Translations: the so-called 'Ten Commandments'

 

          Shakespeare wrote:    “What’s in name?  A rose by any other name would                                                                smell as sweet."^[i]

But in the Bible and its translations, word choices matter.

In Exod. 34: 28,  Deut. 4:13 and Deut. 10:4, Moses uses a label he created for the fundamental ten commandments revealed at Mt. Sinai:  עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים .                                     

The Hebrew phrase literally translates as “the 10 speakings”.

This name choice highlights a key point as far as Moses was concerned: that  these central 10 commandments were unique because they were spoken aloud by the thunderous voice of God Himself and heard by the entire nation at Mt. Sinai (Deut.4:12). 

Only thereafter were they carved onto two stone tablets and also written down on parchment as part of the Chumash.

Jews since Talmudic times commonly use its Aramaic form:  עשרת הדברות .^[ii]

 

Standard English translation

‘The Ten Commandments’ is the common English translation.

Even a movie about the Exodus and revelation at Mount Sinai was named The Ten Commandments (1956)^[iii].

It is replayed on TV every spring around Passover and Easter as a classic.

But the term ‘the Ten Commandments’ is wrong and a distortion of the original    Hebrew text and intent.

The proper English equivalent is the formal name long used by academics, the Decalogue, from the original Greek and Latin meaning the “10 sayings”[iv].

 

Jerome in his Vulgate Bible (405 CE) understood this and translated the Hebrew         text correctly, but the landmark English King James Bible (1611) switched the    wording to “commandments”.

 

Vulgate   Deut. 4:13[v]

     et ostendit vobis pactum suum quod praecepit ut faceretis et decem verba quae scripsit in duabus tabulis lapideis

  decem verba translates as “10 words”.

 

KJV (1611)   Deut. 4:13[vi]

    And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

 

All subsequent English Christian Bibles not only followed the KJV (1611) wording      but even went further by capitalizing the words ‘Ten Commandments’[vii].

Only the Jewish JPS translation (1917)[viii] returned the wording to a more-or-less proper translation:

And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even the ten words; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.

 

I say more-or-less because these 10 commandments are written as entire sentences      and often are two sentences long (Exod. 20:2-13).

Far more than just “ten words”.  

The JPS, in fact, was simply copying Jerome’s Vulgate.

 

Better options

The formal English term, the DECALOGUE is a more accurate and a far better name choice as it literally matches the original Hebrew as “the 10 sayings”[ix]

But, today, words from Greek and Latin are out of vogue as old fashioned and foreign.

The term ‘the 10 Sayings’ may seem appropriate, but the word ‘sayings’ is now used    for witty comments, advice and even slogans[x].  Therefore it strikes a wrong note      and confuses the original Hebrew’s intent.

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of Britain has suggested using the term “the 10 Utterances”[xi]

‘Utterances’ is good British English but unfamiliar to the North American ear.

I prefer “the 10 Speakings” as it is a more understandable translation on this side of     the Atlantic.

 

Other reasons to abandon ‘the Ten Commandments’

The common English term, ‘the Ten Commandments’ is a very poor choice for other reasons as well. 

It is also misleading as there are far more than 10 commandments in the Chumash/ Bible.

According to Jewish tradition there are 613: covering religious rituals, religious  holidays, diet, marriage, inheritance, court systems, criminal and civil law,       agricultural land and crops, and the protection of the poor, widows, orphans and foreigners/converts.

The very first commandment given to Abraham is male circumcision (Gen. 17:10-12) and the laws of the Passover and avoiding leaven breads and pastries precedes the Exodus (Exod. Ch12).

And, as already indicated above, the term ‘Ten Commandments’  misses and obscures the key aspect of the Hebrew: 'the 10 speakings'  because these 10 were uttered by God directly to the entire assembled Jewish people at Mount Sinai in a transcendental and unique experience.

The other commandments were transmitted by God to Moses and from Moses to the elders and to people thereafter.

 

CONCLUSION

The widespread use of a very poor translation: 'the 10 Commandments',  alters the original text’s intention and misleads the ordinary reader who cannot read the original Hebrew text or even the Latin Vulgate.

Instead, when writing -- or even speaking -- about the עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים , one should use ‘the 10 Speakings’ or ‘the 10 Utterances’.

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[i] Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2

[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

[iii] By Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B DeMill.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1956_film)

[iv] https://www.lexico.com/definition/decalogue

[v] http://bibleglot.com/pair/KJV/Vulgate/Deut.4/

[vi] https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/4-13.htm

[vii] https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/4-13.htm

[viii] https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/4-13.htm 

[ix]  ww.lexico.com/en/definition/decalogue

[x] https://www.google.com/search?q=sayings+defined&ei=MMHIYI3KGdC6tAbny7HYCQ&oq=sayings+defined&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BwgAEEcQsAM6BwgAELADEEM6BAgAEEM6AggAOgIILjoGCAAQFhAeUKUqWJc5YJs8aAFwAngAgAGRAYgB1waSAQM3LjKYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6yAEKwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwiNotSu9JnxAhVQHc0KHedlDJsQ4dUDCA4&uact=5

[xi] https://rabbisacks.org/ten-utterances/