The Ten Commandments (vv. 1-21)
Exodus 20-23, containing (1) the Decalogue (Gk. = 'Ten Words' or 'Commandments') and (2) a code of laws regulating the religious and social life of the people, and called the Book of the Covenant (see Exodus 24:7), form perhaps the most important part of the Pentateuch. It is the nucleus of the entire Mosaic legislation, and in all probability existed for long as a separate document.
1-17. The Decalogue. In chapter Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13 this is called the 'Ten Words' or 'Commandments.' It is also called the 'Testimony' in Exodus 25:16 (see on Exodus 16:34) and the 'Covenant' in Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9. These words were uttered in the hearing of the awe-struck people (Exodus 19:9; Exodus 20:19; Deuteronomy 4:12), and afterwards graven by the finger of God on two tables of stone (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13). On witnessing the apostasy of the people Moses broke these tables (Exodus 32:19), but they were afterwards replaced by another pair on which the same words were written (Exodus 34:1; Deuteronomy 10:1; Deuteronomy 10:4). When the ark was made the two tables of the testimony were deposited in it (Deuteronomy 10:5; Hebrews 9:4). As the ark itself stood in the innermost sanctuary of the tabernacle, this position of the Tables of the Law bore emphatic witness to the great truth that the beginning and end of all religious observances is the keeping of the commandments of God: cp. Matthew 19:17; Romans 2:25; 1 Corinthians 7:19.
Two versions of the Ten Commandments are preserved in the Pentateuch, the second, exhibiting a few variations, being given in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Most scholars agree that the version given in Exodus is the older and purer of the two, the variations in Deuteronomy being due to the characteristic ideas and style of the writer of that book. The main divergences occur in the fourth and fifth commandments. There is a good deal to be said for the view that the commandments as originally promulgated were shorter than either form, that they consisted merely of the precepts without the reasons annexed, the second e.g. reading simply, 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,' and the fourth, 'Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy': see on Deuteronomy 5:11. That the commandments, at least in this terser form, are really Mosaic, there is no reasonable ground to doubt.
The Ten Commandments were inscribed on two tables and divided into two parts, but opinions differ as to their enumeration and arrangement. The Jews themselves regard Exodus 20:2, usually called the Preface, as the First Word, and maintain the number ten by uniting Exodus 20:2-6 (the first and second) and calling these the Second Word. The Roman Catholies and Lutherans combine the first two, and split up the tenth. Our common enumeration is that of Philo and Josephus, who are followed by the Greek and Reformed Churches. As to their arrangement, some have assigned five commandments to each table; while others have divided them in the proportion of four to six. According to the latter division the first four are religious, defining the duties man owes to God ('Thou shalt love the Lord thy God'); the last six are moral, defining the duties men owe to each other ('Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself'). On the other hand, seeing that in ancient times filial duty was regarded more as a religious than a moral obligation, there is something to be said for placing the fifth commandment on the first table: see on Exodus 21:15.
Christians, while freed from the obligations of the Mosaic law of ceremonies, are still bound, bound more than ever (see Romans 6), to 'the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.' What our Lord did with regard to the Ten Commandments was (1) to sum them up under the two obligations of love to God and love to our neighbour, which, again, are the two sides of the one law of universal Love ('love is the fulfilling of the law'); (2) to widen and deepen their scope, making them apply not only to the outward act, but to the inner spirit and motive, and (3) to change them from mere negative commands to abstain from certain sins to positive obligations, which are never exhausted and involve a perpetual advance in holiness where mere abstention from evil acts implies moral stagnation: see Matthew 22:37-40; Matthew 5:17-48.