The Ten Commandments

What are the Ten Commandments? We see them church walls, bumper stickers, yard signs, Field of the Wood (pictured here) but where are they from? The Bible? Where in the Bible?

Exodus 20:1-18 gives the traditional Ten Commandments. But, as you read, no where in the text is the term “Ten Commandments” used, nor does it talk about the stone tablets in which they were written on. Sure, you Bible’s subtitle might use the term, but that was added in the last 50 years or less.

The stone tablets have yet to be mentioned at this point. They won’t show up until Exodus 24:12 and again in 31:18, but in neither case are the Ten Commandments they bear listed. 32:15-16 describe how God fashioned the tablets, but by v.19 Moses had broken the original tablets, not once listing the Ten Commandments that were on them. Two chapers later, God gives him a second chance. Read Exodus 34:1-28, where it lists them.

Wow! Here the author lists ten laws/commandments, written on stone tablets (v.1) and referred to as “the Ten Commandments” (v.28). I don’t want to destroy anyone’s dreams of trying to get the Ten Commandments back in schools and courthouses or cover hillsides with them, but if you must, get the Ten that the Bible calls the Ten, not a false product of tradition.

So, the real Ten Commandments are not listed in Exodus 20, but rather in Exodus 34. If i’m missing something, please, tell me. During my study, another passage caught my eye. Turn to Dueteronomy 5:1-22. Here the traditional Ten Commmandments (found in Exodus 20) are listed and said to be written on two tablets (v.22). This is kind of confusing to me, since the author(s) of the Torah has already established the real Ten Commandments in Exodus 34. I find restitution that these ten in Dueteronomy are not referred to as the Ten Commandments, they were just on the tablets. Dueteronomy 9-10 gives a recap of Moses’ story of the Ten Commandments. How there were two sets since one was broken. I know what you’re thinking. No, they weren’t different. He records specifically in Deuteronomy 10:2 and in Exodus 34:1 also that the words on the second set were the same as the first.

Yes, the ten laws listed in Exodus 20:1-18 (and Dueteronomy 5:1-22) can be good rules to live by, but they are just 10 of 613 laws of the Torah (aka. Mosaic Law). For that matter, the 10 laws (or Commandments) listed in Exodus 34:1-28 are merely 10 of 613 laws as well. God just chose to put them on the stone tablets and dub the Ten Commandments.

The thing is, we have graduated from the Law. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus told us He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not destroy them. He accually went on to give us just Two Commandments. Matthew 22:34-39 list those two. When you think about it, if you obey those two to their fullest, you can’t be in sin.