The Ten Commandments

I've been reading, with great interest, a series of comments by David Plotz (the Jewish deputy editor of Slate.com) on his reading of the Torah. With the "Blogging the Bible" project, he's attempting to go chapter-by-chapter, carefully considering the text and offering his own impressions of it as someone who has never otherwise given a great amount of thought to it. The results are frequently fascinating, as is demonstrated by an observation he had today.

We're all well acquainted with the traditional Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 20:1-17: 1) You shall have no other gods before me; 2) Make no graven idols; 3) Don't misuse the Lord's name; 4) Remember the Sabbath; 5) Honor your father and mother; 6) Do not murder; 7) Do not commit adultery; 8) Do not steal; 9) Do not give false testimony; and 10) Do not covet. We have this enduring image of Moses carrying these ten basic laws to the Israelites on the stone tablets given to him by God. But is that image correct??

God said, in Exodus 24:12, that he would give Moses "the tablets of stone, with the laws and commands I have written for their instruction." He did not say that those laws and commands included the Big Ten. After God actually hands over the tablets in Exodus 31:18, Moses destroys them at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus 32:19) because of Israel's faithless veneration of the Golden Calf created by Aaron. In Exodus 34, God promises to re-create the original tablets, but read the chapter for yourself and see what God actually conveyed to Moses...

Exodus 34
The New Stone Tablets
1 The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain."
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 "O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance."

10 Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. [a] 14 [1] Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

15 "[2] Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

17 "[3] Do not make cast idols.

18 "[4] Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

19 "The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. 20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.
"[5] No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

21 "[6]Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

22 "[7] Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. [b] 23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.

25 "[8] Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.

26 "[9] Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.
"[10] Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."

27 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." 28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

Plotz pointed out in today's post that, while it does include the familiar commandments concerning other gods, graven images, and the Sabbath, this set of ten commandments is radically different from the one with which we're so familiar. But the text seems strongly to suggest that this second set is the one by which God intended to establish the covenant with Israel. What do you think about this? What could it mean? How does it affect the way that you think about the traditional Ten Commandments?

[[Addendum 6/29/06 - I looked in my copy of the Oxford Bible Commentary for some additional insight into Chapter 34. The commentary notes that these provisions are drawn from the "Book of the Covenant" which is elaborated in Exodus 20:22-23:33, following the original Ten Commandments , with expansion of some of the ideas. According to the Commentary's author, this shorter list implies that the initial terms laid out in the earlier passages are not void, it is just unnecessary for the author of Exodus to rehash the entire list of laws and commands. As for the question of what, precisely, was written, the Commentary says, "Up to this point the implication has been that it would be the words in vv. 11-26, yet the text adds that it was 'the ten commandments'. This can only mean 20:2-17. The likely explanation is that someone has added the words 'the ten commandments', remembering that in Deuteronomy 5 it is these which are written on the tablets and trying to make Exodus and Deuteronomy agree."

I am normally quite persuaded by what the Commentary has to offer in explaining passages, but for some reason this one seems shallow. Reading the text of Exodus 34:27, it seems very plain to me that God is referring to the words just spoken. They were preceeded with the statement, "I am making a covenant with you," and bookended with, "in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." The Commentary fails to even discuss this point and offers no explanation why the immediate reference to "the ten commandments" "can only mean 20:2-17." Later readers have certainly inferred that it means 20:2-17, but I don't think it's at all clear, particularly given the unambiguous language of chapter 34, that the author was referencing anything other than the commands God gave in this section. What are your thoughts on this?]]