n*
DECALOGUE
719
DECALOGUE
It noC steal. Thou shalt not bear Iklse wltneiM. *TL slialt not covet thy neighbor's goods.' What ton is there, by the gods, if you take away these y * Xboa shah not adore otlier gods,* and * Remem- tlie Sabbath,' which does not think all the others to l>e kept, and which does not punish more or less erel3r those who violate them ?" L 7%a Ongenian Dwuion, or that approved by Ori* I, vrliich is that in use in the Greek and in all the formed chorches except the Lutheran. Ahhongh igen mu acquainted with the differing opinions ich, existed in his time in regard to this subject, it evident from his own words that he knew nothing that division by which the number ten is completed making the prohibition against coveting either the oae or the wife a distfaict commandment. In his ;litli Homiiy on GtnetU, after citing the words, " I am i L.ord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of ^ypt," he adds, **this is not a part of the command- ant.** The first commandment b, * * Thou shalt have ' otlier gods but me,'* and then follows, '* Thou shalt t make an idol.** These togedier are thought by me to make one commandment ; but in this case the tmber ten will not be complete— where, then, will be e truth of the Decalogue ? But if it be divided as e have done in the last sentence, the full number will s evident. The first commandment therefore is. Thou shalt have no other gods but me,'* and the seo- id, '* Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor a keness,** etc Origen proceeds to make a distinction otween gods, idols, and likenesses. Of gods, he says, H is written, there are gods many and lords many** L Cor. viii, 5); but of idols, **an idol is nothing;*' an nage, he says, of a quadruped, serpent, or bird, in letal, wood, or stone, set up to be worshipped, is not n idol, but a Uheneti. A picture made with the same iew comes under the same denomination. But an iol is a representation of what does not exist, such 18 the figure of a man with two fitces, br with the head it a dog, etc. The likeness must be of something ex- sUng in heaven, or in earth, or in the water. It is lot easy to decide on the meaning of** things in heav- m,** unless it refers to the sun, moon, or stars. The leagn of Moses he conceives to have been to forbid Egyptian idolatry, such as that of Hecate, or other &mcied demons'(C^a, ii, 156, De la Rue's ed.).
The pseudo-Athanasins, or the author of the Synop- M ScriphtrtB, who is the oracle of the Greek Church, divides the commandments in the same manner. ^This book [Exodus] contains these ten command- ments, on two tables : first, I am the Lord thy God. Second, Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor any likeness. . . . Ninth, Thou shalt not bear felse witness against thy neighbor. Tenth, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's** (Athanasii Opera^ foL Paris, 1698).
Gregory Nazianzen, in one of his poems, inscribed ** The Decalogue of Moses,*' gives the following divis- ion {Opera, ed. CaiUaud, Paris, 1840) : These ten laws Moses formeriy engraved on tables Of stone; but do thou engniTe them on thy heart Thou shalt not know another God, since worship belongs to me. Thou shalt not make a vain statne, a Ufeless Image. Thou shalt not call on the great God in vain. Keep all sabbaths, the sublime and the shadowy. Happy be who renders to his parents due honor. Flee the crime of murder, and of a foreign Bed ; evil-minded theft and witness False, and the desire of another's, the seed ct deaUu
Jerome took the same view with Origen. In his coimnentafy on Ephesians vi, he thus writes : ** ' Hon- or thy father and thy mother,* etc. is the Jijth com- mandment in the Decalogue. How, then, are we to understand the apostle's meaning in oslling it the first, when the first commandment is ' Thou shalt have no gods but me,* where some read thus, * which is the iint commandment with promise,* as if thefow pre- ▼iom commandments had no promise annexed, etc. But they do not seem to me to have observed
with sufficient accuracy that in the second command- ment there is also a promise : * Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor the likeness of any thhig in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth ; thou shalt not adoce them, nor sacri- fice to them ; for I, the Lord thy Ckxi, am a jealous God, visiting the sins .... but showing mercy unto thousands . . . .' (observe these words of promise — showing mercy unto thousands, etc)" (Hieronymi Op- era, vol. iv, Paris, 1698).
The pseudo-Ambrose also writes to the same effect in his Commentary on Ephesiam: "How is this the first commandment, when the first commandment says. Thou shalt have no other gods but me ? Then, Thou shalt not make a likeness of any thing in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, etc. The thirdj Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; the fourth, Keep my sabbaths; the Jifth, Honor thy fether and thy mother. As the first four appertain to God, they are contained in the first table ; the others, appertaining to men, are contained in the second, such as that of honoring parents, not committing murder, adultery, theft, felse witness, or concupiscence. These six seem to be written in the second table, the first of which is called the first with promise" (Ambrosii Op^ ra, vol. ii, Paris edition, Append, p. 248, 249).