The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness

by William P. Brown

Overview

Offering a host of classic and new essays surveying the scholarly ethical and biblical debate surrounding the Ten Commandments, William Brown organizes his volume into three parts: the history of interpretation, contemporary reflections on the Decalogue as a whole, and contemporary reflections on individual commandments. A useful addition to ethics as well as Old Testament and Hebrew Bible courses, Brown's The Ten Commandments will be a standard reference for all Decalogue research, as it facilitates a helpful balance between moral, theological, and biblical study.

The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664223236
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	10/04/2004
Series:	Library of Theological Ethics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

William P. Brown is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. He has published numerous works, including Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor and Ecclesiastes in the Interpretation series. He also serves on the editorial board for the esteemed Old Testament Library series, published by Westminster John Knox Press.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Abbreviations	xii
	General Editors' Introduction	xv
	Introduction	1
Chapter 1	Divine Command and Beyond: The Ethics of the Commandments	12
Section 1	History of Interpretation: A Sampling
Chapter 2	The Decalogue in the New Testament	33
Chapter 3	Law in the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas	45
Chapter 4	The Moral Precepts of the Old Law	51
Chapter 5	Martin Luther and the Rabbinic Mind	61
Chapter 6	How Christians Should Regard Moses	68
Chapter 7	Reformed Explication of the Ten Commandments	78
Chapter 8	On the Law and the Commandments	100
Chapter 9	The Two Testaments in the Anabaptist Tradition	106
Chapter 10	Three Radical Reformers on the Decalogue	116
Section 2	Contemporary Reflections on the Decalogue
Chapter 11	The Obedience of Trust: Recovering the Law as Gift	133
Chapter 12	Biblical Law and the Origins of Democracy	146
Chapter 13	Should the Ten Commandments Be Posted in the Public Realm? Why the Bible and the Constitution Say, "No"	159
Section 3	Contemporary Reflections on the Commandments
Chapter 14	The First Commandment	173
	The First Commandment as a Theological and Ethical Principle	174
Chapter 15	The Second Commandment	193
	"The Work of Human Hands" (Psalm 115:4): Idolatry in the Old Testament	194
Chapter 16	The Third Commandment	204
	The Fundamental Code Illustrated: The Third Commandment	205
Chapter 17	The Fourth Commandment	213
	A Palace in Time	214
	Restless Until We Rest in God: The Fourth Commandment as Test Case in Christian "Plain Sense" Interpretation	223
Chapter 18	The Fifth Commandment	237
	No Contempt for the Family	238
Chapter 19	The Sixth Commandment	248
	"Thou Shalt Not Kill"-The First Commandment of the Just War Tradition	249
Chapter 20	The Seventh Commandment	266
	Adultery, Prophetic Tradition, and the Decalogue	267
Chapter 21	The Eighth Commandment	275
	The Eighth Commandment: A Way to King's "Beloved Community"?	276
Chapter 22	The Ninth Commandment	290
	Truth-Telling as Subversive Obedience	291
Chapter 23	The Tenth Commandment	301
	"Coveting Your Neighbor's House" in Social Context	302
Appendix	Numbering the Commandments	319
	Bibliography	321
	List of Modern Contributors	333
	Author Index	337
	Scripture Index	341
	Subject Index	347