Decalogue or Novilogue, How Many Were There Again?

Then God spoke all these words, saying,   “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery:

1. “You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
4. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
5. You shall not murder.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Exodus 20:1-17 NASB

I’m going to make this one short because the disorientation from how many commandments are on the “Tablets” is probably enough to throw most Christ-followers off center anyway.  You have probably noticed I refer to what most Gentiles refer to as the “Old Testament” as the “Hebrew Scriptures”.  While it’s not wrong to call it that, it is weird, and intentional on my part.  The main reason I do that is because I believe in a much stronger continuity between the two sets of Scripture than do most other Christ followers.  The term “Old” makes it easier to relegate to irrelevance.

But one spin off from this is a perspective of these Scriptures from the Hebrew standpoint.  In the Hebrew text used by most scholars of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Masoretic Text, there have been punctuation and notation elements added to aid in translation and recitation.  This text is not that old, and the elements have been added, and they are clearly a construct of human nature.  But they are interesting because they provide insight into how the culture from which these texts arose used and understood them.  Jesus lived and ministered in this culture as well; it would be good to be aware of it.

One difficulty is determining how if any of them are reactions against a rising Christian-based culture, and how many developed independently.  I don’t know, but I suspect that the way we have arrived at 10 instead of 9 commandments is part of why the Hebrew text is punctuated for 9.  Jewish scholars count them as 10 “Sayings” because they count the “prologue” as one “saying”.  The Catholic tradition numbers them differently than most Protestant traditions. 

What I have listed as 1, most Protestant traditions break into the first and second commandments, using the first sentence as the first commandment, and the rest as the second.  Reviewed together here, I think it makes more sense to keep them together than apart.  To maintain the count of 10 requires either splitting the last law about coveting (as do the Catholics and Lutherans), or considering them “sayings” and adding the prologue (as does modern Judaism).  Just because I kind of like the controversy, I like just leaving them commandments, and counting 9.  You will need to read them for yourself.

So why focus on the number and not the content?  Where’s the application?  Where’s the point?  At least I hope you’re asking these questions.  In the day of Moses, ink was precious and so was paper.  So where did my Master spend most of His precious ink and paper?  On Himself, and on His creatures, but not evenly split.  Jesus summarized the whole law and prophets with, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, and your neighbor as yourself.”  If you split this list at law four, you will find something akin to this emphasis here.

But you will also find a Sabbath emphasis missing for most Christ followers.  It used to be a huge emphasis in this country, culturally as well as religiously.  But to understand the Sabbath, I think the wording is important.  It specifically refers to your “occupation”, not just anything done with your hands.  It’s as if God is telling His people to “get a hobby!”   If a break from the concept of a harsh and distant God of the “Old Testament” can be imagined, then this can be seen as an element of grace; which it is.

The intent in focusing on numbers is a renewed consideration of the structure to discover emphasis and importance.  It becomes clear that my Master has designed these commandments to focus my attention on Him primarily.  And in the midst of that focus He tells me to “chill out” one seventh of the time, because He did (in Exodus, in Deuteronomy it is because the people used to be slaves).  Making this day a day of worship is good, but I should worship every day.  It needs to be a day I “fast” from my occupation in order to re-center my life on my Master.  Fasting any more I would call a “vacation”.