THE TEN COMMANDMENTS 1- An introduction to the Ten Commandments. -- 2- The Law between the letter and the Spirit. -- 3- “I have not come to destroy (abolish) the Law, but to fulfill it” 4- The first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me” 1-3 5- The second commandment: “You shall not make for yourself any carved image” 4-6 6- The third commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain” 7 7- The fourth commandment: Keeping the Sabbath. 8-11 8- The fifth commandment: Honoring the parents. 12 9- The sixth commandment: “You shall not murder” 13 10- The seventh commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” 14 11- The eighth commandment: “You shall not steal” 15 12- The ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” 16 13- The tenth commandment: “You shall not covet...” 17 14- The people’s fear of God’s presence. 18-21 15- A confirmation against idol worship. 22-25 1- An introduction to the Ten Commandments It was not possible for the people to receive the divine commandments or to appreciate the Law, while still in the land of servitude. That is why God brought them out into the wilderness to give them the law, which He begins by saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exod. 20.2). Although this phrase came as an introduction to the commandments not in the form of a commandment; yet, the Jews considered it as part of the first commandment. The Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stone (Exod. 32.15), they were called the ‘Decalogue’ (Exod. 34.28; Deut. 4.13, 10.4). They were also called ‘The words of the covenant’ (Deut. 29.1), ‘The two tablets of Covenant’ (Exod. 31.18), and ‘The Covenant’ (Exod. 25.16). The same text of these commandments came once more in the Book of Deuteronomy (5.6 - 21). The difference between the two is that the text in the Book of Exodus presented as a justification for the commandment of the sanctification of the Sabbath, that God rested on the seventh day of His work of creation; while the Book of Deuteronomy made a point, that keeping the Sabbath is a memorial of the salvation from the land of servitude, to enter into the land of rest. The Ten Commandments, in the Holy Book, did not have designated numbers; that is why two ways of classification appeared: [1] The old classification is known by the Jews, mentioned by Josephus1 and Philo2, adopted by the scholar Origen, and still followed by the non-Lutheran Protestant Churches. It is based on the differentiation between the commandment concerning forbidding the worship of other gods (Exod. 20.3), and that concerning 1 Artiq. 3:5:5. 2 Philo. Decalogue. 137 forbidding the making of any carved image or idols (Exod. 20.4), considering them the first and second commandments, beside considering “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife”, an integral part of that forbidding to covet “your neighbor’s house” (Exod. 20.17). By this classification, the first four commandments would concern man’s relationship with God, while the other six would concern that between man and his neighbor. Each of the two tablets carried five commandments, the fifth commandment concerning honoring the father and the mother, is engraved together with those concerning the relationship between man and God, on the first tablet. Those adopting this view justify it, by the fact that the Jews considered honoring the parents as something absolute and unconditional, as though that commandment is an extension of those concerning man’s relationship with God. It is to be noticed that the apostle Paul, as he amalgamated together, the five last commandments, he did not include in them the commandment under consideration, while the Lord Christ included it in that same group (Mark 10.19). [2] The classification adopted by the Catholic and the Lutheran Churches is based on the point of view of St. Augustine that the commandment, forbidding the worship of other gods, embraces with it that, forbidding making carved images and idols. Notwithstanding, he considered the commandment concerning not coveting your neighbor’s wife, as independent of that of not coveting his house. Thus, he believes that the commandments concerning the relationship of man to God are three, while those concerning his relationship with his neighbor are seven. The first tablet includes the first three, and the second one includes the seven last commandments. Note that the Ten Commandments carried a negative aspect, except the two commandments of keeping the Sabbath and honoring the parents, and that the latter commandment is the only one with a promise. The Lord Christ has summarized all these commandments in one, which is to love God and love your neighbor (Matt. 22.37; Rom. 13.9; Gal. 5.14; Jam. 2.8). 2- The Law, between the letter and the Spirit As long as we are dealing with the Ten Commandments, which are the backbone of the Law, we should study them in the light of the words of the apostle Paul, You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! (2 Cor. 3.3-9). Many fathers were interested in revealing the significance of the phrase, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”, but I shall only present some sayings of St. Augustine, from his essay “On the Spirit and the letter”, from a book he sent to ‘Marcilinus’ of sixty-six chapters, in which he clarifies the following points: 1. By the Law, sin was exposed, but was not cured. The letter of the Law that instructs us to refrain from committing sin would kill if it lacks the Spirit that gives it life, as it lets us know sin without knowing how to avoid it. Thus, it increases in us 138 instead of decreasing, adding to the evil lust (forbidden by the Law) by breaking the Law itself1. Although the Law is good in itself it enhances the evil lust, as it forbids it. It resembles a strong flow of water, going steady in one direction; if it meets a certain obstruction, it would get stronger and more vigorous, once it overpasses that obstruction, to turn eventually into a mighty torrent. Whatever we covet would become much more attractive when it is forbidden. That is the sin which deceives and kills through the commandment, “Because the Law brings about wrath; for where there is no Law, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4.15) 2. 2. The Law proclaimed the need for a physician: “The Law entered, that the offense might abound” (Rom. 5.20). Through its existence, man appeared guilty and confused, in need not for a physician but for God Himself as his Helper to guide his steps and to protect him from being controlled by sin. In order to be cured, man was committed to deliver himself to the mercy of God. Then, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Rom. 5.20), not out of worthiness of the sinner, but through the intervention of God who helps him3. Actually the Law, by giving commandments, together with threats, and by justifying nobody, reveals that justification of man is a gift of God through the help of the Holy Spirit, “being justified freely by His grace” (Rom. 3.24) 4. 3. The Law is good and the commandment is just: We, as Christians, are committed to keep the Ten Commandments (taking into consideration to consider the Sabbath as a symbol of Sunday). The Scripture says that the Ten Commandments are beneficial to him who keeps them and no one can enjoy life, unless he keeps them5. Nevertheless, they sadden the literal man, by being unable to set him free of sin. That is why it is said, “For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Ecc. 1.18). On the other hand, to him who keeps the Law spiritually, according to the inner man, the Law would be joy. St. Augustine says, “If, however, that faith be present which worketh by love (Gal. 5.6), then one begins to delight in the law of God after the inward man (Rom. 7.22) and this delight is the gift of the spirit, not of the letter; even though there is another law in our members still warring against the law of the mind, until the old state is changed, and passes into that newness which increases from day to day in the inward man, whilst the grace of God is liberating us from the body of this death through Jesus Christ our Lord.”6 4. The Law and the New Testament: St. Augustine says, Observe this also in that testimony which was given by the prophet on this subject in the clearest way: ‘Behold, the days are coming’, says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judas – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them’, says the Lord. ‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My Law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man 1 On the Letter and the Spirit. Chap. 8. 2 Ibid. Chap. 6. 3 Ibid. Chap. 9. 4 Ibid. Chap. 15. 5 Ibid. Chap. 24. 6 Ibid. Chap. 26. 139 his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more (Jer. 31.31-34). … Consider then carefully, what difference God has testified as existing between the two testaments - the old covenant and the new. … And this change is effected by the life-giving Spirit, without whom the letter kills1. He believes that the Old Testament was called ‘Old’ because sin that was in the old man had been working in him and the letter of the Law was unable to cure from it. The New Testament, on the other hand, was so called on account of the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3.3), who engraved the commandment according to a new way, not on tablets of stone but on ones of flesh2. In the Old Testament, the commandment was warning from outside; while in the New Testament, we gained the grace of the life-giving Holy Spirit inside the heart. He says, “It is therefore apparent what difference there is between the old covenant and the new, -that in the former the law is written on tables, while in the latter on hearts; so that what in the one alarms from without, in the other delights from within; and in the former man becomes a transgressor through the letter that kills, in the other a lover through the life-giving spirit3. St. Augustine believes that all the Law was summarized by the Lord Christ, in loving God and the neighbor. If we were before hearing commandments that we were unable to keep, in the New Testament, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5.5). Hence, the commandments of the Law became easier to keep, as this is the work of the Holy Spirit, who pours out love in us; thus, all the Law would be achieved. 3- “I did not come to destroy (abolish) the Law, but to fulfill it” The Lord Christ confirmed that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5.17). On one hand, He revealed the depths of the Law and brought us from its literality to its hidden Spirit. The Law has become no more just commandments and statutes but an encounter with the hidden “Word of God”. St. Mark the ascetic says that the Lord hides in His commandments. Whoever seeks Him in them will find Him. Do not say that you have consummated the commandments, yet you have not found the Lord; as whoever truly seeks Him would find peace4. On the other hand, the Lord commands us in the New Testament, to kill the source of sins. He does not only want us to kill, but also to refrain from anger, which is the start for the way to killing. He does not only warn us against committing adultery, but also advise us to refrain from looking lustily to a woman, which is the start of falling into adultery. He also gives us the possibility to practice. In the old, the commandment or the Law proclaimed man’s complete inability to sanctify and justify himself. Then came the Lord Christ, to grant us the grace of the Holy Spirit Who is capable of sanctifying our souls and our bodies. Therefore, the commandment, that has been impossible to keep, became the Law of our new man. The figure ten 1 Ibid. Chap. 33-4. 2 Ibid. Chap. 35. 3 Ibid. Chap. 42. 4 Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty. The Philocalia. 1966. 140 The figure 10 refers to perfection on earth. The whole world was likened to 10 virgins (Matt. 25.1); and to 10 servants of God, to each of whom he gave 10 minas, to trade with (Luke 19.13). The Church was likened to a woman who has 10 silver coins (Luke 15.8). Then, the commandment of the tithes, assuming that man possesses 10 units, that constitutes all his wealth, out of which he gives one unit to God (a tenth)1. Finally, as I talk about the Ten Commandments, to make it short, I shall ask the reader to refer to the book The Ten Commandments according to the Christian concept, by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III. 4- The first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me” “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Exod. 20.2-5). Saying “You shall no have other gods before Me”, does not imply the existence of other gods, but He is warning his people of falling into worshipping the gods of pagans beside worshipping Him. St. Athanasius the apostolic believes that God gave us this commandment in order to divert man away from the wrong and unsound fantasies pertaining to idol worship, not that there are other gods that He is warning us against their worshipping, but He commands that in order to protect us from straying from the True God and from making gods out of nothing, as did the poets and authors2. Now, as idol worship is no longer an issue; yet God warns us against other gods that reign over the heart as: love of the world, of dignity, of compliments, or of lusts, “whose god is their belly” (Phil. 3.19). He wants us to love Him so He can completely reign over our hearts, Not to enslave or humiliate us but because He is, as He describes Himself, “a jealous God”. St. John Chrysostom commented on this phrase saying, Let us then love Him as He would have us: for He sets great store thereby. And if we turn away, He keepeth inviting us, and if we will not be converted, He chasteneth us through His affection, not through a wish to exact punishment of us. And see what He saith in Ezekiel to the city that was beloved, yet had despised Him. “I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure … I will give you into their hands… they shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords… So I will lay to rest My fury against you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more” (Ezek. 16.37-42). What more than this could a vehement lover have said, when despised by his beloved, and after all again ardently loving her? For God doeth everything that He may be loved by us, and owing to this He spared not even His Son. But we are unbending, and savage3. The scholar Origen comments on the same phrase asking us to behold the love of God. He endures the weaknesses of mankind to teach us and to lead us to perfection. Every woman submits to her husband, or else she would be considered as an adulteress, who seeks freedom to err. Whoever goes to an adulteress, knowing that this woman gives herself to anybody who pays the price, would never get angry if he sees others with her. While the legally married man, on the other hand, would not bear to see such behavior from his wife, but would do his best to control the purity of his marriage, to make sure that he is the real and legal father of his children. If you 1 HH Pope Shenouda III. The Ten Commandments According to the Christian Concept. 2 St. Athan. Contra Gentes. 3 St.Chrys. In Rom. Hom. 23. 141 understand this parable, you can say that the soul can be defiled by both good and evil lovers if the spirit of adultery enters into it. Once it does, the spirit of greed, then that of wrath, of adornment, or of vainglory, etc, would also enter to commit adultery with the same soul. None of them would get jealous from the others, or would hate the others, but would tend to give them all due consideration. We know, from the Bible, of the unclean spirit, who after getting out of a man, “he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there…” (Luke 11.24-25). On the contrary, if the soul is united with a legal husband, the groom whom the apostle Paul betroths to souls saying, “For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11.2); that wedding was spoken of by the Bible saying, “A certain king arranged a marriage for his son” (Matt. 22.2). To him the soul gives herself, and legally unites with Him, even if she has been a sinner in her past and behaved as an adulteress. Yet, once she unites with Him, she would commit herself to Him. The soul that has chosen Him as her Groom, He would not bear to see her sin again; He would jealously defend the purity of His marital life. God calls Himself “a jealous God”, as He does not bear to see the soul who gave herself to Him unite with demons. Coming to know Him, after having been enlightened by His Divine words, been baptized, after confessing in faith and being united to such great sacraments, we become aware that He does not like us to fall into sin again and does not bear to see that soul of whom He is a Groom and Husband play with demons and commit adultery with unclean spirits. Yet, even if that catastrophe did happen, He wishes her to repent and to come back to Him. It is a new kind of His love to us: to receive back the soul that repents with all her heart after adultery, according to the words of the prophet, “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet, return to Me,’ says the Lord” (Jer. 3.1). Then He says, “She has gone up on every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me’, but she did not return” (Jer. 3.7). Therefore, God is a jealous God; yet He seeks you, and wishes that you unite yourself to Him, to keep you from sin, even though He may chastise you and get angry with you. Therefore, if He shows a sort of jealousy toward you be sure that for you it would be the hope of your salvation1. Finally, this marital love, that binds a soul to her Groom, has drawn the hearts of sinners and adulterers to repentance and has drawn the hearts of many to a life of virginity and monasticism, having seen in the heavenly Groom what abundantly fulfills the heart. That ‘love’ has occupied the center of prominence in the spiritual writings of the early fathers. 5.The second commandment: “You shall not make for yourself any carved image” “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything, that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the 1 In Exode. Hom. 8:5. 142 water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them; For I the Lord, your God, am a jealous God” (Exod. 20.4-5). We have already dealt with this commandment in detail1 and said that the Church is surely committed to keep it; yet, according to the spirit and not to the letter, for “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3.6). The Spirit of this commandment is to keep the pagan worship from infiltrating the people and not to forbid using the images themselves. The Jews were known for falling into two kinds of pagan deviations: A. To follow the example of the pagans surrounding them, as did king Solomon, who fell into the worship of foreign gods, when he married pagan wives. B. Mixing between pagan worship and that of the Living God, as demonstrated when they worshipped the golden calf, with pretense of worshipping the living God through that symbolic act (Exodus 32.5). On the other hand, according to father John Damascene, banning the use of images in the Old Testament was based mainly on the inability of the Jews to discern between ‘Lateria’, a worship of God alone, and ‘Probynesis’, a sort of recognition that can be given to anybody, other than God2. This is clearly demonstrated in God’s command to His people of the old, to put particular images in the House of the Lord, not as articles of adornment, but as a living part in the rites of worship. The tabernacle and the temple later on came according to a divine pattern, as a shadow of the heavenly things (Exod. 25-40; Heb. 8.5) and included images of the two Cherubim, covering the mercy seats with their wings on top of the ark. Moses and all the people used to prostrate before the ark, while God was speaking from between the two Cherubim (Exod. 25.22; Num. 7.89). The image of a cherub was a unit of art that was repetitively engraved all over the walls of the temple, as a sign of the presence of God in His holy house (1 Kings 6.27, 29, 32, 35). Moreover, God instructed Moses to make a bronze fiery serpent and put it on a pole in the wilderness to be the secret of healing anyone who may look at it (Num. 21.8-9). Therefore, God did not ban icons and statues, except for fear that His people might fall into pagan practices. On the other hand, these icons play a didactic role, being a kind of language understood by every man, whatever his race is. Father John Damascene says that if some pagan asks you to tell him about your faith, take him to the Church and let him stand before the icons. St. Gregory the Great also wrote a message to Cerrynus Bishop of Marseille who ordered all icons to be destroyed, on presumption that he is abolishing some evil practices, saying that he heard that he destroyed the images of Saints, in an unprecedented zeal, justifying his action that images should not be worshipped. Forbidding the worship of icons is something to be complimented; yet destroying them is to be blamed for. An image for the illiterate is like written words for the educated. Icons in churches are used to give the chance to the illiterate to read on the walls what they are unable to read in a book. Father John of Cronstadt says that the icons in homes and churches are not items of art for display or decoration but they are to help us to realize a life of prayer through seen objects. Moreover, Father Leontius says that as through your probynesis to a book of law, you are not bowing to the material of leather or ink but to the words of God written in 1 Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty. The Church, The House of God. 1979. 2 John Damascene. On Icons. 143 them. Likewise, when I prostrate before the image of Christ, I do not do that to the wooden frame nor to the drawing itself1. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children Many people get terrified when they hear God saying about Himself, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children”(Exod. 20.6). They may ask, “What have the children done, to be responsible for the iniquity of their parents?” The answer is: [1] We do not deny that children may bear the fruit of their parents’ wrongdoings. The fetus that, all along the months of pregnancy, is nourished on the blood of an angry mother of a fiery nature, would surely bear the fruit of that nature physically and psychologically and would be born with certain physical defects and abnormal habits. However, God had confirmed to us that He is not judging man according to the faults of his parents for, through repentance, many hot-tempered people have become saints, receiving greater blessings than others. God confirmed this issue on Prophet Jeremiah’s tongue saying, “In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man, who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge” (Jer. 31.29-30). Ezekiel explained that matter more clearly saying, The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, ‘What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’, ‘As I live’, says the Lord God, ‘You shall no longer use this proverb in Israel’. ‘Behold, all the souls are Mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself’ (Ezek. 18.1-20). [2] The words of the Lord do not mean that God avenges Himself by punishing the children for what their fathers have done but He wants to confirm His long-suffering. He gives the wicked the chance to repent, year after year, and generation after generation, and if man persists on doing evil, he would be chastised in the third or fourth generation, not for the sins of his fathers, but for the persistence of the children to keep on the evil behavior of their fathers. In this concern, St. John Chrysostom says, “Not as though one were to suffer punishment for the crimes committed by others, but inasmuch as they who, after many sin and have been punished, yet have not grown better, but have committed the same offenses, are justly worthy to suffer their punishments also.” 2 St. Augustine says, “Is it to be understood, that even the sins of his fathers shall be visited upon him? For upon him they are not visited, who had been changed in Christ, and hath ceased to be the child of the wicked, by not having imitated their conduct.” 3 Therefore, when the Jews said, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27.25), they rightly said so, as their children are still bearing that blood which was shed by their fathers, as long as they persist on denying it. Nevertheless, if they accept the Savior they would, no longer, be children of those who crucified Christ but children of God. 1 For a study on the icons see: Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty. The Church, The House of God. 2 In Matt. Hom. 74:2. 3 On Ps. 109. 144 6- The third commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” 1 The first and second commandments concern the worship of the living God away from any pagan deviation; while the third commandment concerns the name of God. God, not wanting His people to swear by the names of other gods, allowed them to swear by His name, as a proclamation of the name of their God, and to make them distinct (Deut. 10.20; Ps. 63.1; Isa. 48.1); and He commanded them as well, “Lest you go among these nations...You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them” (Josh. 23.7). Notwithstanding, He commanded them, “You shall not swear by My name falsely” (Lev. 19.12); and to fulfill what they swore by His name. That is what concerns the oath, but He also commanded them to refrain from taking His name in vain because “Holy is His name” (Luke 1.49); “Awesome” (Ps. 111.9); “Great among the nations” (Mal. 1.11); “Excellent in all the earth” (Ps. 8.9). We should fear and respect it and should utter it with awe and submission, as we are instructed by Moses: “You may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD” (Deut. 28.58), and the subject of our love, satisfaction, and our prayers: “I will lift up my hands in Your name; My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness” (Ps. 63.4); “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119.97). Nevertheless, in the New Testament, as the believer has reached spiritual maturity, it is fit for him not to swear at all, according to the words of the Lord: “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ be ‘No’, For whatever is more than that is from the evil one” (Matt. 5.37). We have known the name of the Lord Christ, the Savior; “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10.13); “We have labored for His name’s sake, and have not become weary” (Rev. 2.3); “In My name they will cast out demons” (Mark 16.17), and “Signs and wonders may be done through the name of ... Jesus” (Acts 4.30). 7- The fourth commandment: Keeping the Sabbath We have already dealt in detail with this commandment. To avoid repetition, please refer to that study2. We said that it is an eternal commandment, that the Church is committed to keep, by entering into the true “Sabbath”, namely the “Rest” that became ours through the resurrection of the Lord Christ. As God had rested on the seventh day, after He finished creation, our rest came with the start of the new creation that became ours through our resurrection with the Lord Christ. The following are some of the sayings of the fathers in this concern: “Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens” (Epistle of Barnabas - the second century) 3. 1 HH Pope Shenouda III. The Ten Commandments in the Christian Concept. The Third Commandment. 2 Christ in the Eucharist. 1973. 3 Epistle of Barnabas, 15. 145 He gave us the seventh day to rest, because our body needs it. As to God, He does not get tired and never feels pain or need. We keep the spiritual Sabbath (Sunday), until the Savior comes; as, in it, we had rest from sin. (St. Clement of Alexandria) 1. Those who live according to the old ordinance, concerning things of the future, do not keep the Sabbath, but keep the day of the Lord, on which our life was resurrected through the death of Christ (St. Ignatius) 2. St. Basil the Great says that we have received many things from the tradition established by the apostles, beside the written teachings, among which is the sanctification of the first day (Sunday) of the week in which the Lord Christ used to meet with His disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24; John 20.19, 26). That day was the day of collective worship of the Church at the time of the apostles (Acts 20.7; 1 Cor. 16.2). 8- The fifth commandment: Honoring the parents God put honoring the parents as the first of the commandments pertaining to our relationship with others, even before commanding us not to kill or to commit adultery, etc. It is the only commandment with a reward or a promise (Eph. 6.2). The Law was very strict on him who breaks this commandment: “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death ... and he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death” (Exod. 21.15-17; “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother; and who when they have chastened him, will not heed them...all the men of his city shall stone him to death” (Deut. 21.18-21); and “Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt” (Deut. 27.16). It seems that the Jews abused this commandment and mistreated their children, demanding absolute obedience, disregarding their psychology and personality. Then, the Lord Christ came to reveal the deep concepts of this commandment. While he has been subject to his mother the Virgin St. Mary and to St. Joseph (Luke 2.51), He, to whom every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth (Phil. 2.10), took care of His mother, while he was on the cross, preoccupied with the salvation of the world and fallen under His Passion, delivering her to the care of His disciple St. John (John 19.27). He also presented a new concept of that obedience, when His mother admonished Him, saying, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have sought you anxiously” (Luke 2.48-49); He answered, “Why is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2.49)? The Evangelist comments on this answer, “But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them” (Luke 2.50). That answer of the Lord Christ constituted a kind of revolution in the world of childhood, giving the children the right to react to their parents and to “obey them in the Lord” (Eph. 6.1). It is not the absolute obedience, as the Jews, and as all humanity, at that time, understood it. This biblical concept also covered the obedience to spiritual fathers (or guide). The apostle Paul says, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1.8), giving his spiritual children the right to disobey his preaching if it is not in the Lord. 1 St. Clement of Alexandria. Strom. 6.16, Hib. Of Frs. The Church. Vol. 43. 2 Magnes. 5:1. 146 St. Jerome speaks about obedience in the Lord, “‘Honor your father and your mother’; the commandment says, but only if he does not separate you from your true Father. Recognize the tie of blood but only so long as your parent recognizes his Creator. Should he fail to do so, David will sing to you: “Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father’s house; so the king will greatly desire your beauty” (Ps. 45.10-11). Great is the prize offered for the forgetting of a parent, ‘So the king will greatly desire your beauty’.”1 The concept of honoring the father and mother is wide. It includes obedience and submission, for which Isaac presented a living example, when he submitted to his father Abraham, as he intended to offer him a sacrifice to God, according to God’s command. It also includes love and respect, for which we see king Solomon as a role model, as when his mother came to him, “The king rose up to meet her, and bowed down to her, and sat down on his throne, and had a throne set for the king’s mother; so she sat at his right hand” (1 Kings 2.19). Moreover, success is a way of honoring the parents. The Bible says, “A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son is the grief of his mother” (Prov. 10.1). Supporting is also a practical way of honoring parents, as St. Jerome says, “So also in the gospel when the Lord discusses that commandment of the Law which says: "Honor your father and your mother," He declares that it is to be interpreted not of mere words which while offering an empty shew of regard may still leave a parent's wants unrelieved, but of the actual provision of the necessaries of life. The Lord commanded that poor parents should be supported by their children and that these should pay them back when old those benefits, which they had themselves received in their childhood2. The Lord Christ rebuked the Pharisees who set a tradition that contradicts the word of God, allowing children to give what their parents need to the treasury of the temple, on the account of the poor; then, if asked by their parents for some assistance, they say: “Corban” (Matt. 15.4). By that they abolished God’s commandment by their evil tradition3. Finally, if this commandment implied honoring fathers and mothers according to the flesh, it would be more appropriate to apply it to the spiritual fathers; God being our Father and the Church is our mother. St. Clement of Alexandria believes that parents here are God, being our Father and Lord; the mother is the true knowledge and the wisdom that begets the righteous4. 9- The sixth commandment: “You shall not murder” God does not bear to see the shedding of innocent blood, as He said to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Gen. 4.11). He even does not stand the shedding of the evils’ blood saying, “‘Whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold’, and the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him” (Gen. 4.15). His hatred for blood shedding is clear in His saying to His beloved prophet David, “You have shed much blood, and made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name” (1 Chron. 22.8). 1 Ep. 54:3. 2 Ep. 123:6. 3 Origen. Com. Matt. 9:9. 4 Strom. 6:16. 147 However, God, who commanded not to murder, allowed it for the adulterer and the adulteress (Lev. 20.10-16), for the murderer (Exod. 21.14), for the striker or curser of his father or mother (Exod. 21:15, 17), for the breaker of the Sabbath (Exod. 31.15), for the blasphemer against God’s name (Lev. 24.16), and He commanded it in some wars against the pagans. All that was fit for the Old Testament when man could not discern between the sinner and sin, and between the idol worshipper and idol worship. Thus by allowing killing, He intended to confirm His absolute rejection of sin and idol worship of the pagan nations. On the contrary, in the New Testament, as believers reached spiritual maturity, killing the sinner no longer became the solution for the sinner but the commitment to save him from sin, the cause of his death. Killing does not only imply blood shedding, as there are those who kill by the tongue, according to the words of the Bible: “Their tongue is an arrow shot out” (Jer. 9.8); “His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords” (Ps. 55.21). Then, there is murder through intention, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3.15). There is also murder through responsibility, as is the case when the owner of an ox, who knows that it tended to thrust with its horn in times past, left it to attack and kill someone (Exod. 21.28-29). And there is the killing of the Spirit, according to the words of the Bible: “The letter kills” (2 Cor. 3.6). St. Clement of Alexandria considered the Heretics to be worse than murderers saying that murder is a sure perishing. Therefore, setting aside the true teaching that concerns God and eternity is more harmful than murder1. 10- The seventh commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” 2 The apostle says, “Flee sexual immortality; every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he, who commits sexual immortality sins against his own body” (1 Cor. 6.18), and “we are taking the members of Christ and making them members of a harlot” (1 Cor. 6.15). By adultery, we defile our bodies that are the members of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6.19). There is no sin that God hates more than adultery, that the Holy Book calls “uncleanness” (2 Pet. 2.10), by which a man or a woman defile themselves, and defile their garments (Rev. 3.4), and even defile the land (Jer. 3.6 - 9). Because of its abhorrence, idol worship was called adultery (Jer. 3.6-9); for its great defilement, idol worshipping was called adultery (Jer 3.6-9). Because of it, God punished the earth by the great flood (Gen. 7), consumed Sodom and Gomorrah by fire (Gen. 19.24-25) and almost abolished all the tribe of Benjamin (Judg. 20). The apostle Paul gave such a harsh chastisement, that the adulterer could have been swallowed by his deep grief (1 Cor. 5.1-5). God considered it the sole cause of dissolving marital bond (Matt. 5). The Lord Christ, in order to protect us completely from it, commanded us not to look with lust to a woman, as though intending to prevent adultery before it begins. Then the strict statutes of the Church came afterwards, to punish the Priest who falls into it, by banning him forever from clerical work. St. Clement of Alexandria sees that adultery has a concept, wider than what is commonly known, saying that whoever forsakes the true knowledge of the Church and faith in God and 1 Strom. 6:16. 2 HH Pope Shenouda III. The Ten Commandments in the Christian Concept. The seventh commandment. 148 runs after his vanity, is committing adultery1. The Fathers of the Church have many writings on the life of chastity and purity, of both the married people and the virgins2. 11- The eighth commandment: “You shall not steal” Stealing is not taking what belongs to others, but robbing it. The disciples, when they got hungry, they plucked heads of grain from a field; and the Law says, “When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container. And when you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain” (Deut. 23.24-25). Accusing Jacob of stealing Laban’s gods (Gen. 31.30-32), and accusing Joseph’s brothers of stealing the silver cup (Gen. 44.7-9), had been considered horrible accusations. The abhorrence of this sin is more serious, if the robbed party is needy, like a widow, or if you lend money to the poor, and charge interest like a moneylender, or pawn his covering or garment (Exod. 22.25--27), or if the thing robbed is a sanctified item. God considered refraining from giving tithes a kind of robbery. St. Clement of Alexandria considered whoever refers anything to someone who is not its real owner, as though he is robbing3. For example, the one who steals the thoughts of others and attributes them to himself. 12- The ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false testimony” To bear false witness means to lie; as the devil is “a liar and a father of it” (John 8.44), he who lies is doing the deeds of his father the devil. Because of its serious effects on the congregation, according to the Law, “by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established” (Deut. 19.15). The Bible took interest in the ‘holy silence’, as excessive talk leads to iniquity; and hastening to answer may let one lie, even unintentionally. 13- The tenth commandment: “You should not covet” “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exod. 20.17; Deut. 5.21). This commandment revealed the depth of the Law, as it intended to kill sin from its root; 4 yet, the Jews did not understand. Some may ask, “The Mosaic Law commanded, “You shall not covet”; and the New Testament gave the same commandment; so what is the difference?” The Law commanded it; yet, it did not give the remedy. It revealed man’s inability to keep the commandment, in order to seek the remedy. The New Testament, on the other hand, gave us the possibilities of keeping the commandment, by the Holy Spirit working in us. St. Augustine says, “The law said, "You shall not covet," in order that, when we find ourselves lying in this diseased state, we might seek the medicine of Grace, and by that commandment know in what direction our endeavors should 1 Strom. 6:16. 2 I have translated St. Augustine’s book about chastity and discussed chastity and purity in the life of the youth in the book: To You O Young Brother as well as the book: Love, its Concept and Levels. 3 Strom. 6:16. 4 St. Clement of Alexandria says that God “is admirable always at cutting out the roots of sins, such as, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exod. 20.14) by “You shall not covet” (Exod. 20.17) for adultery is the fruit of lust, which is the evil root (Paed. 2.6). 149 aim.” 1 He also says, “Accordingly, by the law of works, God says to us, Do what I command thee “You shall not covet”; but by the law of faith we say to God, Give me what Thou commandest.” 2 Coveting does not only concern lusts of the body but includes coveting of possessions and of wealth. St. Ambrose says, “Love of money, then, is an old, an ancient vice, which showed itself even at the declaration of the divine law; for a law was given to check it.”3 14- People’s fear of God In the previous chapter, we talked about the lightenings, the thunders and the thick clouds that Moses approached to encounter with God. Here I shall only give a comparison between fear and trembling of the people, as Moses was receiving the Law, and the scene at the upper room in the New Testament, where the Holy Spirit came down on the Church. According to St. Augustine, The people in the earlier instance were deterred by a horrible dread from approaching the place where the law was given; whereas in the other case the Holy Ghost came upon them who were gathered together in expectation of His promised gift. There it was on tables of stone that the finger of God operated; here it was on the hearts of men. There the law was given outwardly, so that the unrighteous might be terrified; here it was given inwardly, so that they might be justified (Acts 2.1-47). “For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, ‘You shall not murder’, ‘You shall not steal’, ‘You shall not bear false witness’, You shall not covet’; and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’; Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the Law” (Rom. 13.9-10). Now this was not written on the tables of stone, but “is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us” (Rom. 5.5). God’s law, therefore, is love. … But when love itself is shed abroad in the hearts of believers, then we have the law of faith, and the spirit, which gives life to him that loves4. 15- Confirmation against idol worshipping God started His commandments by a confirmation that He is the One God, with Whom no other gods should be worshipped. After ending the commandments, God warned Moses, lest the children of Israel deviate to idol worship. 1 On Marriage and Concupiscence. 2 On the Spirit and the Letter. 22. 3 Duties of the Clergy. 2:26. 4 On the Spirit and the Letter. 29.
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