Transcript 10 - Biblical Law: The Three Legal Corpora of JE (Exodus), P (Levit... - The Diigo Meta page

• 24 Jun 09
  

  Clay Burell

  The Bible's 3 _different_ versions of the "Ten Commandments". Why do fundamentalists think they know which one is the "real" one?

  judaism fundamentalism christianity literacy

  • It's important to realize
    that the Pentateuch contains three versions of the Decalogue. And there
    are differences among them. The Decalogue is going to be repeated in
    Deuteronomy, chapter five. And there are some minor variations.
    Specifically you'll see that the rationale for observing the Sabbath is
    different. God's name in Deuteronomy 5 is not to be used in a vain oath
    as opposed to a false oath. There are differences in the meaning. And
    there are some more differences too in language. So what are we to make
    of this?

    
    
    

    One scholar, Marc Brettler, whose name I've mentioned before, he
    says that what we learn from this, these variations, is something about
    the way ancient Israel preserved and transmitted sacred texts. They
    didn't strive for verbatim preservation when they transmitted biblical
    texts. And they didn't employ cut and paste methods that might be
    important to us in the transmission of something. Texts were modified
    in the course of their transmission. Verbatim repetition was not valued
    in the way that it might be for us. So that even a text like the
    Decalogue, which is represented as being the unmediated word of God,
    can appear in more than one version.

    
    
    

    There's a more surprising variation that occurs, however, in Exodus
    34. After smashing the first set of tablets that were inscribed with
    the Decalogue--the tablets in Exodus 20, those are smashed after the
    golden calf incident--Moses is then given a second set of tablets. And
    the biblical writer emphasizes in the story at that point that God
    writes on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets that
    were broken. The same words. So we expect now a verbatim repetition of
    Exodus 20. And yet we don't have it. The Decalogue that follows in fact
    has very little overlap with the earlier Decalogue. There's really only
    two statements that even have the same content.

  • It's important to realize
    that the Pentateuch contains three versions of the Decalogue. And there
    are differences among them.
  • 1 more annotations...
  • • There's a more surprising variation that occurs, however, in Exodus
      34. After smashing the first set of tablets that were inscribed with
      the Decalogue--the tablets in Exodus 20, those are smashed after the
      golden calf incident--Moses is then given a second set of tablets. And
      the biblical writer emphasizes in the story at that point that God
      writes on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets that
      were broken. The same words. So we expect now a verbatim repetition of
      Exodus 20. And yet we don't have it. The Decalogue that follows in fact
      has very little overlap with the earlier Decalogue. There's really only
      two statements that even have the same content. And even those, which
      do overlap in content, vary in wording. This Decalogue, which is often
      called the ritual Decalogue, so it's listed on there [the handout] in
      Exodus 34, bans intermarriage with Canaanites less they entice the
      Israelites into worship of their gods. It has other terms that give
      commandments about the observance of the festivals, various festivals,
      the dedication of first fruits to God, the dedication of first born
      animals to God and so on; things that were not in the Exodus 20
      Decalogue.

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