The Story of the Biblical Decalogue – 2

The Decalogue itself appears twice in the Bible, once in Exodus 20:2–17 (verses 2–14 in Hebrew) and again in Deuteronomy 5:6–21 (verses 6–18 in Hebrew), with some slight variations. But separately, the commandments are repeated frequently, so several questions naturally arise: Wherein lies the uniqueness of the Decalogue? How did it become the crowning event of the encounter of the God of Israel with the people of Israel? Why is it that precisely this group of commandments is claimed to have been spoken to the people directly by God (Exodus 20:1, 21–22 [verses 18–19 in Hebrew]; Deuteronomy 4:12, 5:4, 22 [verse 21 in Hebrew]), to have been written by God’s finger on the tablets of stone at Sinai (Exodus 31:18, 32:16, 34:1, 28; Deuteronomy 4:13, 5:22 [verse 19 in Hebrew], 9:10) and placed in the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:1–4)?

Was it because of their antiquity? No, neither the content nor the style of the Decalogue proves them to be older than other laws of the Pentateuch. The short commandments— “You shall not murder,“ “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal”—are not exceptional; similar commandments are to be found in Leviticus 19:11, 13: “You shall not steal, you shall not deceive,… you shall not defraud your neighbor, you shall not commit robbery.” Nor is the variety in the contents of the Decalogue unparalleled; similar compilations are found in Leviticus 19 and in Deuteronomy.

On the other hand, just as there is no proof for the antiquity of the Decalogue, there is nothing to prove it should be dated later. An important key to the function of the Decalogue lies in the fact that these commandments apply to every individual in Israelite society. This contrasts with the ordinary laws, whose application depends on particular personal or social conditions. For example, sacrifices are conditioned on certain circumstances of the individual (such as vows, sin offerings) or of the community (the Temple service). Other ordinances depend on specific circumstances, such as the laws of purity release of land and liberation of slaves, laws of matrimony, the priestly dues, etc. But every Israelite commits himself or herself not to practice idolatry, not to swear falsely, to observe the Sabbath, to honor parents, not to murder, not to commit adultery not to steal not to bear false witness and not to covet. Moreover everyone is likely to do such things, no matter one’s personal status nor the environment or period in which one lives, and therefore all are warned to abstain.

The Decalogue, for the most part, is formulated in the negative. Even the “positive” commandments—observance of the Sabbath and honoring parents—are in fact prohibitions. The observance of the Sabbath is clarified explicitly by way of prohibition: “Six days you shall work… but the seventh is a Sabbath… you shall not do any work” (Exodus 20:9–10). Similarly, the main object of the commandment to honor one’s parents is to prevent offense or insult, as is seen in the various related laws in other law collections: beating (Exodus 21:15), cursing and disgraceful conduct (Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 27:16), rebellion and disobedience (Deuteronomy 21:18–21). In Leviticus 19 which refers to the Decalogue, the command is indeed formulated in the negative by the opposite of “honor”: “You shall each fear his mother and his father” (Leviticus 19:3).

The inclination toward a negative formulation due to the overall character of this group of commandments. They set forth the basic conditions for inclusion in the community of Israel, conditions transmitted to the people through Moses, who first conveyed God’s word and will to them. These conditions determine what a member of this special divine community is to refrain from doing.

The Decalogue was Probably read in the sanctuaries at ceremonies of covenant renewal. The people would commit themselves anew each time, as seen in the usual ancient Near Eastern custom of renewing covenants annually. Psalms 50 and 81 were probably part of these rituals. Both of these psalms relate to the event of the law-giving at Sinai and appear against the background of the Decalogue. The prophets and the poets of the psalms condemn the hypocrisy of the people who do not practice what they preach. For example:

“God the Lord spoke and summoned the world from east to west.… Hear my people.… ‘I am God, your God’.…. And to the wicked, God said: ‘Who are you to recite my laws, and mouth the terms of my covenant, seeing that you spurn my discipline and brush my words [debarai] aside? When you see a thief, you fall in with him, and throw in your lot with adulterers … and yoke your tongue to deceit’” (Psalm 50:1, 7, 16–19).

These rituals took place on the Festival of Shavuoth, the festival of the giving of the Law. In Second Temple times (sixth century BCE–first century CE), the Decalogue was read daily in the Temple, together with the Shema‘ prayer, close to the time of the daily offering (Mishnah, Tamid 5:1). In the 24-line Nash Papyrus, discovered somewhere in Egypt sometime about the beginning of the 20th century, the Decalogue precedes the Shema‘ passage, a text that reflects a liturgical form. In phylacteries (tefillin) found at Qumran (see photos, above), the Decalogue is also found next to the Shema‘. According to the church father Jerome, this was also the liturgical form in Babylonia.

Originally, the tablets containing the Decalogue constituted a kind of binding foundation-scroll of the Israelite community. With the disappearance of the ark and the tablets of the covenant, the Decalogue was freed from its connection to the concrete symbols to which it had been attached. At festive assemblies and every morning in the sanctuary, the Decalogue was customarily read, and all those present would commit themselves to it by covenant and oath. The recital of the Decalogue every morning was also prevalent among Christians at the beginning of the second century CE Pliny the Younger (c. 112 CE) tells us about Christians who get up at dawn in order to sing the canons and afterwards commit themselves with an oath (sacramentum) not to steal, not to commit adultery, etc. [1] Indeed, the reading of the Decalogue and the Shema‘ proclamation were considered a kind of commitment by oath. [2]
 

Ancient Tefillin (Phylactery) founded at Qumran.

 Two millennia of tradition link this tefillin (above; for actual size, see upper left photo in grey box), dated to the first half of the first century CE, with modern examples worn by observant Jews for morning services (except on Sabbaths and scriptural holy days). The famous archaeologist Yigael Yadin acquired this tefillin from a Jerusalem antiquities dealer, who said he thought it had been found at Qumran. The capsule, as the packet is called, consists of a piece of leather with four depressions, or compartments, which is folded in half and stitched together. A tubular space is left along the fold so that a strap can be passed through in order to attach the tefillin to the arm or head (in this case, the head). The closed capsule measures half an inch by three quarters of an inch (lower left photo in grey box). A folded parchment slip tied with string lies within each of the compartments, seen at bottom in the photo above, left; the parchment at the far left in this photo is foreign to the capsule and was apparently inserted by the finders or by the dealer in order to enhance the tefillin’s value.

When unfolded, the slips in this capsule measure about 1 inch by 1.75 inches. They bear writing in black ink, in square-Hebrew script that is dated to the first half of the first century CE The slip in the third compartment from the right was unrolled (right photo in green box and enlarged version below the box). It bears the following biblical passages: Deuteronomy 5:1–21 (the Decalogue) and Exodus 13:11–16 (the consecration of the first-born). This practice of wearing certain selections from the scriptures derives from Deuteronomy 6:8 (“Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead”) and parallel passages in Deuteronomy 11:18 and in Exodus 13:9 and 13:16. These four passages appear on the four slips, one passage for each slip.

NOTES:

[1]  Pliny the Younger, Epistle ad Traianus 10, 96:7.
[2] Moshe Weinfeld, “The Loyalty Oath in the Ancient Near East,” Ugarit Forschungen 8 (1976), p. 406ff