Bible Dictionary
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, called the “ten words” or testimony in Scripture, are God’s covenant commands given to Israel at Sinai and written on tablets of stone. They summarize duties toward God and toward one’s neighbor.
Definition
The Ten Commandments are the “ten words,” covenant commands, or testimony given by God to Israel and written on tablets of stone. Their division into two tables corresponds to duties toward God and duties toward one’s neighbor.
Biblical Usage
The commandments were proclaimed at Sinai amid cloud, darkness, lightning, fire, and thunder, and were written by the finger of God. Scripture also calls them the covenant and the testimony. The number ten signified completeness.
Historical Background
The commands were given as Israel was being established as a holy nation. The term “Commandments” was in use by the time of Christ, while Scripture more often uses “ten words,” “covenant,” or “testimony.”
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The popular name in this, as in so many instances, is not that of Scripture. There we have the “TEN WORDS,” (Exodus 34:28; 4:13; 10:4) the ”Covenant,” Ex., Deut. 11. cc.; (1 Kings 8:21; 2 Chronicles 6:11) etc., or, very often as the solemn attestation of the divine will, the “TESTIMONY.” (Exodus 25:16,21; 31:18) etc. The circumstances in which the Ten great Words were first given to the people surrounded them with an awe which attached to no other precept. In the midst of the cloud and the darkness and the flashing lightning and the fiery smoke and the thunder like the voice of a trumpet, Moses was called to Mount Sinai to receive the law without which the people would cease to be a holy nation. (Exodus 19:20) Here, as elsewhere, Scripture unites two facts which men separate. God, and not man was speaking to the Israelites in those terrors, and yet, in the language of later inspired teachers, other instrumentality was not excluded. No other words were proclaimed in like manner. And the record was as exceptional as the original revelation. Of no other words could it be said that they were written as these were written, engraved on the Tables of Stone, not as originating in man’s contrivance or sagacity, but by the power of the Eternal Spirit, by the “finger of God.” (Exodus 31:18; 32:16) The number Ten was, we can hardly doubt, itself significant to Moses and the Israelites. The received symbol, then and at all times, of completeness, it taught the people that the law of Jehovah was perfect. (Psalms 19:7) The term “Commandments” had come into use in the time of Christ. (Luke 18:20) Their division into two tables is not only expressly mentioned but the stress is upon the two leaves no doubt that the distinction was important, and that answered to that summary of the law which was made both by Moses and by Christ into two precepts; so that the first table contained Duties to God, and the second, Duties to our Neighbor . There are three principal divisions of the two tables: