Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Yes Karl, Jewish tradition has always understood the "ten utterances" of
Ex.34:28 to refer to the Decalogue. The diference between (most) Jewish
tarditions and Christian ones is that vs. 2, "I am the Lord your God..." is
understood as a commandment of its own. As put by Maimonides, it is a
positive commandent for one to know that there is a God.

Look in any synagogue that has a representation of the two "tablets" on
which the Ten Commandments are written: "Anokhi" will be the first.

Yigal



----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> Do I read your response correctly that Jews,
> too, look for ten commandments in Exodus 20?
>
> I find this interesting, as I thought that
> only Christians were looking for ten
> commandments, because no where in Torah is
> there any indication that there should be ten
> commands.
>
> In the context of Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy
> 4:13, I read Exodus 20 as a legal document,
> with an introduction statement identifying the
> parties thereto, followed by nine commands,
> making a total of ten statements. I thought
> this was also the Jewish understanding. Am I
> wrong?
>
> I didn’t respond earlier as that reading is
> not obvious from a discussion of an obscure
> grammatical point.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Raymond de Hoop <rdehoop AT keyaccess.nl>
>
> > On 29 feb 2004 at 0:25 Yigal Levin wrote:
> >
> > > I would assume that the setumot and petuhot are pre-Masoretic. As for
> > > the
> > > 10th commandment, note that in the Ex. 20:17 version there is no
> > > setumah.
> > >
> > > Yigal
> >
> > Shalom,
> > In our discussion of a few weeks ago on "Ta`am `Elyon of the
> > Decalogue", I referred to the setumah in Exod. 20:17, which is not
> > printed in BHS, but still is in Codex Leningradensis (cf. Dothan,
> > Biblia Hebraica Leningradensis, pp. 109, 1227; I checked it in the
> > facsimile edition, to be sure).
> >
> > This tradition is related to the tradition that reads Exod. 20:2-6 /
> > Deut. 5:6-10 as one commandment (note that there is NO setuma or
> > petucha found in these verses), which would result otherwise in nine
> > commandments, but now --with setumah in Ex.20:17 / Deut.5:21-- in ten.
> >
> > For the division of the text by means of cantilation accents, there are
> > two systems (found in BHS) which suggest the first verse (20:2/5:6) to
> > be a separate verse from the following four; and one tradition that
> > reads 20:2-3/5:6-7 as one verse, separate from the following verses
> > (though without setuma or petucha). However, there is a third tradition
> > that even reads the five verses (20:2-6/5:6-10) as one Masoretic verse,
> > with a revia at the end of the first verse. This tradition is not found
> > in BHS (nor Codex Leningradensis and other mss), but in many Jewish
> > Bible editions, starting with Miqra'ot Gedolot (Venice 1526).
> > Since the last mentioned tradition is an obvious late one, and is in
> > line with the setuma and petucha tradition in the text, I would suggest
> > that this setuma-tradition of the ten commandments is also a late
> > tradition.
> >
> > Kol Tuv,
> > Raymond
> >
> > ——————————————————————————
> > Dr Raymond de Hoop
> > Lecturer of Classical Hebrew
> > Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
> > University of Groningen
> > Oude Boteringestraat 38
> > 9712 GK Groningen
> > +31 503 635 574
> > R.de.Hoop AT theol.rug.nl
> --
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