The Nine Commandments: Uncovering the Hidden Pattern of Crime and Punishment in the Hebrew Bible

In a book as controversial as Harold Bloom’s The Book of J and Elaine Pagels’s The Gnostic Gospels, David Noel Freedman delves into the Old Testament and reveals a pattern of defiance of the Covenant with God that inexorably led to the downfall of the nation of Israel, the destruction of the Temple, and the banishment of survivors from the Promised Land. Book by book, from Exodus to Kings, Freedman charts the violation of the first nine Commandments one by one–from the sin of apostasy (the worship of the golden calf, Exodus 32) to murder (the death of a concubine, Judges 19:25—26) to false testimony (Jezebel’s charges against her neighbor, Naboth, I Kings 21).

Because covetousness lies behind all the crimes committed, Freedman shows, each act implicitly breaks the Tenth Commandment as well. In a powerful and persuasive argument, Freedman asserts that this hidden trail of sins betrays the hand of a Master Weaver or Editor who has skillfully woven into Israel’s history a message to a community in exile that their fate is not the result of God’s abandoning them but of their willful abandonment of God. With wit and insight, The Nine Commandments boldly challenges previous scholarship and conventional beliefs, and appeals to the same audience that has propelled Thomas Cahill’s books and other recent explorations of the history of religion onto bestseller lists across the country.

DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN has been General Editor and a contributing coauthor of the distinguished Anchor Bible series since its inception in 1956. He is currently a professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of California, San Diego, and lives in nearby La Jolla.