DECALOGUE

The ten precepts, or commandments , delivered by God to Moses, and by him written on two tables of stone, and delivered to the Hebrews, as the basis and foundation of their religion. The history of this great event, together with the ten commandments themselves, are recited at large in the 19th and 20th chapters of the book of Exodus. The Jews called these commandments, by way of excellence, the ten words , from whence they had afterwards the name of Decalogue. But it is to be observed, that they joined the first and second into one, and divided the last into two. They understand that against stealing to relate to the stealing of men, or kidnapping, alleging, that the stealing of another’s goods or property is forbidden in the last commandment.— De Legib. Hebr. lib. i. c. 2. “Most divines,” says the learned Spencer, “seem to have been of opinion, that God gave the Decalogue, to be a general rule of life and manners, and as it were a summary, to which all other precepts, either of the law or the gospel, may be reduced. Hence they rack their brains, to fix so large and extensive a meaning on all these commands, that all duties, respecting God or our neighbour, may be understood to be contained in them. But no one, who duly considers the matter, can think it probable, that the Decalogue was therefore given, that it might be a kind of compendium of all the other laws of the Pent a teuch; since those eminent precepts of the law, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,’ cannot be found in the Decalogue, without affixing a meaning to some commands quite foreign to the natural sense of the words, and subjecting them to an arbitrary interpretation. To give my opinion in a few words; the chief scope and intent of the Decalogue was to root out idolatry and its more immediate effects, and to add force and authority to the other laws contained in the Pent a teuch. For who can persuade himself, that God would have collected together, into the one little system of the Decalogue, those ten precepts, which have scarce any connexion with each other, had they not all naturally tended to destroy idolatry and its primary effects?” The author then proceeds to confirm the truth of this a ertion by a distinct consideration of each precept of the two tables. It has been a question, and even matter of admiration, why God , in delivering laws to the Hebrews, kept precisely to the number ten. This question is answered by the above-cited author, (Id. ib. § 2,) who a igns the following reasons for this proceeding. “First, the number ten exceeds all others in perfection and capacity: for in it are comprehended all the diversities of numbers and their analogies, and all the geometrical figures which have any relation to numbers. Secondly, A Decad seems to have been in most esteem and use, among all nations, from the earliest times. Thirdly, As the number ten comprehends in it all others, so the Decalogue was to be a kind of representative of all the other laws of Moses, which were too numerous to be distinctly and separately rehearsed from Mount Sinai. Lastly, The number ten was a sacred number, and most frequently applied to the things mentioned in the Law: as will be evident to those, who carefully read over the institutes of Moses.” The Samaritans, to raise and maintain the credit of their temple on Mount Gerizim, forged an eleventh command or precept, which in their Pent a teuch they added at the end of the Decalogue, both in Exodus and Deuteronomy. It was this: “When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land of Canaan, whither thou goest to po e it, thou shalt erect to thyself large stones, and shalt write on them all the words of this Law. And, after thou shalt have pa ed over Jordan, thou shalt place those stones, which I command thee this day, on Mount Gerizim, and shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God , an altar of stone,” .