Moses: The Law

Discussion - what did the commandments mean?

• The first thing that you will notice is there aren’t obviously ten commandments. Different religious groups divide them up differently, although they all agree that there are ten.

• The first section (verses 2, 3) is all about establishing that there is one God. God is the ultimate authority. And the Law is what God says. If everyone worships different Gods, then everyone will effectively have different laws. 

• Verses 4-6 say that there will be punishments and rewards. ‘I the lord your God and a jealous God’ - this really means that God is full of passion, very emotional, and will take revenge and reward as appropriate. And if God doesn’t punish the man or woman who broke the law, then God will punish their children and their children’s children.

• Verse 7 is about not misusing the word ‘God’ to make promises or to justify things. People must not justify their actions by saying that God wants them to do it (if it isn’t in the commandments). If people start doing this, then the law starts to fall apart.

• Verses 8-11 command that everyone gets a day off. We’re used to idea of a weekend nowadays, but there is currently no evidence that any ancient culture other than the Israelites had a rest day. In Spanish, the word Sabado means Sabbath, which comes form the Hebrew word Shabbath, meaning ‘day of rest’. (For Jewish people, Saturday is their holy day, whereas for Christians it is Sunday.)

• The Israelite societal structure was based on families. Everyone knew which tribe they belonged to - i.e. from which son of Israel they were descended from. Elders and parents were seen as authorities and it was the expectation that they would be looked after in their old age. Verse 12 is all about maintaining that structure. As we have seen, much of the Jewish Bible is a family history, and that family forms a hierarchy - with God at the top, then Adam and so on. If people don’t respect their parents, then this hierarchy and societal structure crumbles.

• Verse 13: Notice how it says, ‘do not murder’ not ‘do not kill’ —the ancient Israelites had the death penalty. This law only banned illegal killing.

• Verse 14: Again, in a society based around the family, it was important to know who was the parent of who, because a father would be responsible for caring for his child. There were no paternity tests for the ancient Israelites.

• Verse 15 is self-explanatory, though it’s worth mentioning that the Israelites had an interesting rule with regards property: you could sell it or buy it, but every 49th year it had to go back to its original owner. This was called a jubilee year. (Obviously this only applied to non-perishable stuff.)

• Legal systems rely on people telling the truth in court, hence verse 16.

• In verse 17, the word ‘covet’ means desire or wish to possess. But it probably means more than that. It probably means that, as well as being punished for stealing, you can also be punished for conspiring to steal, for making plans to steal or attempting to steal.