1. Commandments of the Mosaic Law. — We have in the first place those commandments of the Mosaic Law, or of the OT, which are regarded as of Divine authority not only by the Jewish-Chris- tian apostles, but also by St. Paul ; cf. Ja 28-", Ro 78-^^ 13», Gal 5'^ Eph 6^. Of the laws of Moses, the Decalogue, as we might expect, is assigned a position of peculiar importance ; it forms the fundamental law of the Old Dispensation (2 Co 3^ : 'tables of stone'), and is therefore always cited when the leading commandments are under con- sideration (Ro 13^, Ja 2'^). It is worthy of remark, however, that here both St. Paul and St. James take into account only the commandments of the second table, asserting that the wliole Law is summed up in the command to love one's neighbour (Gal 51*, Ro 138f-), 'the royal law' ( Ja 28), though it is true that in Eph 62 St. Paul quotes a command- ment from the first table ('Honour thy father,' etc.).* The sequence of the laws quoted in Ro 13® and Ja 2'^ agrees with that of the LXX version of Ex 20'3 in putting adultery before murder. So far as the Decalogue shares the statutory character of the Law as a whole, it also, according to St. Paul, is involved in the abrogation of ' the law of com- mandments' (Eph 2^^), as is evident from what is said regarding the law of the Sabbath, the obliga- tory character of which, according to Ro 14^, Gal4'"*, Col 2'®, is in principle surrendered. Hence Luther's interpretation of this commandment is the right one ; though, in view of 1 Co 7'^ St. Paul probably maintained that it should remain binding upon Jewish Christians (see art. Law).
Further, St. Paul (as also the other apostles) cites not only the Decalogue, but the rest of the Torah as well, in support of his own ethical pre- cepts (1 Co 99 14**, 1 Ti 5^8 ; cf. Ja 21' ; in all these passages, however, the reference is to command- ments which justify themselves to the Christian consciousness). He avails himself of the principle laid down in 1 Co 10", Ro 15^ Col 2'^ i.e. he applies the OT commandments to the Messianic era in an allegorical or typological sense ; thus 1 Co 9® (maintenance of Christian teachers) = Dt 25'*, 1 Co 9^3 = Nu 188, 1 Co 5"- = Ex 12«ff- {the putting away of leaven). He likeAvise reinforces his own admonitions by sayings from the Psalms and the Prophets, as, e.g., 2 Co 99 = Ps 112s, 1 Co l3i = Jer 923, Ro 12i9=Dt 3235 . cf. Ja 4« = Pr 3^\ He 3^"" = Ps 95^-". Finally, St. Paul and the rest frequently
* Just as, e.g., in Mt 1919 and lis this commandment is ap- pended to those of the second table (nos. 6, 7, and 8). It is impossible to decide whether the Jewish, the Eastern and Re- formed, or the Roman Catholic and Lutheran arrangement of the commandments is followed here.
give their precepts in the form of OT exhortations ; cf., e.g., Ro 122o = Pr 25-"-, 1 P2"=Pr24-i, 1 PS^""'- = Ps 34i3ff-, He 12«- = Pr 3"'-.
2. Commandments of God and Jesus. — (1) The comvifindments of God frequently referred to in the Epistles of John and in Rev. (1 Jn 3^2 421 52'-, 2 Jn6, Rev 12" 14'2 ; cf. the Pauline usage, 1 Co 1^) should doubtless be regarded as the OT command- ments in the NT acceptation (i.e. as applied by Jesus) ; cf. 1 Jn 2''^-, where the commandment to love one's brother is spoken of as at once old and new, and 1 Jn 4P-, where brotherly love in Christ's sense is combined with love to God (cf. Mt 223'*^' and parallels).
(2) Apart from this the apostolic Epistles refer but seldom to the commandments of Jesus. In James, 1 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation we meet with no utterance of the earthly Jesus, while 1 and 2 John allude to His commandments only in general terms ( 1 Jn 2^^- 3=3 [brotherly love] ; cf. 2 Jn »). Nor will it surprise us to find that the Pauline Epistles likewise contain but few references to the com- mandments of the Lord. Apart from Ac 203" (which, it is true, implies a more extensive use of the Lord's words in the oral teaching of St. Paul ; cf. the pi. \6yo:v), we find such references only in
1 Co 7'» 9" (1123-25), Gal 62, 1 Ti 63. The first of these passages refers to the prohibition of divorce ; tlie second to the apostles' right to live by preach- ing the gospel (cf. 1 Ti 5^8) . Qal 62 to ' the law of Christ,' i.e. mutual service; and 1 Ti 63 to the words of Jesus in general (cf. 4^). But the exjilicit distinction wliich St. Paul draws between what the Lord did and did not command shows that he had an accurate knowledge of the Lord's words — just as he also distinguishes between his own pre- cepts and the Lord's commandments. To trace this distinction to the diflerence between a greater and a less degree of certainty in the inward revela- tion (Baur) is the sheerest caiffice ; cf. the historic tense in 1 Co 9". That St. Paul in general based his moral teachings on the authority of Jesus Him- self appears from 1 Th 42, where he reminds his readers of the charges he delivered to them 'through the Lord Jesus' ; cf. 1 Co 4''', where, as the context shows, his 'ways which are in Christ' are the ethical precepts for which Christ was his authority. In using here the somewhat vague ex- pression ' in Christ,' he simply indicates that his precepts are not mere repetitions of the words of Jesus, but that they are ' Christian ' in the wider sense — like, let us say, the ' Teachings of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles' in the Didache. The commandments of Jesus are frequently cited also by the Apostolic Fathers ; cf. 1 Clem, xiii, 3 ;