The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther
The Ten Commandments
The Second Commandment
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.
Lord God, You have commanded us not to misuse Your name. Grant that we may fear and love You so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by Your name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
posted by Wartburg | Friday, September 01, 2006
8 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Wartburg,
You skipped one.
Hey Mr. SouthernMan!
Thanks for the card today in the mail, enjoyed the kind words.Mr. Schaff writes in his Volume 7 MODERN CHRISTIANITY THE GERMAN REFORMATION Page 556, "Luther adheres to the Roman division of the Decalogue, and abridges it; the others give the better division of the Jews and the Greek Church, with the full text."
Hope that helps you...
S.P.
About the numbering: there are at least two sets of numbering used, and both are very old, at least 1,600 years. Most Protestants use the numbering adopted by Josephus and Origen, but Catholics and Lutherans use the numbering of St. Augustine, who took it from a Hebrew list in the fifth century. The numbering is not in the Bible.
SP,
I must say I havent really given this much thought before and you are right to state that numbering is not prescribed - however, it seems that in the "non-Lutheran" numbering, the division between 1 and 2 is more useful (WHO we worship and HOW we worship) than TWO coveting commandments. Perhaps those against the Regulative Principle prefer your way?
The word Decalogue means literally ten words... the Ten Commandments. God revealed these "ten words" to his people on the holy mountain of Sinai. They were written "with the finger of God," unlike the other commandments written by Moses. They are pre-eminently the words of God. They are handed on to us in the books of Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
There are at least 14 statements of God...there are at least 4 positive statements of God and 10 negative ones ("thou shalt not"). Experts count up to 25 statements of God...but there are only Ten Commandments.
Textually, there may be twelve commandments if one observes only the sentence structure: vv.2-7 show the formula 'you shall not' four times; vv.8-12 are easily divided into two: "remember to keep holy..." and "honor your father..."; vv.13-17 show 6 more "you shall nots."
But they are obviously "ten" in number, hence different methods of numbering them have been adopted, and they have been traditionally sorted into ten groups... and various faiths sort them differently.
The main 3 traditions sort them out into "Ten" are:
1- The Jews:
- First Commandment, Ex.20:2.
- Second, Ex.20:3-6.
-Tenth: The whole verse 17 (Ex.20:17)
2- St. Augustine (Catholics and Lutherans):
- First Commandment: Ex.20:2-6.
- Second: Ex.20:7
- Ninth: Ex.20:17... Tenth, the second half of the same verse... v.17 ought to be divided into two because our culture does not consider a wife as a chattel. So she should not be listed with the neighbor's ox and ass as an item of his property.
3- Origin (Orthodox and other Reformed churches):
- First Commandment: Ex.20:2.
- Second: Ex.20:3-6
- Tenth: The whole v.17 (Ex.20:17)
Roman Catholics and Lutherans follow the order given by Augustine, whereas Eastern Catholics, Orthodox, and other Protestants follow the order given by Origen.
Jesus stated the original Ten could be boiled down to two: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself (Mr.12:28-31).
An analysis of the Ten Commandments. How do we number and delimit or divide the Ten Commandments, especially in view of the two stones containing them? Josephus (a Jewish historian who was a contemporary of Christ) is accredited with the division that is now common among "Protestants" (except Lutherans). The division is: (1) prohibition against foreign gods (Ex. 20: 3); (2) idolatrous images (vs. 4-6); (3) taking God's name in vain (vs. 7); (4) the Sabbath (vs. 8-11); (5) honor parents (vs. 12); (6) murder forbidden (vs. 13); (7) adultery condemned (vs. 14); (8) theft forbidden (vs. 15); (9) bearing false witness (vs. 16); (10) and coveting (vs. 17). The Greek Catholic Church also recognizes the foregoing enumeration. Augustine combined foreign gods and images (vs. 3-6) into the first commandment and following the order of Deuteronomy 5, made the ninth commandment a prohibition against the coveting of a neighbor's wife, while the tenth law governed coveting a neighbor's house and property. Roman Catholics and Lutherans accept Augustine's numbering with small exception (they follow the order in Exodus 20: 17 so that the ninth commandment forbids the coveting of a neighbor's house, while the tenth includes his wife and all other property). The Jews about the time of Christ adopted the view that Exodus 20: 2 is the first, vs. 3-6 is the second and then the following eight (vs. 7-7-18). This Jewish view became popular in the Middle Ages and is basically followed today.
As to how these Ten Commandments were listed on the two stones, there have been various views. The Jews (from the time of Philo, First Century) divide into two divisions of five each (each stone containing five commandments, remember also that these laws were written on both sides, Ex. 32: 15). Augustine held there were three commandments on the first stone and the remaining seven on the second table. John Calvin and many scholars assign four to the first stone and six to the second. The truth of the matter is that we do not know for sure how these Ten Commandments were originally grouped on the two tables of stone.
There is no numerical division of the Commandments in the Books of Moses, but the injunctions are distinctly tenfold, and are found almost identical in both sources. The order, too, is the same except for the final prohibitions pronounced against concupiscence, that of Deuteronomy being adopted in preference to Exodus. A confusion, however, exists in the numbering, which is due to a difference of opinion concerning the initial precept on Divine worship. The system of numeration found in Catholic Bibles, based on the Hebrew text, was made by St. Augustine (fifth century) in his book of "Questions of Exodus" ("Quæstionum in Heptateuchum libri VII", Bk. II, Question lxxi), and was adopted by the Council of Trent. It is followed also by the German Lutherans, except those of the school of Bucer. This arrangement makes the First Commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject and a single class of sins to be guarded against -- the reference to idols being regarded as mere application of the precept to adore but one God and the prohibition as directed against the particular offense of idolatry alone. According to this manner of reckoning, the injunction forbidding the use of the Lord's Name in vain comes second in order; and the decimal number is safeguarded by making a division of the final precept on concupiscence--the Ninth pointing to sins of the flesh and the Tenth to desires for unlawful possession of goods. Another division has been adopted by the English and Helvetian Protestant churches on the authority of Philo Judæus, Josephus, Origen, and others, whereby two Commandments are made to cover the matter of worship, and thus the numbering of the rest is advanced one higher; and the Tenth embraces both the Ninth and Tenth of the Catholic division. It seems, however, as logical to separate at the end as to group at the beginning, for while one single object is aimed at under worship, two specifically different sins are forbidden under covetousness; if adultery and theft belong to two distinct species of moral wrong, the same must be said of the desire to commit these evils.
The Supreme Law-Giver begins by proclaiming His Name and His Titles to the obedience of the creature man: "I am the Lord, thy God. . ." The laws which follow have regard to God and His representatives on earth (first four) and to our fellow-man (last six).
· Being the one true God, He alone is to be adored, and all rendering to creatures of the worship which belongs to Him falls under the ban of His displeasure; the making of "graven things" is condemned: not all pictures, images, and works of art, but such as are intended to be adored and served (First).
· Associated with God in the minds of men and representing Him, is His Holy Name, which by the Second Commandment is declared worthy of all veneration and respect and its profanation reprobated.
· And He claims one day out of the seven as a memorial to Himself, and this must be kept holy (Third).
· Finally, parents being the natural providence of their offspring, invested with authority for their guidance and correction, and holding the place of God before them, the child is bidden to honor and respect them as His lawful representatives (Fourth).
The precepts which follow are meant to protect man in his natural rights against the injustice of his fellows.
· His life is the object of the Fifth;
· the honor of his body as well as the source of life, of the Sixth;
· his lawful possessions, of the Seventh;
· his good name, of the Eighth;
· And in order to make him still more secure in the enjoyment of his rights, it is declared an offense against God to desire to wrong him, in his family rights by the Ninth;
· and in his property rights by the Tenth.
It might be worth noting that the Lutheran/RC system is actually then the system used by the majority of those who claim the name of Christian. Though in America the Orthodox/Protestant system is most prevalent, it is not so world-wide. One reason why when folks talk about putting the ten commandments on public display, I always like to ask: WHOSE NUMBERING?
Thank You Pastor Weedon,
I appreciate your comments, help and imput.It's very good to think about "these things" day and night.
S.P.
Post a Comment
<< Home