by jimwalton » Mon Jul 31, 2023 3:47 am
The Ten Commandments never claims to be the complete universal list of every possible thing that is evil and wrong. It is not even a summary of an entire legal code. It is never thought of, by biblical writers, of the summary and most important part of biblical law. You'll notice it is never mentioned again in the Bible as the go-to blurb of all that is right and wrong.
John Walton writes, "The Decalogue is focused on directing Israel to construct an identity as the people of God. It provides information about the shape of the covenant community (Ex. 20.12), both in terms of how the people interact with YHWH and in terms of how they interact with one another.
"The Torah was not intended to establish or reflect an ideal society, but instead how Israel ought to conduct itself given the structure of society. It is the people that are expected to be transformed, not the shape or structure of society. They are given a mission statement, not a revised curriculum. The OT Torah doesn’t give God’s opinion of democracy vs. monarchy, arranged marriages vs. marriage for love, polygamy vs. monogamy, patriarchalism vs. gender equality, slavery vs. no slavery, market economy vs. agrarian economy, etc. The law is not intended to give a universal moral/ethical system. It was designed to help Israel know that divine favor is extended as it maintains this sort of order as his covenant people in the presence of a holy God."
When we are working to understand the wisdom that God was imparting to His people, we take the WHOLE revelation as what God is saying, not just 10 commandments.
The Ten Commandments never claims to be the complete universal list of every possible thing that is evil and wrong. It is not even a summary of an entire legal code. It is never thought of, by biblical writers, of the summary and most important part of biblical law. You'll notice it is never mentioned again in the Bible as the go-to blurb of all that is right and wrong.
John Walton writes, "The Decalogue is focused on directing Israel to construct an identity as the people of God. It provides information about the shape of the covenant community (Ex. 20.12), both in terms of how the people interact with YHWH and in terms of how they interact with one another.
"The Torah was not intended to establish or reflect an ideal society, but instead how Israel ought to conduct itself given the structure of society. It is the people that are expected to be transformed, not the shape or structure of society. They are given a mission statement, not a revised curriculum. The OT Torah doesn’t give God’s opinion of democracy vs. monarchy, arranged marriages vs. marriage for love, polygamy vs. monogamy, patriarchalism vs. gender equality, slavery vs. no slavery, market economy vs. agrarian economy, etc. The law is not intended to give a universal moral/ethical system. It was designed to help Israel know that divine favor is extended as it maintains this sort of order as his covenant people in the presence of a holy God."
When we are working to understand the wisdom that God was imparting to His people, we take the WHOLE revelation as what God is saying, not just 10 commandments.