The Six Commandments
Texas wants the Ten Commandments displayed in schools. What would Jesus do? Display the Six Commandments
Last week the lower chamber of the Texas legislature failed to act on a bill that would have required the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools. The bill had passed the Texas Senate.
Public schools generally have not displayed the Ten Commandments since a 1980 Supreme Court ruling involving Kentucky. The Court found the Commandments were not being used for history instruction, rather, were a prohibited state endorsement of religion.
Under the 1980 ruling it is wrong to say, as one hears on talkradio, that public schools are “forbidden to mention the Ten Commandments.” The Ten Commandments can be taught and discussed; cannot be presented to students as endorsed by government. One can only guess how the proposed Texas statute might have fared on this test.
The Ten Commandments often make appearances in politics of the Lone Star State. The current governor, Greg Abbott, came into the public eye in 2005 by winning a Supreme Court case to allow a Moses-style Ten Commandments tablet at the Texas capital.
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1499081870604177415
The Court ruled that context made the Texas tablet historical, associated with lawgiving, as opposed to an endorsement of religion.
The Commandments come in several variations, with somewhat-different Catholic and Protestant versions tracing to three passages of the sacred writing -- at Exodus 20, Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 5 -- that present the laws somewhat differently.
Theologically the Ten Commandments of Exodus and Deuteronomy are God’s compact with Israel, addressed to a small group rather than to humanity generally, requiring of the 12 tribes specific behavior in return for the status of chosen people.
Most Christian and Muslim denominations reinterpret the Ten Commandments as addressed to humanity generally, since Jesus revised Mosaic law, then, just before the ascension, proclaimed faith universal.
To many in politics, the Commandments symbolize both lawgiving and authority. When politicians are photographed in front of the Ten Commandments – a photo-op setting of which Gov. Abbott is fond – they are appearing to be humble while subliminally communicating, “You should bow before me, too.”
Here’s the thing. Jesus deleted four of the Ten, paring them down to the Six Commandments. Later he revised them to the Two Commandment. Finally, just before his arrest, to the One Commandment.
The Six Commandments of Jesus are a handbook for humanity moral. The One Commandment may be the most beautiful sentence ever uttered.
Why do Christians, especially, adulate Commandments that Christ specifically rejected? Why don’t Christians, especially, seem to know what their own Redeemer said about Commandments?
First, the Six Commandments passage, from Matthew 19:16-19.
Behold, [a man] came up to [Christ] saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter [eternal] life, keep the commandments.”
The man said to Jesus, “Which?”
And Jesus said, “You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In the verses that follow, Christ instructs the man, “Go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” Somehow huge numbers of Christians skip over this divine injunction.
Be that as it may, Jesus lists six divine rules that must be followed – the Six Commandments. Can you name the four Christ deletes?
They are (in shortened version – see below on shortening of the Commandments):
· No other gods before me
· No graven images
· Do not take the Lord’s name in vain
· Keep the sabbath
These are the Commandments that concern religious formalism. The Redeemer edited them out, endorsing only Commandments that involve moral behavior.
Christ spoke the thoughts of the creator. By deleting the four Commandments about religious formalism, Christ was enunciating a phase of God’s spiritual progression, from wrath to forgiveness.
As Jesus stated the Six Commandments, virtue matters a great deal, while ecclesiology is a minor concern. It was not that faith customs should cease – after all, the Last Supper was a Seder. It was that as the divine evolved, morals rose in significance while creeds and sacraments declined.
We should say there are the Ten Commandments of Moses and the Six Commandments of Christ.
There would seem to be no Establishment Clause constraint to posting the Six Commandments in public schools, as they are moral, not religious.
The Six Commandments is pretty catchy: but not the endpoint.
Jesus was a rabbi, and part of rabbinical lore was debating which Commandment was greatest. At Mark 12:28 – Mark is the oldest Gospel – Christ is asked which Commandment rules the others.
Jesus answered, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Some faith traditions call these passages the Great Commandment, viewing the Great Commandment as superior to the Ten Commandments. (The teaching appears in slightly different form at Luke 10:27.)
In my experience as a churchgoer, the Ten Commandments are cited 100 times for every one time the Six Commandments or the Great Commandment are cited.
Yet the Great Commandment was not the endpoint, either.
At the Last Supper, knowing his time was short and he was speaking to history, Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12.)
Not, I give you an impromptu after-dinner remark – I give you a Commandment.
Love one another as I have loved you. This glorious sentiment puts the entire holy writ into a single sentence.
Whether today we should speak of the Six Commandments or the Two Commandments or the Great Commandment or the One Commandment -- however you slice it, Jesus edited the commandments down from Ten.
Political and social culture are far more aware of the very ancient Ten Commandments than specific amendments stated in Christ’s teachings.
You don’t need to be Christian to observe the Six Commandments or to employ the One Commandment in your life. Indeed, organized Christianity often stands in the way of Jesus’s moral teaching.
If we all simply followed the One Commandment -- love one another as I have loved you – everything else would take care of itself.
Bonus: 3,000 Years Ago Nobody Sounded Like Charlton Heston. Quotations used here are from the New Revised Standard translation, viewed by most scholars as academically superior to the King James.
The Texas capital tablet shows the King James word choices, which have the Charlton Heston flavor preferred by poseurs – “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” rather than “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Three thousand years ago no one said “thou” or “thine” or any other English word. The KJV/Heston way of speaking may sound to our ears biblical, but is an artifact of 17th century Britain.
Bonus: Editing God. All common versions of the Ten Commandments are abbreviated.
For example Exodus 20:4, which reads, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth,” traditionally becomes, “Make no graven idols” or “thou shalt not make idols.”
The following verse, Exodus 20:5, is always deleted. It reads, “You shall not bow down to [idols] or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.” Too Dark Side! A similar statement in Deuteronomy 5, about God punishing unborn generations, is always cut too.
The Commandment usually phrased as “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,” at Exodus 20:8 reads, “The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.”
This is one of many places the Bible treats enslavement as normal, not forbidden by the Commandments. Translators have felt skittish about this for centuries.
At John 15, just after the beautiful statement “love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus goes on to tell the apostles that they are not his assistants or acolytes but his friends. Christ says, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends.” In Greek originals, Jesus uses the word “slaves” where “servants” now appears.
The Ten Commandments version found at Exodus 34 contains funky passages that end up on the cutting room floor, including, “The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck.”