• "Without desire we would cease to be human; without God as desire’s ultimate end, we become inhumane." - Twofold Center of Lutheran Ethics