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CHAPTER XVII.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

THE Ten Commandments were always in the Christian Church united with the Lord's Prayer and the Creed (whether longer or shorter) as a Christian Institution. In earlier Catholic times they were used as a framework of moral precepts; in Protestant times they were written conspicuously in the churches. In either case there are important principles involved in the prominence thus given to them which demand consideration. In order to do this we must trace the facts to their Jewish origin.

Outward

I. Let us first examine what were the Ten Commandments in their outward form and appearance form. when they were last seen by mortal eyes as the ark was placed in Solomon's Temple.

1. They were written on two tables or blocks of stone or rock. The mountains of Sinai are of red and white Israelite ar- granite. On two blocks of this granite rock — rangements. the most lasting and almost the oldest kind of rock that is to be found in the world, as if to remind us that these Laws were to be the beginning and the end of all things were the Ten Commandments, the Ten Words, written. They were written, not as we now write them, only on one side of each of the two tables, but on both sides, so as to give the idea of absolute completeness and solidity. Each block of stone was covered behind and before with the sacred letters. Again, they were not arranged as we now arrange them. In the

Fourth, for example, the reason for keeping holy the seventh day is, in Exodus, because "God rested on the seventh day from the work of creation;" in Deuteronomy it is to remind them that "they were once strangers in the land of Egypt." Probably, therefore, these reasons were not actually written on the stone, but were given afterwards, at two different times, by way of explanation; so that the first four Commandments, as they were written on the tables, were shorter than they are now. Here, as everywhere in the Bible, there may be many reasons for doing what is right. It is the doing of the thing, and not the particular occasion or reason, which makes it right. Another slight difference was that the Commandments probably were divided into two equal portions, so that the Fifth Commandment, instead of being, as it is with us, at the top of the second table, was at the bottom of the first. The duty of honoring our parents is so like the duty of honoring God, that it was put amongst the same class of duties. The duty to both, as in the Roman word "pietas," was comprised under the same category, and so it is here understood by Josephus, Philo, and apparently by St. Paul.1

These differences between the original and the present arrangement should be noted, because it is interesting to have before us as nearly as we can the exact likeness of those old Commandments, and because it is useful to remember how even these most sacred and ancient words have undergone some change in their outward form since they were first given, and yet still are equally true and equally venerable. Religion does not consist in counting the syllables of the Bible, but in doing what it tells us. 2. When the Christian Church sprang out of the Jewish Church, it did not part with those venerable relics

1 Ewald's History of the People of Israel, vol. i. pp. 581-592, English transation.

Christian ar

of the earlier time, but they were still used to teach Christian children their duty, as Jewish children rangements. had been taught before. But there were different arrangements introduced in different parts of the world. The Talmudic and the modern Jewish tradition, taking the Ten Commandments strictly as Ten Words or Sentences (Decalogue), makes the First to be the opening announcement: "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt," and the Second is made up of what in our arrangement would be the First and Second combined. The Samaritan division, preserved in the roll on Mount Gerizim, puts the First and Second together, as the First, and then adds 1 at the end an Eleventh, according to our arrangement, not found in the Hebrew Pentateuch, which will be noticed as we proceed.

1

When the Christians adopted the Commandments there were two main differences of arrangement. There was the division of Augustine and Bede. This follows the Jewish and Samaritan arrangement of combining in one the First and Second Commandments of our arrangement. But inasmuch as it has no Eleventh Commandment, like the Samaritan, nor any "First Word," like the Jewish, it makes out the number ten by dividing the last Commandment into two, following here the arrangement of the clauses in the Hebrew of Deuteronomy, and in the LXX. both of Deuteronomy and Exodus, so as to make the Ninth Commandment. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife," and the Tenth, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house," etc. This is followed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church. The division followed by Origen and Jerome is the same as that followed in England and Scotland. It is common to all the Eastern Churches, and all the Reformed

1 See Professor Plumptre, in Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii. pp. 1465, 1466

Protestant Churches. Here, again, the various arrangements give us a useful lesson, as showing us how the different parts of our doctrine and duty may not be quite put together in the same way, and yet be still the same. And also it may remind us how the very same arrangements, even in outward things, may be made by persons of the most opposite way of thinking; it is a warning not to judge any one by the mere outward sign or badge that they wear. No one could be more unlike to the Roman Catholic Church than the Reformer Luther, and yet the same peculiar arrangement of the Ten Commandments was used by him and by them. No one could be more unlike to the Eastern Church than John Knox, or Calvin, or Cranmer, and yet their arrangement of the Ten Commandments is the same.

mandments.

II. What are we to learn from the place which the Ten Commandments occupied in the old dispensation? We learn what is the true foundation of all religion. The Ten Commandments are simple rules; most of them can be understood by a child. But still they Importance are the very heart and essence of the old Jewish of the Comreligion. They occupy a very small part of the Books of Moses. The Ten Commandments, and not the precepts about sacrifices and passovers and boundaries and priests, are the words which are said to have been delivered in thunder and lightning at Mount Sinai. These, and not any ceremonial ordinances, were laid up in the Most Holy Place, as the most precious heritage of the nation. "There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb." Do your duty. This is what they tell us. Do your duty to God and your duty to man. Whatever we may believe or feel or think, the main thing is that we are to do what is right, not to do what is wrong. Therefore it is that in the Church of England and in the Re

formed Churches of the Continent they are still read in the most sacred parts of the service, as if to show us that, go as far as we can in Christian light and knowledge, make as much as we will of Christian doctrine or of Christian worship, still we must never lose hold of the ancient everlasting lines of duty.

Spirit of the

ments.

III. But it may be said, Were not those Ten Commandments given to the Jews of old? Do they not refer to the land of Egypt and the land of PalesCommand- tine? We love and serve God, and love and serve our brethren, not because it is written in the Ten Commandments, but because it is written on the tables of our hearts by the Divine Spirit on our spirits and consciences. But herein lies the very meaning of their having become a Christian Institution.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus Christ took two or three of these Commandments, and explained them Himself to the people. He took the Sixth Commandment, and showed that for us it is not enough to remember, "Thou shalt not kill," but that the Commandment went much deeper, and forbade all angry thoughts and words. This was intended to apply to all the other Commandments. It is not in their letter, but in their spirit that they concern us; and this, no doubt, is what is meant by the prayer which in the Church of England follows after each of them, and at the end of all of them, "Incline our hearts to keep this Commandment,” “Write all these Commandments in our hearts, we beseech Thee."

The

1. Let us take them one by one in this way. First Commandment is no longer ours in the letter, for it begins by saying, "I am the Lord thy God, who Command- brought thee out of the land of Egypt." He did not bring us up out of the land of Egypt, and so completely has this ceased to apply to us that in the

The First ment.