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Decalogue

23 Episodes

The Decalogue is the set of “ten words” associated with Israel’s covenant traditions, but the term does not point to a single fixed list. In the show’s treatment, it names a cluster of overlapping commandment collections whose wording, count, and meaning were negotiated across Exodus, Deuteronomy, and later interpretation.

Redirected from: Ten Commandments, Biblical Decalogue

Why this topic matters

The Decalogue is one of the clearest examples of how familiar biblical categories can flatten a much messier textual reality. What many readers treat as a single, obvious list turns out to be a negotiated tradition with multiple versions, competing numbering systems, and different emphases.

The topic is especially useful for conversations about translation, canon, and the history of interpretation. When the Decalogue comes up, the discussion usually broadens into how later religious and political communities selected one arrangement, called it self-evident, and treated that choice as if it were the only biblical option.

Where to start

Start here for the best in-depth listening on Decalogue: featured segments, featured episodes, and the episode with the most mentions.

Quotes from the Data

“It's nowhere referred to as the Ten Commandments, and we get an almost identical list of laws in Deuteronomy 5. Again, nowhere referred to as the Ten Commandments. So where are we getting this Ten Commandments title from?”

Dan McClellan Episode 31

“The commandments in Exodus 34, which, by the way, are usually referred to by scholars as the ritual decalogue because it's a lot more focused on ritual and festival than it is on what we might label ethical issues.”

Dan McClellan Episode 31

“We've got at least three different iterations of the Ten Commandments, and they are not all the same.”

Dan McClellan Episode 21

“Exodus 34 is actually the only place where it calls them the Ten Words in Exodus 34. And that's the closest we get to the label Ten Commandments, which is then transferred to Exodus 20.”

Dan McClellan Episode 21

Top episodes

Ranked by mentions of Decalogue across the transcript. Start with the top mention above, then keep going here.

All episodes

Every episode currently tagged with Decalogue.