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Background
Background
Once the Israelites had safely crossed the sea, they found themselves in the desert. Life was very difficult for them, but God miraculously provided them with Manna to eat and water.
Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, came to visit the Israelites in the desert. He saw that, everyday, Moses had to sort out arguments between the Israelites. They’d come to him expecting him to judge who was right and wrong. Jethro suggested that Moses appoint some judges to help him do this job, so he did.
Eventually, the Israelites arrived at the base of the Mountain of God, where God asked whether they wanted to be his chosen people and keep his laws. The Israelites accepted.
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments
Everyone gathered at the foot of the holy mountain. There was thunder and lightening, and fire and smoke, and the mountain shook. God told Moses to go up the mountain, where God gave him the Ten Commandments:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
—Exodus, Chapter 20Discussion - what did the commandments mean?
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.
God told the Israelites to make a sanctuary for God to live with them. He told them to construct an Ark - a special box to keep the commandments. From the description in the book of Exodus, it might have looked a bit like this:
This ark was kept in a special tent (called a Tabernacle) which was built to God’s specifications. Here is a photo of a model of the Tabernacle in Israel:
The Tabernacle had a very specific layout, which was the basis for the Jewish Temple:
The Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hammurabi
Other civilisations around this time also had laws, and those laws were also written on stone. Perhaps the most famous example is the Code of Hammurabi, which is an Ancient Babylonian law code from about c. 1,750 BC. The stone itself is about as tall as a person. And is covered in writing. The laws on it are written as conditional statements: if… then… for example, one of the laws is: if someone should blind the eye of another, then they shall blind his eye.
Tasks
Tasks
Create a table in your books. In one column, write out the commandments in your own words, and in the other column explain the commandment and why it was a rule. Don’t worry if you end up with more than ten commandments.
What do you think of the Ten Commandments as a set of rules?
What was the 'Ark of the Covenant'? Draw a picture of it in your books.
Create a plan of the Tabernacle in your books and label it.
What was the 'Code of Hammurabi'?
What do you think of the law, 'if someone should blind the eye of another, then they shall blind his eye'?
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