TEN COMMANDMENTS

The "Ten Commandments" constituted the core element of the law of Moses (see Ex. 19:16-20:17). They were written by God himself on the two tables of stone (Ex. 31:18; 32:15-16; 34:1, 28; Dt. 10:4). Moses shattered the first set when he learned of Israel's worship of the golden calf (Ex. 32:19). Eventually, the second set was deposited in the ark of the covenant, which was kept in the tabernacle's holy of holies (Ex. 25:16; 40:20). (a) The commands fall into two categories -- religious and moral laws. The first four set forth certain obligations the Jews had to God; the final six regulate the conduct of the Hebrew people among themselves. (b) The commandments embody certain principles that were right or wrong from the beginning of time. For example, it was wrong for Cain to murder Abel long before the prohibition was formalized in the Law. The Sabbath law, however, appears to have been unique to Israel. See SABBATH. (c) The Ten Commandments, as a legal system, were abolished at the cross (Rom. 7:4, 6-7; 2 Cor. 3:1ff; Eph. 2:14-15; Col. 2:14-17). Some of the same legal principles are a part of the new covenant, which was foreshadowed by the old, but the Mosaic code, as such, is gone. (d) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus emphasized that the moral requirements of his law go much deeper than the rather external approach of Moses' law (cf. Mt. 5:21, 27). (e) There are several modern perversions of the Ten Commandments. Catholic theologians frequently "abridge" the first portion (eliminating the second commandment -- the prohibition regarding the worship of images), and divide the tenth commandment into two, so as to retain the full complement of ten. Some cults, e.g., the Seventh-day Adventists, attempt to bind the sabbath day in the Christian age, though they inconsistently ignore the death penalty requirement that was associated with it under the Mosaic regime. Millennialists allege that the Mosaic law, with the Commandments, will be revived in that mythical thousand-year reign from Jerusalem. See DISPENSATIONALISM.