Yeshua Explored

5th September 2022

Aseret ha-Dibrot

What is missing from the ‘ten commmandments’?

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Actually, they are not literally the Ten Commandments. The Hebrew expression within the Scriptures is Aseret ha-Dibrot, which takes the meaning of the ten sayings, ten words or ten statements. The expression for Ten Commandments is very different, it would be Aseret ha-Mitzvot, in the same way that a bar-Mitzvah is a “son of the commandments”. So why has the Church got it all wrong right from the outset? Not too sure, but perhaps “ten Commandments” has a sense of immediacy and importance that the literal renditions lack? One thing is clear, though. By viewing them as a list of ten “commandments”, the Church has missed out an extremely important chunk of Hebrew Scripture, the preamble, the first two verses in Exodus 20:

And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:1-2)

To Jews, this is the first commandment. In the vast majority of Christian Bibles, the actual commandments don’t begin until verse 3, you shall have no other Gods before me. By doing this the Church has missed two very important things, the fact that God was actually speaking these words and that He was declaring His calling card, His identifier, His USP (in marketing parlance) … or, to take this further … His supremacy, His uniqueness, His awesome power. The Church missed this, but the Jews didn’t. If the Scriptures were a work of philosophy, God would be explained in some metaphysical sense, as taught by such as Aristotle. But they are not, they are a work of revelation, describing a God who has revealed Himself through His acts in history.

I am the LORD your God.

Here is the same verse, in the ONE NEW MAN Bible, a modern translation that emphasises the Hebraic mindset behind the text.

I AM the LORD your God.

Nowhere else would the capitalisation of two letters have such significance. This is a translation of the first Hebrew word in the verse, anoki, taking the meaning “I am”. This very word is mainly used in the context of a royal command, a decree given for everyone. Its literal meaning is Because I Am and is used over a hundred times in Scripture.

You will notice the extra emphasis placed on those two words, “I AM” – capitalised in the One New Man Bible. It is God Himself speaking here and we’re not to forget that. It underlines all that follows and puts a Divine seal on the proclamations that form the “Ten Commandments”. These aren’t ordinary instructions, these are coming from His very character, part of God’s eternal Word of life for all of us!

This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp