Yeshua Explored
10th April 2023
The Ten Commandments
How did the Church deal with them (part 2)?
We move on to medieval times, to Thomas Aquinas, the key Catholic theologian and philosopher of his day and who had much to say about the Ten Commandments, from these two perspectives. In fact, he had more to say on the Law of Moses, mainly because the burning question for theologians at that time was what do Christians do about the Laws in the Old Testament? It was a period when, on the one hand, there was an interest in literal meanings of Scripture, but on the other hand, the works of Aristotle were becoming popular, bringing ideas and thought-patterns from the world of philosophy. These two concepts brought something new to the table, a desire to investigate logical “reasons” for God’s laws. In other words, they were bringing God and His actions, thoughts and motives down to a human level. They wanted to pick Him apart, using their rational minds as a set of tweezers!
As a theologian he introduces the Commandments as part of the Christian creed and as part of the process of individual salvation, in reminding ourselves of our sin nature. He offers detailed commentary alongside each commandment. For instance, alongside the First Commandment he offers suggestions of who these ‘other gods’ may be and offers five motives of why we should worship the One God only; the dignity of the Creator, His generosity in sharing being, the necessity of renouncing the devil, avoiding slavery to the devil and how to achieve eternal life.
As a philosopher he defers to the rational approach of Aristotle, viewing God as the ‘Prime Mover’, the First and the Final Cause in the World. His biggest challenge was to square up the Ten Commandments with the teachings of this pagan Greek philosopher. At the outset I must declare that this was a bad thing and that Aquinas did major damage to the Church in his compromising of Biblical truths in order to fit in with alien philosophy (more of this in How the Church Lost the Truth). So let us move on …
The Reformation brought new ideas and we start with John Wycliffe, the ‘morning star of the Reformation’ who came on the scene a century earlier, in the 14th Century. For Wycliffe, to obey the commandments is to honour God duly. He slightly tweaks the list:
- I am the Lord your God … (he follows the lead of the Jews here and, also, he implies the prohibition on idol making/worshipping here too)
- Don’t take the Name of the Lord in vain
- Keep the Sabbath (Sunday!)
- Honour your parents (also treat your neighbours as you would want to be treated)
- Do not murder
- Do not commit adultery (bodily or spiritually)
- Do not steal
- No false witness
- Don’t covet your neighbour’s house
- Don’t covet your neighbour’s wife, ox etc
Yet, in the period that follows, many versions of the Ten Commandments circulated, up to a dozen of them, many of them inaccurate paraphrases or verses. Here’s an example of the First Commandment: ‘Thou shalt have, neither night nor day, none other God but the king of bliss’. And the Tenth Commandment: ‘Desire not thy neighbour’s wife, though she be fair and white as a swan, and thy wife brown’ Poetry and political-correctness were evidently not their forte!
A century later, Martin Luther came on the scene, bringing with him the Reformation of the Church. Yet his reading of the Ten Commandments was no real deviation from Catholic understandings, apart from one of them (read on). In other words, he didn’t, in the spirit of Sola Scriptura, start from scratch with a literal rendition of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Nevertheless, they were important to him, they are ways in which we are to “fear and love God”. His most interesting adjustments, though, were to the sixth commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery.
Remember he was an ex-monk who married a nun, so his views on the chastity of the clergy is not exactly going to be the mainstream Catholic position. He went as far as to declare that celibacy was sinful! This actually brought him in line with the Jewish position, where rabbis are positively encouraged to marry and have large families.
His fellow “revolutionary”, John Calvin, made great use of the Ten Commandments in his doctrinal statements (catechisms), sermons and commentaries. In fact he was to produce the definitive Protestant commentary of the commandments in his day. He also used the commandments to enforce discipline in the “kingdom” he had built in Geneva, with the Spanish “freethinker”, Servetus, even burnt at the stake for blasphemy! He was also strong on the keeping of the (Sunday) Sabbath and the commandment against adultery. He looked for ways to reduce ‘temptations of the flesh’ including advising married couples to restrain any fruity behaviour and banning public dancing.
The Puritans were very hot on the Ten Commandments, parents teaching them religiously to their children, aided by a guide written in 1681 by Joseph Waite. In this he tells them, “thou shall teach (these words) diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thou house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up”. In other words, he covered all bases! He was especially hot on the (Sunday) Sabbath and devoted much of his guide detailing the dos and don’ts for this special day.
A later Puritan, Jonathan Edwards in America in the eighteenth century took an approach to the Ten Commandments suggested by the Gospels. He appealed to John 13:34-35 to declare that the rules of Christ now hold sway, the New Commandment.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
He was a highly regarded theologian and philosopher and saw the commandments as a stepping stone towards one of the ‘unalienable truths’ that emerged from that period in American history, that all men are created equal and have a natural right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Nevertheless, not everyone had such a benevolent attitude towards the Ten Commandments. In the next article we will investigate the flip side …
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
