The Seven Commandments Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Most people in the Western Civilization are familiar with the "Ten Commandments" as a central expression of the moral and theological beliefs of Jews and Christians of various denominations. There are three separate enumerations of these Commandments within the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, as well as sharply differing traditions about how the commandments should be numbered between Jews, Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians. Many of the current discussions about public postings of one or another versions of the Ten Commandments in U.S. politics revolve around the centrality of these Commandments not only to the religious traditions of American civilizations, but also to the development of the legal traditions of the West. The issue has, of course, raised passionate debate in many corners of American politics.

Maryland has thus far been spared most of the discussions of this issue. Maryland is a "blue" state, notwithstanding some political agitation this General Assembly session on matters such as constitutional prohibitions against gay marriage.

It might be of interest to note that, according to Jewish teaching, the Ten Commandments as such (in any of their permutations) do not apply to non-Jews. Jewish teaching holds that all humanity is descended from Noah and that Noah and G-d made an eternal covenant under which Noah and his descendants would uphold basic terms of morality and G-d would refrain from wiping humanity out again by a flood or otherwise.

According to Jewish teaching, the Noahide covenant still governs all the Children of Noah who are not descendants of Abraham, with whom G-d made a separate covenant. Jewish law holds that the terms of the covenant with Noah are that humanity must refrain from:

murder

theft

idolatry

eating flesh "with the life therein" (living flesh or blood, by most interpretations)

blasphemy

sexual immorality

and must further positively establish

courts of justice.

These laws do not appear in a neat order in the Hebrew Bible, but are considered to be logically derived from certain events in the life of Noah and earlier figures, such as Cain, Adam and others. These seven laws are the "laws of Noah" or the "Seven Commandments."

The Dutch medieval legal scholar Grotius commented on these Noachide laws as the basis for all general laws in moral society. Likewise, the 102nd Congress, interestingly enough, passed P.L. 102-14, 102nd Congress recognizing the value of the Seven Commandments to the moral and social welfare of American society.

Since Jews do not believe that the Sabbath applies to non-Jews, for example, and since Christians arguably don't believe in the Jewish Sabbath either (either because most Christians rejected the Sabbath day and replaced it with Sunday, or reject the Jewish interpretation of that day), and since Congress has already endorsed the traditional Jewish interpretation of those commandments, and since legal scholars have recognized the value of those Seven Commandments, isn't the whole debate about the Ten Commandments a bit misplaced?

If one actually looks carefully at the Ten Commandments, and compares them to the Seven Commandments, it appears that the Seven Commandments more easily form a legal code for a diverse society. "Coveting" is a bit hard to prosecute, although probably not much more than an inchoate crime such as an attempt or a conspiracy. I am informed that "coveting" in Hebrew refers not merely to "wanting" but more along the lines of "setting about" or "attempting to take." The prohibitions against graven images are fairly narrow, whereas a general prohibition against idolatry and blasphemy seems, well, more comprehensive. (It is understood by Jewish law that all Jews must follow the Seven Commandments, but many other commandments in Jewish law supercede the requirements of Noachide laws, e.g. kosher laws prohibit "living flesh" and a whole lot more.")

The strongest argument, in the Crab's view, against posting the Ten Commandments, the Seven Commandments or any other religious document in a courthouse is that a courthouse is a very unholy place; it is on the extreme opposite end of holiness from the Ark of the Covenant, on the same order as an outhouse. A courthouse is where laws passed by a miserable compromise in the General Assembly and signed after horsetrading by the Governor get enforced through plea bargains and technical gamesmanship between a tired prosecutor and a tired defense attorney, all before a judge whose appointment to the bench was, likely, a political compromise by the General Assembly, the Governor, Bar Association leaders or all of the above. Compromise is good and prudent, but it is not holy. Moses and Noah did not compromise, and neither did the G-d who spoke to them. To post either set of commandments in, say, traffic court in the District Court of Maryland is to take G-d's name in vain, to blaspheme, in violation of the very commandments themselves, whichever set one believes in.