Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
The popular name in this, as in so many instances, is not that of Scripture. There we have the “TEN WORDS,” (Exodus 34:28; 4:13; 10:4) the ”Covenant,” Ex., Deut. 11. ” (Exodus 25:16,21; 31:18) etc. The circumstances in which the Ten great Words were first given to the people surrounded them with an awe which attached to no other precept. In the midst of the cloud and the darkness and the flashing lightning and the fiery smoke and the thunder like the voice of a trumpet, Moses was called to Mount Sinai to receive the law without which the people would cease to be a holy nation.
(Exodus 19:20) Here, as elsewhere, Scripture unites two facts which men separate. God, and not man was speaking to the Israelites in those terrors, and yet, in the language of later inspired teachers, other instrumentality was not excluded. No other words were proclaimed in like manner. And the record was as exceptional as the original revelation. ” (Exodus 31:18; 32:16) The number Ten was, we can hardly doubt, itself significant to Moses and the Israelites. The received symbol, then and at all times, of completeness, it taught the people that the law of Jehovah was perfect.
(Psalms 19:7) The term “Commandments” had come into use in the time of Christ. (Luke 18:20) Their division into two tables is not only expressly mentioned but the stress is upon the two leaves no doubt that the distinction was important, and that answered to that summary of the law which was made both by Moses and by Christ into two precepts; so that the first table contained Duties to God, and the second, Duties to our Neighbor .
Schaff's Bible Dictionary
TEN COMMAND'MENTS, THE. By this title the writing contained on the two tables of stone given on Mount Sinai is usually designated. But the phrase, in the original, is "the ten words," and it were well to retain it. The Greek word decalogue exactly expresses the Hebrew. " The word of the Lord," the constantly-recurring term for the fullest revelation, was higher than any phrase expressing merely a command, and carried with it more the idea of a self-fulfilling power.
" Ex 25:16; Ex 31:18, etc. The chest which contained the two tables was therefore called the ark of the covenant; the tent under whose cover the tables rested became the tabernacle of witness or of testimony. Ex 38:21; Num 17:7; 2 Chr 24:6, etc. The ten words, originally spoken, Ex 20:1, were written by the finger of God on two stone tablets, Ex 24:12; but Moses having broken them in his anger, those the Jews possessed were duplicates. Ex 34:1. It is common to assign four "words" to the first table and six to the second.
But the command to honor parents is based upon the Fatherhood of God, and is a religious duty. St. Paul, in Rom 13:9, enumerates only five commands as applying to man exclusively. It is at least possible that all the commandments were in the concise legal form in which some are expressed. The "reasons annexed" are probably mere scholia, or notes, which crept into the text, or else verbal commentary of God, made at the time. In this way the discrepancy between Ex 20 and Deut 5 is easiest removed. The number ten symbolizes the comprehensiveness and completeness of this moral law.
The first table, with five commandments, enjoins the duties to God; the second, with five commandments, the duties to our neighbor. All these duties are comprehended and summed up in this: Thou shalt love God supremely, and thy neighbor as thyself. Love is the fulfilment of the whole law. Matt 22:37-38; Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14; Jas 2:8. The civil and ceremonial law of the Jewish theocracy rested on the Decalogue, and is divided into seven groups, each with ten commandments.