The Ten Commandments: A Preaching Commentary (Great Texts) - Softcover

Holbert, John C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0687090482 ISBN 13: 9780687090488

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

Many resources have been written to offer assistance in exploring and understanding the lectionary texts for the purpose of preaching. However, few have sought to provide this kind of preaching commentary on texts that do not follow the lectionary's grouping. For those whose preaching does not customarily follow the lectionary, and for those who depart from the lectionary text during certain periods of the year, little guidance has been offered for how to select, and preach on, important biblical texts. The Ten Commandments: A Preaching Commentary, the first book in The Great Texts series, gives guidance to preachers on preaching about this central part of faith. The principles by which volumes in The Great Texts series have been chosen are primarily two-fold: -Thematic: Texts on certain overarching themes or ideas of the Christian faith are brought together. -Biblical/traditional: Texts have long been recognized as belonging together, and as being particularly beneficial to the work of preaching.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John C. Holbert is Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

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The Ten Commandments

A Preaching Commentary

By John C. Holbert

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2002 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-687-09048-8

Contents

Preface, 
Chapter One: The First Commandment, 
Chapter Two: The Second Commandment, 
Chapter Three: The Third Commandment, 
Chapter Four: The Fourth Commandment, 
Chapter Five: The Fifth Commandment, 
Chapter Six: The Sixth Commandment, 
Chapter Seven: The Seventh Commandment, 
Chapter Eight: The Eighth Commandment, 
Chapter Nine: The Ninth Commandment, 
Chapter Ten: The Tenth Commandment, 
Some Final Reflections, 
Notes, 
Suggestions for Further Reading, 

CHAPTER 1

The First Commandment

I, YHWH, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery; there must not be for you other gods over against my face. (Exod. 20:2-3 and Deut. 5:6-7)

The Central Importance of Verse 1

There is something very telling and crucially important in the Jewish tradition's notion that the first commandment is in fact only the first part of the sentence translated above. And at the same time that decision is, at least on the surface, a curious one. Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6, absolutely identical in language, are not "commands" at all. They are announcements, basic convictions about the nature of YHWH, central claims about just who YHWH is for Israel. If you want to understand this God, you remember what this God has done for you, and you anticipate that this God will act in similar ways for you now and in the future. It is crucial for a full comprehension of the Ten Commandments to be clear about the power and significance of this first claim.

This first verse of the two lists of the Ten Commandments ensures that the Ten ought never to be heard as "merely" legislation for Israel or for us. When we examine the Ten Commandments, we are not looking at "law" in a simple sense. Whatever "dos" and "don'ts" the Ten announce, they are nuanced by and filtered through the proclamation of the first verse; unless and until I know and affirm that YHWH is the God who brought me out of bondage, the remainder of the Ten are reduced to a sterile list of activities I may or may not choose to take seriously. But if I recognize and celebrate the God who is for me, who acts in my behalf, that God's demands become a central part of God's call on my life. In other words, the demands of "law," as always in the Bible, necessarily follow the gift of God, and I must keep gift and demand together if I am to take the Ten with appropriate seriousness.

It is for this reason that Genesis 1 is Genesis 1. The Bible's story begins not with demands nor with proof but with pure announcement, straightforward proclamation. "In beginning, God created sky and earth." The text does not stop here for discussion. No invitation is offered for someone to suggest a different view of things; there is no opportunity for a counterproposal. The reality of God's creative activity is merely announced and presumably sung by those who would enter into a community of those who would sing the same tune. Andrew Greeley says: "The fundamental insight of Israel is that God is involved. He is committed; he cares for his people ... he cares passionately for them." For Greeley such a view of God represents a "fundamental shift in world view" both individually and collectively.

Those of us who participate regularly in Christian worship can well appreciate this basic claim. Each Sunday, usually after the offering of our gifts to God, we sing some setting of the ancient doxology: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God all creatures here below; praise God above, ye heavenly hosts; praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." In this song we join our community in announcing a worldview, one that flies in the face of several competing views, well known and embraced by many. If all blessings flow from God, then they do not flow from IBM or Coca-Cola or Viagra or Republicans or Democrats or pastors or husbands or wives. In the same way that the doxologies of our worship services and the first chapter of the book of Genesis function to ground all that follows in the gifts of God, so the first verse of the Ten Commandments focuses all subsequent demands through God's gifted lens.

It is, thus, not only the New Testament that teaches us about God's gift of grace. At the very start of what has long been known as the ultimate legislation of Israel, the traditionists who preserved the ancient code for us were careful to preface that code with the basic portrait of a God who loves and acts on their and our behalf. Any sermon on the Ten Commandments should announce loudly and clearly that the God who commands is first the God who loves and who acts for us. Deuteronomy makes this fact especially certain in a famous verse that follows the list of the Ten.

If Judaism has a credal confession, surely it is found at Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH alone. You shall love YHWH with all your heart (i.e., your will and intelligence), and with all your life (i.e., your basic life force, all that you most centrally are), and with all your strength (i.e., your physical power)." This command to love God is said to be (6:1) "the commandment," a summary of all the commandments just enumerated. In response to the loving gift of freedom, bestowed by YHWH in the escape from Egypt (Deut. 5:6), Israel is to love God with heart, life, and strength. The Ten Commandments, along with all subsequent legislation, are merely commentary on this basic commandment to respond to God with the love God has shown first.

Exegesis of the First Commandment

Though the translation of the first commandment seems simple enough, there are several places that deserve some commentary.

1

The first three words of the opening command could be translated in at least two ways. My reading, "I, YHWH, am your God" attempts to capture the slightly unusual word order of the Hebrew. The pronoun "I" occurs first in the sentence (the verb nearly always precedes the noun in Hebrew word order), and because that is so the emphasis of the sentence falls squarely on the identity of YHWH as Israel's God. The implication of the word order is that no other god can possibly be Israel's God, an implication that is made plain in the second part of the command. The more traditional reading of the words: "I am [YHWH], your God," (NRSV) while accurate, does not place a powerful enough emphasis on the central fact that YHWH and no other is the God who has acted in Egypt for Israel.

2

The second person pronouns of the commandment are all singular. This is so even though the literary contexts of both lists are plainly corporate ones. In Exodus God is ostensibly speaking to Moses, but in the verse that precedes God's speaking of the commandments, Moses has gone down the mountain, at God's request, to speak to the people (Exod. 19:25). And at the end of the list, the people are described as terrified and trembling in the face of the thunder and lightning, the blast of a trumpet, and the smoking mountain. They urge Moses to speak to them, but refuse to listen to God speaking, fearing death if they do (Exod. 20:18-21). Thus, the Exodus scene is one where Moses hears the Ten Commandments from God but is to convey them to the fearful ears of the people. The "you" of Exodus, though grammatically singular, is plainly plural in purpose, intended for the whole people.

And so...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0687090482
• ISBN 13: 9780687090488
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 143
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland