I have been away from blogging on the lectionary readings for a couple of days (busy week at work). I sat down to look at the Old Testament reading for today and bam – The Decalogue. Impossible not to post on that. Then, I started thinking … “The” Decalogue. Is this a proper name for this passage in Exodus 20?

One of the important exercises that I had students do when teaching the Pentateuch was to have them compare versions of the commandments side-by-side. Many beginning readers of the Old Testament do not realize that there are at least three versions of these commandments. The first set is here in Exodus 20 from which we get today’s reading. The second version is in Exodus 34 and the third in Deuteronomy 5. The two sets in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are very close to one another, but not exactly the same. For instance, the Sabbath has a different motivation in each and the last commandments have a slightly different structure. However, the version in Exodus 34, often referred to as the Cultic Decalogue (or something like that), is very different. Yet there are enough connections to think that this is another version of the Decalogue (see vv. 14, 17, 21).

Why not try this exercise for yourself? Read the passages in Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, and Exodus 34 and see what you think? What are the similarities? What are the differences? What do these say about the different authors?