Transcript 10 - Biblical Law: The Three Legal Corpora of JE (...

It's important to realize that the Pentateuch contains three versions of the Decalogue. And there are differences among them. The Decalogue is going to be repeated in Deuteronomy, chapter five. And there are some minor variations. Specifically you'll see that the rationale for observing the Sabbath is different. God's name in Deuteronomy 5 is not to be used in a vain oath as opposed to a false oath. There are differences in the meaning. And there are some more differences too in language. So what are we to make of this?

One scholar, Marc Brettler, whose name I've mentioned before, he says that what we learn from this, these variations, is something about the way ancient Israel preserved and transmitted sacred texts. They didn't strive for verbatim preservation when they transmitted biblical texts. And they didn't employ cut and paste methods that might be important to us in the transmission of something. Texts were modified in the course of their transmission. Verbatim repetition was not valued in the way that it might be for us. So that even a text like the Decalogue, which is represented as being the unmediated word of God, can appear in more than one version.

There's a more surprising variation that occurs, however, in Exodus 34. After smashing the first set of tablets that were inscribed with the Decalogue--the tablets in Exodus 20, those are smashed after the golden calf incident--Moses is then given a second set of tablets. And the biblical writer emphasizes in the story at that point that God writes on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets that were broken. The same words. So we expect now a verbatim repetition of Exodus 20. And yet we don't have it. The Decalogue that follows in fact has very little overlap with the earlier Decalogue. There's really only two statements that even have the same content.

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It's important to realize that the Pentateuch contains three versions of the Decalogue. And there are differences among them.

Highlighted by cburell

There's a more surprising variation that occurs, however, in Exodus 34. After smashing the first set of tablets that were inscribed with the Decalogue--the tablets in Exodus 20, those are smashed after the golden calf incident--Moses is then given a second set of tablets. And the biblical writer emphasizes in the story at that point that God writes on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets that were broken. The same words. So we expect now a verbatim repetition of Exodus 20. And yet we don't have it. The Decalogue that follows in fact has very little overlap with the earlier Decalogue. There's really only two statements that even have the same content. And even those, which do overlap in content, vary in wording. This Decalogue, which is often called the ritual Decalogue, so it's listed on there [the handout] in Exodus 34, bans intermarriage with Canaanites less they entice the Israelites into worship of their gods. It has other terms that give commandments about the observance of the festivals, various festivals, the dedication of first fruits to God, the dedication of first born animals to God and so on; things that were not in the Exodus 20 Decalogue.

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