Exodus 20 - Introduction

Chapter Exodus 20:1-21

The Decalogue. Introduction to the Book of the Covenant

The Decalogue is a concise but comprehensive summary of the fundamental duties of an Israelite towards God, and his neighbour. Jehovah is to be the only God recognized by Israel: He is to be worshipped under no material form; His name is to be reverenced; and the -sabbath" is weekly to be kept holy in His honour. Respect is to be paid to parents; murder, adultery, theft, and false witness, the commonest, perhaps, of the graver offences, especially in a society in which the hand of the law is not strong, are forbidden; the Israelite is not even to entertain the desire to possess anything of a neighbour's. Within a brief compass, the Decalogue thus -lays down the fundamental articles of religion (sovereignty and spirituality of God), and asserts the claims of morality in the chief spheres of human relationship (home, calling, society)." By a few salient and far-reaching precepts, pointedly expressed, and easily remembered, it covers the whole religious and moral life; and provides a summary of human duty, capable of ready expansion and adjustment even to the highest Christian standards, and unsurpassable as a practical rule of life. The Decalogue moreover brings morality into intimate connexion with religion; and in an age when popular religion was only too readily satisfied with a formal ceremonialism, it emphasized, not ritual, but spirituality, reverence, and respect for the rights of other men (cf. Romans 13:9), as what was pleasing in God's sight, and demanded by Him (cf. the later teaching of the prophets, Amos 5:24; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:8, &c.). Cf. further DB.i. 582.

The Decalogue, though assigned to -E," was naturally derived by him from a pre-existing source, and incorporated by him in his narrative. At the time when E wrote, it was believed traditionally to have been inscribed by Jehovah on two tables of stone (Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18 b, Exodus 32:16), and (though this is first distinctly stated in Deuteronomy 10:5) to have been placed by Moses in the Ark. The Decalogue appears also in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, in what purports (vv.5, 22) to be a verbal quotation; but there are several differences, especially in the 4th, 5th, and 10th Commandments. The most noticeable differences consist of additions, evidently the work of a Deuteronomic hand, and intended to emphasize thoughts or principles to which in Dt. importance is attached (as vv.12, 16 the words -as Jehovah thy God commanded thee," cf. Deuteronomy 20:17; Deuteronomy 24:8; Deuteronomy 26:18; v.14b -that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou," cf. for the philanthropic motive Deuteronomy 12:7; Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 12:18; Deuteronomy 14:29; v.16b -that it may be well with thee," cf. Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 12:25; Deuteronomy 12:28; Deuteronomy 22:7): Exodus 20:11 (-For in six days," &c.) is, however, not found in Dt., and the motive given for the observance is a different one (-And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm: therefore Jehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day"; cf. Deuteronomy 15:15; Deuteronomy 16:11-12; Deuteronomy 24:18; Deuteronomy 24:22). It may however be doubted whether even the text of Exodus exhibits the Decalogue in its primitive form. It is an old and probable conjecture (Ewald, Hist.ii. 159, Di. al.) that the Commandments were originally all expressed in the same terse and simple form in which the first, and the sixth to the ninth still appear, and that the explanatory comments appended in certain cases were only added subsequently. The prefatory sentence (v.2), and most of the comments, shew strong literary affinities (see the notes) with J (vv.5b, 6, cf. Exodus 34:7; Exodus 34:14), or the compiler of JE (v.2, cf. Exodus 13:14 b), and (esp. in vv.2, 4b, 5a, 10b, 12) with Dt.; hence it is probable that these parts are due, partly, like other parenetic passages of Ex. (cf. on Exodus 13:3-16; Exodus 15:26), to the compiler of JE, and partly to a writer influenced by Deuteronomy 5:11 stands upon a different footing from the other comments: it is in style unlike both JE and Dt., but it presupposes Genesis 1, and agrees largely in expression with Exodus 31:17 b, Genesis 2:3 a (both P). As it is scarcely likely that the author of Dt. would have omitted the verse, had it formed part of the Decalogue as he knew it, it is probable that it was introduced into the text of Ex. subsequently, on the basis of the passages of P just cited. If these suppositions are correct, the Decalogue will have reached its present form by a gradual growth, explanatory of parenetic comments, derived from, or based upon, J, the compiler of JE, Dt., and P, having been successively introduced into it with is didactic purpose. On the Nash papyrus of the Decalogue, see p. 417.

Comp. the eloquent homiletical expansion of the first two Commandments in Deuteronomy 4:5.

The Decalogue is known in the OT. by the following designations: