The Ten Words

I learned something new in Bible class yesterday. The Bible doesn’t call the Ten Commandments “commandments”. The original Hebrew and Greek both call them the Ten Words. Our Bible study leader, a theology professor, then led a discussion about how the Ten Commandments have been traditionally numbered. Here was his handout:

He said it doesn’t really make sense to have two commandments about coveting, like the the Roman Catholics and Lutherans do. It also doesn’t really make sense to have two commandments about having no other gods, like the Reformed churches do.

He said that’s because there are really only nine commandments (the last nine “words”), and that the first “word” is the second verse of Exodus 20: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

That verse is all Gospel! God saved Israel first. He didn’t ask them to follow rules first, or to feel bad about their sins first. He saved them. Then after they came to Mount Sinai, he gave the Ten Words. The first word was a reminder that he loved them and saved them, and then the other nine were about how to live in God’s love. If you want to be happy, don’t murder people. If you want to be happy, be honest. If you want to be happy, don’t take other people’s things.

It’s such a perspective-changer! Now I want the Jewish way of numbering the “Ten Words” on a poster in my classroom!