To these testimonies fh>m the fethers may be added that of Clemens Alexandrinus (Stromata, vi, p. 809) ; but this writer is so confused and contradictory in ref- erence to the subject, that some have supposed the text to have been corrupted. ** The first precept of the Decalogue,** he observes, ** shows that one God only is to be worshipped, who brought his people out of Egypt .... and that men ought to abstain fhmi the idolatry of the creature. The second, that we ought not to transfer his name to creatures ; the third sigoi- fies that the world was made by God, who has given us the seventh day to rest ; the J(fth follows, which commands us to honor our parents ; then follows the precept about adultery, after this that concerning theft ; but the tenth is concerning coveting.**
But the strongest evidence in favor of the Origenian division is that of the learned Jews Phflo and Josephus, who speak of it as the received division of the Jewish Church. Philo, after mentioning the division into two pentads already referred to, proceeds : " The first pen- tad is of a higher character than the second ; it treats of the monarchy whereby the whole world is governed, <^ statues and images {Koavwv Kal AyaXfidnav), and of all corrupt representations in general (Aifufpvfid- riov) ; pf not taking the name of God in vain ; of the religious observance of the seventh day as a day of holy rest ; of honoring both parents. So that one ta- ble begins with God the fether and ruler of all things, and ends with parents who emulate him in perpetua- ting the human race. But the other pentad contains those commandments which forbid adultery, murder, theft, felse-witness, concupiscence" (JDe Decalogo, lib. i). The fim precept, he afterwards observes, enjoins the belief and reverent worship of one supreme God, in opposition to those who worship the sun and moon, etc. Then, after condemning the arts of sculpture and panting, as taking off the mind from admiring the natural beauty of the universe, he adds: "As I have said a good deal of the second commandment, I shall now proceed to the next, * Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain.' The fourth command- ment respects the Sabbath day, to be devoted to rest, the study of wisdom, and the contemplation of nature, with a revision of our lives during the past week, in order to the correction of our transgressions ; the fifth speaks of honoring parents. Here ends the first, or more divine pentad. The second pentad begins with the precept respecting adultery ; its second precept is against murder; its third against stealing, the next against false-witness, the last against coveting" (lib. ii). This division seems to have been followed by
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Irnurai : *' In ^piinqne librls, etc. ; nnaqpgqne tebnla qnam acoepit a Deo pnecepta habet qoinque.'* Joee- phos is, if poM&le, still more clear than PhUo. '' The first commandment teaches us that there is bat one God, and that we ought to worship him only ; the sec- ond commands us not to make the image of any liv- ing creatore, to worship it ; the third, that we must not swear by Qod in a false matter; the fourth, that we must keep the seventh day, by resting from all sorts of work ; the fifth, that we must honor our par- ents ; the sixth, that we must abstain from murder ; the seventh, that we must not commit adultery ; the eighth, that we must not be guilty of theft ; the ninth, tlut we must not bear filsekwitness ; the tenth, that we must not admit the desire of that which is anoth- er's'* (Ant. iii, 6, 5, Whieton's translation).
This division, which appears to have been fbigotten in the Western Church, was revived by Calvin in 1686, and is also received by that section of the Lutherans who fbllowed Bucer, called the TeCrapolitans. It is adopted by Calmet {Diet </He BibUy French ed., art. Loi). It is supported by Zonaras, Kioephoms, and Petrus Mogislans among the Greeks, and is that fol- lowed in the present Russian Church, as well as by the Greeks in general (see the Catechism published by order of Peter the Great, by archbishop Beaensky, London, 1758). It is at the same time ouintaiqed in this catechism that it is not forbidden to bow before the representations of the saints. This division, which appeared in the Bishops' Book in 1687, was adopted by the Anglican Church at the Reformation (154S), substituting ieomtk for Sabbath-day in her fbrmulariea. The same division was published with approbation by Bonner in his HomUitt in 1556.
B. We shall next proceed to describe the tnoo Mato- retic dimtumt. (1.) The first is that in Exodus. We call it the Uasoretic division, inasmuch as the com- mandments in the greater number of manuscripts and printed editions are separated by a B or D, which mark the divisions between the smaller sections in the He- brew. According to this arrangement, the first two commandments (in the Origenian or Greek division), that is, the commandment concerning the worship c^ one God, and that concerning images, make but one ; the second is, '* Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ;" and so on until we arrive at the two last, the former of which is, **Thon shalt not oovet thy neighbor's house," and the last or tenth, ** Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his servant," etc. to the end. This was the division ap- proved by Luther, and it has been ever since his time received by the Lutheran Church. The correctness of this division has been at all times maintained by the most learned Lutherans, not only f^om its agree- ment with the Hebrew Bibles, but fh>m the internal structure of the commandments, especially firom the Ikct of the first two commandments (according to Ori- gen's division) forming but one subject. If these form but one commandment, the necessity of dividing the precept, *'thou shalt not covet," etc into two is obvi- ous. (For a learned defence of this division, see Pieif- fcr. Opera, voL i, loc. 96, p. 125). Pfeiflier considers the accentuation also of the Hebrew as equally de- cisive in favor of this division, notwithstanding the opposite view is taken by many others, including the I learned Buxtort This division is also fbllowed in the Trent Catechism, and may therefore be called the Ro- 1 man Catholie division. The churches of this com- ' munion have not, however, been consistent in follow- ' ing unifbrmly the Tridentine division, having re- ! vived, as in England, the second Masoretic division, to which we shall presently allude. In the Trent Cate- ' chism the first commandment is, '* Ego sum Dominus Dens tans, qui eduxi to de terra iEgypti, de domo ser- vitutis; non habebis Deos alieDOs coram me. Non &cies tibi sculptile," etc ** Ego sum Dominos Dens <