THE COMMANDMENTS

Introduction

The circumstances in which the Decalogue was received are related in Exodus chapters 19, 20, and 24. More than fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, after great miracles wrought by Moses in Egypt, Pharaoh was compelled to let the Hebrews go. Miraculously crossing the Red Sea, Moses proceeded south along the Sinai desert peninsula, making his way towards the Promised Land. On the fiftieth day after their exodus from Egypt, the Hebrews came to the foot of Mt. Sinai and set up camp. Moses ascended the mountain, and there the Lord spoke to him: Say to the Israelites: If ye will indeed hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a special people above all nations (Ex. 19:5). When Moses conveyed God's will to the Hebrews, they replied: All the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do and be obedient (Ex. 19:8). Then the Lord ordered Moses to prepare the people in three days to receive the Law, and with prayer and fasting the Hebrews began to prepare themselves. On the third day a thick cloud covered the summit of Mount Sinai. Lightning flashed, it thundered and the voice of a loud trumpet was heard. Smoke rolled from the mountain and it began to shudder. The people stood afar off and trembled for fear. On the mount the Lord delivered His law to Moses in the form of ten commandments, which he then conveyed to the people.

Receiving the laws, the Hebrews promised to keep them, and then a covenant was made between God and the Hebrews: the Lord promised the Hebrews His mercy and protection, and the Hebrews promised to live righteously. Again Moses ascended the mountain and remained there in prayer and fasting for forty days. At this time the Lord gave Moses other laws, both ecclesiastical and civil; He ordained that a tabernacle be constructed, a type of moveable tent, and He gave rules concerning the ministry of the priests and the offering of sacrifices. At the end of these forty days God inscribed His Ten Commandments, which He had earlier delivered orally, on two stone tablets and commanded that they be kept in the "Ark of the Covenant" (a box overlaid with gold, with images of cherubim on the lid) as a reminder of the covenant made between Him and the Israelites.

Over the course of the next forty years of wandering through the wilderness, Moses gradually wrote down much else that the Lord had revealed to him on Mount Sinai and in subsequent visions. From these writings were formed the biblical books of Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

The purpose of the laws which the prophet Moses delivered to the Hebrews was to regulate not only religious life but also their civil life. In New Testament times the majority of Old Testament rituals and civil laws lost their significance and were abrogated by the Apostles. However, the Ten Commandments and other commandments defining man's moral behavior, comprise together with New Testament teaching a single moral law. The Ten Commandments contain the very basis of morality; they lay down those fundamental principles without which no human society can exist. For this reason they may be regarded as a kind of "constitution" of mankind. It is probably because of their supreme importance and inviolability that the Ten Commandments, unlike all the other commandments, were written down not on paper or other corruptible material but on stone.

Most people know the Ten Commandments — or perhaps it is better to say that they think they know the Ten Commandments. The commandments are one of those cultural products that people imagine that they understand, but in reality, they frequently can't even name all of them, let alone explain them.

The Ten Commandments are a set of ten basic rules of behavior that appear in the ancient Hebrew scriptures and are directed at the Hebrews as God’s chosen people. Tradition holds that these rules were delivered to them by God via Moses, who climbed to the top of Mount Sinai during the Hebrews’ journey through the desert from Egypt to Canaan. They are, then, God’s requirements for how the Hebrews are supposed to behave.

It did not take long for the Israelites to break the commandments, they were soon worshiping a golden calf and coveting better things.

We are no different today, it is easy to fall short of these commandments. Our challenge is to be different, to commit to trying to live our lives within the framework.

Our inability to keep our part of the covenant with God, meant God needed to act. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from our own sinful ways.

This offer demonstrates God's love for us, even when we fail to live up to the requirements of the commandments - He wants to forgive us and offer us a new start.

As Christians, we learn the ten commandments and use them as guides to help us in our relationships with our loved ones, our neighbors, and God. God gave the ten commandments to us because He only wants what's good for us.

The Ten Commandments are also called the Decalogue (Greek, meaning ten words). The commandments are not a list of "Do nots," but are in fact God's guide to the good life—a life full of blessings.

The use of the term “Catholic” Ten Commandments is meant loosely because both Catholics and Lutherans follow this particular listing which is based upon the version found in Deuteronomy. The Exodus text forms the basis for the “Protestant” version of the Ten Commandments.

The Catholic Ten Commandments are linked together to form a coherent whole. If you break one of them, you're guilty of breaking all of them (Catechism, #2069).

The Commandments express man's fundamental duties to God and neighbor. As such, they represent grave obligations. To violate them knowingly and willingly in a significant way is to commit mortal sin. (See Catechism, #2702-3)

The idea, however, that the Catholic Church in some way “omitted” Commandments is completely false. The Church did not “add” or “subtract” anything – again, it was the Catholic Church Fathers who wrote (through the inspiration of the Spirit) the Sacred Scriptures, and the Early Catholic Church (again, through the inspiration of the Spirit) that developed and solidified the canon of Scripture, everyone else used ours as the guide and the foundation of the Bible.

Whenever someone tries to have the Ten Commandments posted by the government on public property, it is almost inevitable that this Catholic version is not used. Instead, people chose the Protestant listing. The reason is likely the long-standing Protestant dominance in American public and civic life.