4. If a person had become bondsman or surety for another, he was liable to be called upon for payment in the same way with the original debtor. But this practice does not appear to have obtained before the time of Solomon, when it was attended with serious consequences. It seems that the formality observed was for the person who became surety to give his hand to the debtor, and not to the creditor, to intimate that he became, in a legal sense, one with the debtor ; for Solomon cautions his son against giving his hand to a stranger, to a person whose circumstances he did not know ; and entreats him to go and urge the person to whom he had given his hand, or for whom he had be- come surety, to pay his own debt (Prov. xi, 15 ; xvii, 18; xxii, 26). See Debt.
Deoalogue (AticdXoyoc), the name most usually given by the Greek fathers to the law of the two ta- bles given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, called in Scripture "the Ten Commandments (rrntos? D'^'ia'nJl, the ten wordt; Sept. oi dha Xoyoi and rd dsKa pnftarai Vulg. decern tferba; Exod. xxxiv, 28; Deut. iv, 18 ; x, 4) ; and embracing what is usually termed "rt« Moral Law" (Exod. xx, 8-17; Deut v, 7-21). The Decalogue was written on two stone slabs (Exod. xxxi, 18), wliich, having been broken by Mo- ses (xxxii, 19), were renewed by God (xxxiv, 1, etc.). They are said (Deut. ix, 10) to have been written by the finger of God, an expression which always implies an immediate act of the Deity. The Decalogue is five times alluded to in the New Testament, there called iPToXal, commandmenta^ but only the latter precepts are specifically cited, which refer to our duties to each other (Matt xvii, 18, 19, etc; Mark x, 19; Luke xviii, 20; Kom. xiii, 9; vii, 7, 8; Matt v; 1 Tim. i, 9, 10). Those which refer to Qod are supposed by some to be omitted in these enumerations, fh>m tlie circumstance of their containing precepts for ceremonial observances (Jeremy Taylor's Life ofChritt, and Ductar Dubitanr Hum; Rosenmaller's Scholia in Exod,),
The circumstance of these precepts being called the ten words has doubtiess led to the belief that the two tables contained ten distinct precepts, five in each ta- ble ; while some have supposed that they were called by this name to denote their perfoction, ten being con- ddered the most perfect of numbers : so Philo^udnus (j/ StKdc irovrcXcia . . . Api^fiov r«X«ov, De Septen, c. 9). This distinguished philosopher divides them into two pentads (De Decalogo\ the first pentad ending with Exod. XX, 12, "Honor thy father and thy moth-
er,' etc or the fifik oommandmeat of tfas Gf«il formed, and A^lican churches ; while tba »r eral opinion among Christians is that the fint a contained our duty to God, ending wilk the k keep the Sabbath holy, and the secssd on £ri our neighbor. As they are not numGioBjrin in the Scriptures, so that we cannot poai^^ which is the first, which the aecond, etc, i bti prove uninteresting to the student in Biblical ham if we here give a brief account of the diffeRfiaa of dividing them wliich have pievmiled tim^'m and Cliristians. The case cannot be nm ^ stated than in the words of St. Augustine: ^fcii quired how the ten commandments are to be irii- whether there are four which relate to God, oi^ with the precept concerning the SabfaaO-eiB other six, commencing with 'Honor thjr fitka thy mother,* appertaining to man — or whctknie^ mer are three only, and tiie latter aeeeaf Tksik say that the first table contains ybiir, sq»aaa command, ' Thou shalt have no other godi bita (Exod. XX, 8; Deut v, 7), so as to make asote;ft cept of ' Thou shalt not make to thyself so ldoI'(lA XX, 4 ; Deut. v, 8), in which images are fivt^^i be worshipped. But they wish ^ Thou sfask Kit^ thy neighbor's house' (Exod. xx, 17 ; DeoL r, £]. a ' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor*s wife' (Eiaio. 17; Deut V, 21), and so on to the end, to be ec b those who say that there are only three in tbeii3» ble, and seven in the second, make one cobwhw^ of the precept of the worship of one God, sad wtm^ beside him (Exod. xx, 8 ; Dent v, 7), botdinkDa last into two, so that one of them is 'Tboa ebli« covet thy neighbor's wife,' and the other, 'TksaU not covet thy neighbor's house.' There a i» ^^ among either about the correctness of the nmBbtr » as for this there u the testimony of ScriptnR'!^ tione on Exodau, qu. 71, Worts, iii, ^i3,Pin%l^r 1. The Talmudical DiMon, orthatcontsiatdBtk Talmud (Makkoth, xxiv, a), which is also finite a modem Jews. Accordhig to this dirisoo, (^ ^ commandment consists of the words *^ I an tbe I^ thy God, who brought thee oat of the land <tf Ei?!L out of the house of bondage" (Exod. xx, 2; I^t^*^^ 6); the second (Exod. xx, 8, 4), " Thoa dak to« none other gods beside me; thou shalt not uh* thyself any graven image," etc to ver. 6; tfc« t^ *' Thou shalt not take God's name in vaoi," d^- ^^ fourth, "Remember to keep holy the Sabbrtkdr: etc. ; the fifth, ''Honor thy father and tfay vM etc. ; the sixth, "Thou shalt not kill;" ths swsi " Thou shalt not commit adulteiy ;" the eigbtb, "1^ shalt not steal;" the ninth, "Thou shaltiioCteir^ witness," etc. ; and the tenth, " Thou shall irto^' etc., to the end. This division is also sopportri ^ Targum of the pseudo^Jonathan, a woitoft^^ centuiy, by Aben-Ezra, in his Ommaitar$,v^^. Maimonides (JS^her Hammizooth). It hai ibe ^ maintained by the learned Lutheno, Petof ^^' (Loci Commmet, Basle, 1580, loc 14, ^ 68i> Tl* this was a very eariy mode of dividing the Deei^ is further evident ftom a passage in C^ril rf/tf** lem's treatise against Julian, from whom bs f)>^ the following invective : ** That Decalogi»,t*«^ Moses, is a wonderful thing: thou shalt sot *** thou shalt not kill ; tiiou shalt not bear fito «^»* But let each of the precepts which he aiserts to ^ been given by God himself be written dovB a * identical words, * I am the Lord thy God, trh» wj thee out of the knd of Egypt;' the second fc»« * Thou shalt have no strange gods beskte i»'' ** Shalt not make to thyself an idol.' Headastben*^ son, * for I, the Lord thy God, am a Jeakws (H jf ing the sins of the fathers upon the children.' ' "f Shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in ^ Remember the Sabbath day. Honor tfaj ^'^^ thy mother. Thou shalt not commit adoltsiT'