Ten Commandments

Ten Commandments or Decalogue, designation for the precepts that, according to the Old Testament, were given by Yahweh to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to Exodus 31:18, they were inscribed on two stone tablets by God himself. Moses is said to have destroyed the tablets in anger over his people's abandonment of their faith. He was then commanded by God to hew and inscribe new tablets; these were deposited in the Ark of the Covenant. Because the Decalogue was revealed before the other parts of the Covenant between Yahweh and the Hebrews, it enjoyed a unique status in the religion of ancient Israel. The Ten Commandments formed the basis of all Israelite legislation, and they are frequently alluded to in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:3-4, 11-13; Psalm 15:2-5, 24:4; Jeremiah 7:9; Hosea 4:2).

Two different versions of the commandments are given in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21, but the substance is the same in both of them. The Exodus version differs from that in Deuteronomy in giving a religious motive, instead of a humanitarian one, for observing the Sabbath; also, in prohibiting covetousness, it classifies a man's wife with the rest of his possessions, instead of separately.

Traditionally, the commandments have been enumerated in three ways. In Jewish tradition, the commandments are organized as follows: (1) the prologue; (2) prohibition of the worship of any deity but Yahweh, and prohibition of idolatry; (3) prohibition of the use of the name of God for vain purposes; (4) observance of the Sabbath; (5) honoring of one's father and mother; (6) prohibition of murder; (7) prohibition of adultery; (8) prohibition of stealing; (9) prohibition of giving false testimony; and (10) prohibition of coveting the property or wife of one's neighbor. Most Protestants and Orthodox Christians combine the prologue and the prohibition of the worship of any deity but Yahweh as the first commandment, treat the prohibition of idolatry as the second commandment, and follow the traditional Jewish enumeration of the remaining commandments. Roman Catholics and Lutherans follow the division used by 4th-century theologian Saint Augustine. The prologue and first two prohibitions are combined, and the last is divided into two that prohibit, individually, the coveting of a neighbor's wife and of his property. Thus, the enumeration of the other commandments differs by one.

Medieval Scholastic philosophers and theologians, such as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bonaventure, held that all the commandments are a part of the natural law and are therefore knowable to all thinking people. They maintained that God revealed the commandments to Moses to remind humankind of its obligations, easily forgotten because of original sin. Actually, these scholars were echoing a similar idea expressed by early Fathers of the Church, such as Tertullian and Augustine, that the commandments had already been engraved on the human heart before they were written on the tablets of stone.

Parallels to the Decalogue are found in the laws of other ancient peoples. In Egyptian religion, for example, the observance of certain precepts (prohibitions against theft, murder, and injustice) was necessary for entrance into the shrine of Osiris, god and judge of the dead. Biblical scholars feel, however, that the Ten Commandments differ from the moral codes of other ancient religious systems in their explicit monotheism, their doctrine of God's awesome majesty and boundless goodness, and their extension of moral obligation to the most intimate and hidden desires of the human heart. In the New Testament, all the commandments are mentioned but never in a list of ten.