The Ten Commandments: A Short History of an Ancient Text - Hardcover

Coogan, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300178719 ISBN 13: 9780300178715

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2014

Synopsis

The complex and surprising history of one of the world’s most famous texts

In this lively and provocative book, Michael Coogan guides readers into the ancient past to examine the iconic Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue. How, among all the laws reportedly given on Mount Sinai, did the Ten Commandments become the Ten Commandments? When did that happen? There are several versions of the Decalogue in the Old Testament, so how have different groups determined which is the most authoritative? Why were different versions created?
 
Coogan discusses the meanings the Ten Commandments had for audiences in biblical times and observes that the form of the ten proscriptions and prohibitions was not fixed—as one would expect since they were purported to have come directly from God—nor were the Commandments always strictly observed. In later times as well, Jews and especially Christians ignored and even rejected some of the prohibitions, although the New Testament clearly acknowledges the special status of the Ten Commandments. Today it is plain that some of the values enshrined in the Decalogue are no longer defensible, such as the ownership of slaves and the labeling of women as men’s property. Yet in line with biblical precedents, the author concludes that while a literal observance of the Ten Commandments is misguided, some of their underlying ideals remain valid in a modern context.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Coogan is director of publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum, lecturer on Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Harvard Divinity School, editor of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, and author of God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says. He lives in Concord, MA.

Reviews

Biblical scholar Coogan seeks to disarm disputes over displaying the Ten Commandments on public property by demonstrating that the document in question is not now nor ever has been graven in stone. There are three versions in the Torah and while two (Ex 19, Dt 5) are quite—but not perfectly—alike, the third (Ex 34) is very different and often called the Ritual Decalogue because it focuses on Jewish temple practices. Moreover, none of the three is pristine because, Coogan argues, there was an older original form that they all approximate. Also, over the ages, particular commandments’ meanings and legal statuses have been subtly or greatly modified by some weighty authorities, indeed, including Jesus. By now, and contrary to what an American Catholic cardinal pronounced, Coogan says, they’re very much “up for grabs” by anyone wrapping himself in the banner of virtue. Coogan concludes this engrossing and enlightening guide to one of world’s great legal codes by discussing how properly to honor the Ten Commandments in the U.S. --Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300178719
• ISBN 13: 9780300178715
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176