NEED A HANDLE TO HELP YOU GET HOLD OF DEUTERONOMY AND ALL THOSE LAWS?

 Here's a really overview from Ellie Maffett

It’s been suggested that Deuteronomy 5-28 is an exposition of the Ten Commandments as listed in 5:7-21 – the 10 ‘words’ (literally) expands to the ‘statues and rules’ (6:1, ESV) of cps 6-26.  There are slightly different suggestions by different commentators (summarised by Nigel Styles in the table below and attached), though the broad sections are very similar.  I’ve found this super exciting and helpful for reading through the ‘law’ chapters – I’d recommend printing off the table and seeing what you think as you read. 

 It's also really helped me understand how the 10 commandments / the law works a bit more, particularly in these two ways:

1. The law is a bit like an elastic band (!?!) – it is the ’10 words’ and also it expands to be all the statutes and rules, and it also collapses to the two ‘greatest commandments’ of Matthew 22:34-40. 
2. And so to read the 10 commandments as broad.  For example, seeing what God forbids (e.g. murder) means you also see what God loves (all you do to support and uphold life) – I understand John Calvin talks about this.  And it becomes interesting when (following this suggested structure) it appears that adultery is certainly to do with sex, but more broadly is also applied to singlemindedness, and to not mixing different types of materials together.

 

Have fun!  If you have any questions, save them up for a get-together in a few weeks (see subsequent posts)

 

Commandment Number
	5:1-33	The Ten Commandments: the foundation of the covenant relationship
1	5:7		6:1-11:32[1]	6:1-11:32	12[2]
2	5:8-10		12:1-13:18	12:1-32
3	5:11		14:1-29	13:1-14:21	13:1-14:27
4	5:12-15		15:1-16:17	14:22-16:17	14:28-16:17
5	5:16		16:18-18:22	16:18-18:22	16:18-18:22
6	5:17		19:1-22:8	19:1-21:3	19:1-22:8
7	5:18		22:9-23:14	22:1-23:14	22:9-23:19
8	5:19		23:15-24:7	23:15-24:7	23:20-24:7
9	5:20		24:8-25:4	24:8-24:16	24:8-25:4
10	5:21		25:5-26:15	24:17-26:15	25:5-16
	27:1-28:68	Blessing for obedience, cursing for disobedience

 

 [1] This is the outline in Allan Harman’s Deuteronomy (Focus on the Bible) 

[1] This suggestion follows the Catholic/Lutheran numbering of the Ten Commandments.  ‘No other gods’ and ‘no idols’ are combined to form the first commandment, and the commandment about ‘coveting is divided into two (wife; tangible property).