We explain what the Ten Commandments are in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the debate among theologians about them and what they are.
What are the Ten Commandments?
The Ten Commandments, are the set of moral, ethical and religious principles that were revealed to the Jewish prophet Moses by God himself, during his ascent to Mount Sinai (Horeb according to the Torah), according to the biblical Old Testament (in the books Exodus and Deuteronomy). Since these are ten fundamental religious laws, they are often also called the Decalogue (from the Greek said“ten”, and logos“word”).
According to Hebrew myth, the prophet Moses was chosen by God to guide the Jewish people through the deserts, escaping slavery in Egypt and crossing the Red Sea, to finally reach Mount Sinai, which served as a sanctuary between the divinity and his chosen people.
There, Moses ascended to meet God, while his people remained on the slopes of the mountain, in order to seal the pact. Then God dictated to Moses the laws that would govern the people and that must be obeyed by the Israelites if they wanted to have his favor. These were the Ten Commandments, and according to the story they were engraved on two stone slabs.
The Ten Commandments are a very important concept for the Jewish and Christian religions since both share the Old Testament. However, not all interpretations of the seventeen verses that describe this episode are the same: there are significant variations on what exactly the ten divine commands are, and it is even speculated that the number ten was just a strategy to facilitate its memorization.
There was, for example, much debate in history regarding how the Ten Commandments were distributed between the two stone tablets. The version accepted by many contemporary theologians insists that there were 4 in a first stone, related to the love and worship of God, and another six in the second, related to the love of neighbor.
There are also historical readings that link these Jewish laws with a good part of the legislation of Ancient Egypt, which would mean that a good part of them were inspired by the legal and religious order with which their former enslavers were governed.
In any case, both the different Christian churches and the religious Jewish branches accept these Ten Commandments as the moral, religious and civil code by which they must govern their lives and conduct, to have the approval of God and the parishioners.
See also: Religious norms
What are the Ten Commandments?
Although, as we have seen, there are discrepancies regarding their written formulation, the Ten Commandments are always more or less the same. Thus, one of the most succinct and summarized formulas of the original text is the one designed by Catholicism for evangelical or catechesis purposes, that is, for the teaching of religion, and is the following:
- You will love God above all things.
- You will not take God's name in vain.
- You will sanctify the holidays.
- You will honor your father and mother.
- Thou shalt not kill.
- You will not commit impure acts.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- You will not give false testimony or lie.
- You will not indulge impure thoughts or desires.
- You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or other people's property.
The Catholic catechism, however, summarizes all of these laws in a single sentence from the Gospel of Matthew: “You will love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself.”
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References
- “Ten Commandments” on Wikipedia.
- “Ten Commandments” at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- “The 10 commandments. “Does Jewish law derive from Egyptian legislation?” in National Geographic.
- “Ten Commandments (Old Testament)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
