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The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin Language decalogus, from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten Commandments appears in three markedly distinct versions in the Bible: at Exodus , Deuteronomy , and the "Ritual Decalogue" of Exodus .
The biblical narrative describes how God revealed the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mount Sinai amidst thunder and fire, gave Moses two stone tablets inscribed with the law, which he later broke in anger after witnessing the worship of a golden calf, and then received a second set of tablets to be placed in the Ark of the Covenant.
Scholars have proposed a range of dates and contexts for the origins of the Decalogue. “Three main dating schemes have been proposed: (1) it was suggested that the Decalogue was the earliest legal code given at Sinai, with Moses as author, and the Amphictyony confederation as its setting (Albright 1939, 1949, Buber 1998, and others); (2) the Decalogue was considered a product of the pre-exilic monarchic period, well embedded in the deuteronomistic writings, but presumed to reflect earlier periods of evolution (and possibly to be of northern origin; Carmichael 1985, Reventlow 1962, and Weinfeld 1990, 1991, 2001, among others); (3) the Decalogue has been understood as a postexilic product shaped primarily by deuteronomistic and priestly currents in the eighth century BCE and forward, and secondarily by prophetic and or wisdom influences. Among the features that seem to point to the lateness of the collection are its gradual literary evolution and its place within the Sinai traditions (Aaron 2006, Blum 2011, Hölscher 1988, and others). Harrelson (1962, who accepted this third dating suggestion) was cautious enough to admit that there were no good arguments to substantiate firmly any of these general frameworks” Interpretations of its content vary widely, reflecting debates over its legal, political, and theological development, its relation to ancient treaty forms, and differing views on authorship and emphasis on ritual versus ethics.
Different religious traditions divide the seventeen verses of Exodus 20:1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:4–21 into ten commandments in distinct ways, often influenced by theological or mnemonic priorities despite the presence of more than ten imperative statements in the texts. The Ten Commandments are the foundational core of Halakha, connecting and supporting all other commandments and guiding Jewish ritual and ethics. Most Christian traditions regard the Ten Commandments as divinely authoritative and foundational to moral life, though they differ in interpretation, emphasis, and application within their theological frameworks. The Quran presents the Ten Commandments given to Moses as moral and legal guidance focused on monotheism, justice, and righteousness, paralleling but differing slightly from the biblical version. Interpretive differences arise from varying religious traditions, translations, and cultural contexts affecting Sabbath observance, prohibitions on killing and theft, views on idolatry, and definitions of adultery.
Some scholars have criticized the Ten Commandments as Obsolescence, Authoritarianism, and potentially harmful in certain interpretations, such as those justifying harsh punishments or religious violence, like the 1846 Galician uprising. In the United States, they have remained a contentious symbol in public spaces and schools, with debates intensifying through the 20th and 21st centuries and culminating in recent laws in Texas and Louisiana mandating their display—laws now facing legal challenges over church-state separation. The Ten Commandments have been depicted or referenced in various media, including two major films by Cecil B. DeMille, the Polish series Dekalog, the American comedy The Ten, multiple musicals and films, and a satirical scene in Mel Brooks’s History of the World Part I.
(transliterated aséret haddevarím) in Biblical Hebrew, are mentioned at Exodus , Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy . In all sources, the terms are translatable as "the ten words", "the ten sayings", or "the ten matters". In Mishnaic Hebrew they are called עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת, aséret haddiberót, a precise equivalent.
In the Septuagint, the Ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the phrase was translated as δεκάλογος, dekálogos or "ten words"; this Greek word became decalogus in Latin Language, which entered the English language as "Decalogue", providing an alternative name for the Ten Commandments. The Tyndale Bible and Coverdale Bible English biblical translations used "ten verses". The Geneva Bible used "ten commandments", which was followed by the Bishops' Bible and the Authorized Version (the "King James" version) as "ten commandments". Most major English versions use the word "commandments".
The stone tablets, as opposed to the ten commandments inscribed on them, are called , lukhót habberít "tablets of the Mosaic covenant", or לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת, lukhot ha'edut "tablets of the testimony".
The people were afraid to hear more and moved "afar off", and Moses responded with "Fear not." Nevertheless, he drew near the "thick darkness" where "the presence of the Lord" was to hear the additional statutes and "judgments", all which he "wrote" in the "Covenant Code" which he read to the people the next morning, and they agreed to be obedient and do all that the had said. Moses escorted a select group consisting of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and "seventy of the elders of Israel" to a location on the mount where they worshipped "afar off" and they "saw the God of Israel" above a "paved work" like clear sapphire stone.
The mount was covered by the cloud for six days, and on the seventh day Moses went into the midst of the cloud and was "in the mount forty days and forty nights." And Moses said, "the delivered unto me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly." Before the full forty days expired, the children of Israel collectively decided that something had happened to Moses, and compelled Aaron to fashion a golden calf, and he "built an altar before it" and the people "worshipped" the calf.
After the full forty days, Moses and Joshua came down from the mountain with the tablets of stone: "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." After the events in chapters 32 and 33, the told Moses, "Hew thee two tablets of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tablets the words that were in the first tablets, which thou brakest." "And he wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the gave them unto me." These tablets were later placed in the Ark of the Covenant., , ,
Different religious traditions categorize the seventeen verses of Exodus 20:1–17 and their parallels in Deuteronomy 5:4–21 into ten commandments in different ways as shown in the table. Some suggest that the number ten is a choice to aid memorization rather than a matter of theology.
Another approach combines verses 3–6, the prohibition against images and the prohibition against other gods, into a single command while still maintaining ten commandments. Samaritan and Jewish traditions include another commandment, whereas Christian traditions will divide coveting the neighbor's wife and house.
The Bible indicates the special status of the Ten Commandments among all other Torah laws in several ways:
According to Conservative Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, Ten Commandments are virtually entwined, in that the breaking of one leads to the breaking of another. Echoing an earlier rabbinic comment found in the commentary of Rashi to the Songs of Songs (4:5) Ginzberg explained—there is also a great bond of union between the first five commandments and the last five. The first commandment: "I am the Lord, thy God," corresponds to the sixth: "Thou shalt not kill," for the murderer slays the image of God. The second: "Thou shalt have no strange gods before me," corresponds to the seventh: "Thou shalt not commit adultery," for conjugal faithlessness is as grave a sin as idolatry, which is faithlessness to God. The third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain," corresponds to the eighth: "Thou shalt not steal," for stealing results in a false oath in God's name. The fourth: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," corresponds to the ninth: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," for he who bears false witness against his neighbor commits as grave a sin as if he had borne false witness against God, saying that He had not created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day (the holy Sabbath). The fifth commandment: "Honor thy father and thy mother," corresponds to the tenth: "Covet not thy neighbor's wife," for one who indulges this lust produces children who will not honor their true father, but will consider a stranger their father.Ginzberg, Louis, The Legends of the Jews, Vol. III: The Unity of Ten Commandments , (Translated by Henrietta Szold), Johns Hopkins University Press: 1998,
The traditional Rabbinical Jewish belief is that the observance of these commandments and the other mitzvot are required solely of the Jewish people and that the laws incumbent on humanity in general are outlined in the seven Noahide laws, a concept that is not found anywhere in the Tanakh, several of which overlap with the Ten Commandments. In the era of the Sanhedrin transgressing any one of six of the Ten Commandments theoretically carried the death penalty, the exceptions being the First Commandment, honouring your father and mother, saying God's name in vain, and coveting, though this was rarely enforced due to a large number of stringent evidentiary requirements imposed by the oral Torah.Talmud Makkos 1:10
According to the Talmud, the compendium of traditional Rabbinic Jewish law, tradition, and interpretation, one interpretation of the biblical verse "the tablets were written on both their sides", is that the carving went through the full thickness of the tablets, yet was miraculously legible from both sides. Talmud, tractate Shabbat 104a.
In later centuries rabbis continued to omit the Ten Commandments from daily liturgy in order to prevent confusion among Jews that they are only bound by the Ten Commandments, and not also by many other biblical and Talmudic laws, such as the requirement to observe holy days other than the sabbath.
However, some rabbinic authorities still recommend reading the Ten Commandments privately as part of unscheduled, non-communal prayer. The Ten Commandments are included in some prayerbooks for this purpose.
Today, the Ten Commandments are heard in the synagogue three times a year: as they come up during the readings of Exodus and Deuteronomy, and during the festival of Shavuot. The Exodus version is read in Yitro around late January–February, and on the festival of Shavuot, and the Deuteronomy version in parashat Va'etchanan in August–September. In some traditions, worshipers rise for the reading of the Ten Commandments to highlight their special significanceSimon Glustrom, The Myth and Reality of Judaism, pp. 113–114. Behrman House (1989). though many rabbis, including Maimonides, have opposed this custom since one may come to think that the Ten Commandments are more important than the rest of the Mitzvot. Covenant & Conversation Yitro 5772 Chief Rabbi. Retrieved 24 May 2015
In printed Chumashim, as well as in those in manuscript form, the Ten Commandments carry two sets of cantillation marks. The ta'am 'elyon (upper accentuation), which makes each Commandment into a separate verse, is used for public Torah reading, while the ta'am tachton (lower accentuation), which divides the text into verses of more even length, is used for private reading or study. The verse numbering in the Torah follows the ta'am tachton. In the Torah, the references to the Ten Commandments are therefore and .
The text of the Samaritan tenth commandment follows:
Distinctions in the order and importance of said order continues to be a theological debate, with texts within the New Testament confirming the more traditional ordering, which follows the Septuagint of adultery, murder and theft, as opposed to the currently held order of the Masoretic of murder, adultery, theft.
Protestantism, under which there are several denominations of Christianity, in general gives more importance to biblical law and the gospel. Magisterial Protestantism takes the Ten Commandments as the starting point of Christian moral life.Timothy Sedgwick, The Christian Moral Life: Practices of Piety, pp. 9–20 . Church Publishing (2008). Different versions of Christianity have varied in how they have translated the bare principles into the specifics that make up a full Christian ethic.
In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul the Apostle also mentioned five of the Ten Commandments and associated them with the neighbourly love commandment.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church—the official exposition of the Catholic Church's Christian beliefs—the Commandments are considered essential for spiritual good health and growth, pp. 201–203 ( Google preview p. 201) and serve as the basis for social justice. p. 82 Church teaching of the Commandments is largely based on the Old Testament and and the writings of the early Church Fathers. The Catechism of the Catholic Church believes that in the New Testament, Jesus acknowledged their validity summarizing them into two "great commandments."
The great commandments contain the Law of the Gospel, summed up in the Golden Rule. The Law of the Gospel is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that, "the Law of the Gospel fulfills the commandments of the Law. The Lord's Sermon on the Mount, far from abolishing or devaluing the moral prescriptions of the Old Law, releases their hidden potential and has new demands arise from them: it reveals their entire divine and human truth. It does not add new external precepts, but proceeds to reform the heart, the root of human acts, where man chooses between the pure and the impure, where faith, hope, and charity are formed and with them the other virtues." The New Law "fulfills, refines, surpasses, and leads the Old Law to its perfection."
The Lutheran division of the commandments follows the one established by St. Augustine, following the then current synagogue scribal division. The first three commandments govern the relationship between God and humans, the fourth through eighth govern public relationships between people, and the last two govern private thoughts. See Luther's Small Catechism Luther's Small Catechism (1529) and Large Catechism.
In keeping with Wesleyan covenant theology, "while the ceremonial law was abolished in Christ and the whole Mosaic dispensation itself was concluded upon the appearance of Christ, the moral law remains a vital component of the covenant of grace, having Christ as its perfecting end." As such, in Methodism, an "important aspect of the pursuit of sanctification is the careful following" of the Ten Commandments.
In an October 2011 address, the Church president and prophet Thomas S. Monson taught "The Ten Commandments are just that—commandments. They are not suggestions." In that same talk he used small quotations listing the numbering and selection of the commandments. This and other sources don't include the prologue, making it most consistent with the Septuagint numbering.
A splinter group of the Church called the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)" have a belief similar to the Samaritans where they have the entire Ten Commandments in their scripture where others only have nine. The Strangite fourth Commandment is "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."Book of the Law of the Lord, pp. 24–25. This commandment is number four in Strang's version of the Decalogue. The Strangite's founder and namesake James Strang wrote in "Note on the Decalogue" as part of the Book of the Law of the Lord (a Strangite holy book) that no other version of the Decalogue contains more than nine commandments and speculated that his fourth Commandment was omitted from other works perhaps as early as Josephus' time (circa 37-100 AD).Book of the Law of the Lord, pp. 38–46.
The Tablets are further alluded to in verses 7:150, when Moses threw the Tablets down in anger at seeing the Israelites' worshipping of the golden calf, and in 7:154 when he picked up the Tablets having recovered from his anger:
Evidence for these verses having some relation to Moses and the Ten Commandments is from the verse which immediately follows them:
According to a narration in Mustadrak Hakim, Ibn Abbas, a prominent narrator of Israiliyat traditions said, "In Surah Al-An`am, there are clear Ayat, and they are the Mother of the Book (the Qur'an)." He then recited the above verses. Tafsir ibn Kathir , Commentary of verse 6:151. Al-Hakim said, "Its chain is Sahih, and they (Sihah Sitta) did not record it."
Also in Mustadrak Hakim is the narration of Ubada ibn as-Samit:
Ibn Kathir mentions a narration of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud in his Tafsir:
| First Commandment | Do not associate others with God | (151) | (22) | Do not put other gods before me |
| Second Commandment | Honour your parents | (23–24) | Honour thy father and thy mother | |
| Third Commandment | Do not kill your children for fear of poverty | (26–31) | Do not murder | |
| Fourth Commandment | Do not come near indecencies, openly or secretly. | (32) | Do not covet thy neighbour's wife, Do not commit adultery | |
| Fifth Commandment | Do not take a life except justly | (33) | Do not murder | |
| Sixth Commandment | Do not come near the property of the orphan except to enhance it | (152) | (34) | Do not covet his slaves, or his animals, or anything of thy neighbour |
| Seventh Commandment | Give full measure and weigh with justice | (35) | Doesn't exist. (And the biblical "Remember the sabbath day" is absent in the Quran.) | |
| Eighth Commandment | Whenever you testify, maintain justice even regarding a close relative | (36) | Do not bear false witness against thy neighbour | |
| Ninth Commandment | Fulfil your covenant with God | (34) | Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain | |
| Tenth Commandment | Follow God's path and not any other | (153) | (37–39) | Do not make unto thee any graven image or idols neither kneel before them nor worship them |
The imperative is against unlawful killing resulting in bloodguilt. Bloodguilt, Jewish Virtual Library , Genesis 4:10, Genesis 9:6, Genesis 42:22, Exodus 22:2–2, Leviticus 17:4, Leviticus 20, Numbers 20, Deuteronomy 19, Deuteronomy 32:43, Joshua 2:19, Judges 9:24, 1 Samuel 25, 2 Samuel 1, 2 Samuel 21, 1 Kings 2, 1 Kings 21:19, 2 Kings 24:4, Psalm 9:12, Psalm 51:14, Psalm 106:38, Proverbs 6:17, Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 26:21, Jeremiah 22:17, Lamentations 4:13, Ezekiel 9:9, Ezekiel 36:18, Hosea 4:2, Joel 3:19, Habakkuk 2:8, Matthew 23:30–35, Matthew 27:4, Luke 11:50–51, Romans 3:15, Revelation 6:10, Revelation 18:24 The Hebrew Bible contains numerous prohibitions against unlawful killing, but does not prohibit killing in the context of warfare (), capital punishment () or (), which are considered justified. The New Testament is in agreement that murder is a grave moral evil,Matthew 5:21, Matthew 15:19, Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:7, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, Romans 13:9, 1 Timothy 1:9, James 2:11, Revelation 21:8 and references the Old Testament view of bloodguilt.Matthew 23:30–35, Matthew 27:4, Luke 11:50–51, Romans 3:15, Revelation 6:10, Revelation 18:24
Alt's claim is somewhat questionable, because the decalogue verse (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16) forbids theft in general, whereas the Sanhedrin 86a discussion (abductions and slavery) deals with another biblical verse: Deuteronomy 24:7 which explicitly refers to theft (i.e. abduction) of a person in order to sell that person.
In the non-canonical Gospel of Barnabas, it is claimed that Jesus stated that idolatry is the greatest sin as it divests a man fully of faith, and hence of God. Chapter 32: Statues of Flesh Barnabas.net The words attributed to Jesus prohibit not only worshipping statues of wood or stone; but also statues of flesh. "...all which a man loves, for which he leaves everything else but that, is his god, thus the glutton and drunkard has for his idol his own flesh, the fornicator has for his idol the harlot and the greedy has for his idol silver and gold, and so the same for every other sinner." Gospel of Barnabas chapter XXXIII Latrobe Edu Idolatory was thus the basic sin, which manifested in various acts or thoughts, which displace the primacy of God. However, the Gospel of Barnabas does not form part of the Christian bible. It is known only from 16th- and 17th-century manuscripts, and frequently reflects Islamic rather than Christian understandings.
Eastern Orthodox tradition teaches that while images of God, the Father, remain prohibited, depictions of Jesus as the incarnation of God as a visible human are permissible. To emphasize the theological importance of the incarnation, the Orthodox Church encourages the use of icons in church and private devotions, but prefers a two-dimensional depiction.Alexander Hugh Hore, Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Church, J. Parker and co. (1899)
"The images or Icons, as they are called, of the Greek Church are not, it must be remarked, sculptured images, but flat pictures or mosaics; not even the Crucifix is sanctioned; and herein consists the difference between the Greek and Roman Churches, in the latter of which both pictures and statues are allowed, and venerated with equal honour." p. 353 In modern use (usually as a result of Roman Catholic influence), more naturalistic images and images of the Father, however, also appear occasionally in Orthodox churches, but statues, i.e. three-dimensional depictions, continue to be banned.
Louis Ginzberg argued that the tenth commandment ( Covet not thy neighbor's wife) is directed against a sin which may lead to a trespassing of all Ten Commandments.Ginzberg, Louis, The Legends of the Jews, Vol. III: The other Commandments Revealed on Sinai , (Translated by Henrietta Szold), Johns Hopkins University Press: 1998,
Bernard Levinson argues that the idea of Exodus 34:11–26 as an ancient, independent, pre-Deuteronomic legal source originated with Goethe, significantly influenced Wellhausen’s formulation of the documentary hypothesis, and reflects broader intellectual currents, including Goethe’s construction of the Jew as the particularistic “other” in contrast to the universal German Protestant self.
"The prologue of the Hittite treaty reminds his vassals of his benevolent acts... (compare with Exodus 20:2 "I am the your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery"). The Hittite treaty also stipulated the obligations imposed by the ruler on his vassals, which included a prohibition of relations with peoples outside the empire, or enmity between those within."Cornfeld, Gaalyahu Ed Pictorial Biblical Encyclopedia, MacMillan 1964 p. 237 (Exodus 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before Me"). Viewed as a treaty rather than a law code, its purpose is not so much to regulate human affairs as to define the scope of the king's power.John Bright, 1972, p. 165 4th ed. pp. 169–170
Julius Morgenstern argued that Exodus 34 was distinct from the Jahwist document, identifying it with king Asa's reforms in 899 BC. Bright, however, believes that like the Decalogue this text has its origins in the time of the tribal alliance. The book of the covenant, he notes, bears a greater similarity to Mesopotamian law codes (e.g. the Code of Hammurabi which was inscribed on a stone stele). He argues that the function of this "book" is to move from the realm of treaty to the realm of law: "The Book of the Covenant (Ex., chs. 21 to 23; cf. ch. 34), which is no official state law, but a description of normative Israelite judicial procedure in the days of the Judges, is the best example of this process."Bright, John, 2000, A History of Israel 4th ed. p. 173. According to Bright, then, this body of law too predates the monarchy.John Bright, 1972, p. 166 4th ed. pp. 170+
According to Kaufmann, the Decalogue and the book of the covenant represent two ways of manifesting God's presence in Israel: the Ten Commandments taking the archaic and material form of stone tablets kept in the Ark of the Covenant, while the book of the covenant took oral form to be recited to the people.Yehezkal Kaufmann 1960 The Religion of Israel: From its beginnings to the Babylonian Exile trans. and Abridged by Moshe Greenberg. New York: Schocken Books, pp. 174–175.
Archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman argue that "the astonishing composition came together… in the seventh century BC".Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman (2002). The Bible Unearthed, p. 70. An even later date (after 586 BC) is suggested by David H. Aaron; his book argues for “the probability that these documents were written very late in the history of biblical literature - indeed, so late as to constitute a literary afterthought in the development of Israelite ethnic self-definition.” (99.8 KB), The Chronicle, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Issue 68, 2006, p. 42. "a critical survey of biblical literature demonstrates no cognizance of the ten commandments prior to the post-exilic period (after 586 B.C.E.)"
Biblical scholar Timothy S. Hogue argues that the Decalogue in the book of Exodus originated in the northern kingdom of Israel around the 9th-8th centuries BC, based on parallels with Luwian language texts from that time as well as the references in the Decalogue to the Matzevah which were destroyed during the religious reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah.
According to Book of Deuteronomy, the tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant. Thomas Römer argued in 2015 that “clearly… the tablets of the law are a substitute for something else.”Thomas Römer, The Invention of God (Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 92. He holds that “the original Ark contained a cult image i.e. of Yahweh” and that it was “brought into the First Temple under Josiah”, which he specifically identifies as “two Baetylus (sacred stones), or two cult image statues symbolizing Yhwh and his female companion Asherah or a statue representing Yhwh alone.”
Richard Elliott Friedman argues that the Ten Commandments at Exodus 20:1–17 "does not appear to belong to any of the major sources. It is likely to be an independent document, which was inserted here by the Redactor."Friedman, p. 153 In his view, the Covenant Code follows that version of the Ten Commandments in the northern Israel Elohist. In the Yahwist in Exodus 34 the editor of the combined story known as the Redactor (or RJE), adds in an explanation that these are a replacement for the earlier tablets which were shattered. "In the combined JE text, it would be awkward to picture God just commanding Moses to make some tablets, as if there were no history to this matter, so RJE adds the explanation that these are a replacement for the earlier tablets that were shattered."Friedman, p. 177 He suggests that differences in the J and E versions of the Ten Commandments story are a result of power struggles in the priesthood. The writer has Moses smash the tablets "because this raised doubts about the Judah's central religious shrine".Friedman, Richard Elliott. "Who Wrote The Bible?" 1987 pp. 73–74
According to some scholars, certain interpretations of the Commandments have been problematic for people, like capital punishment for blasphemy, idolatry, apostasy, adultery, cursing one own's parents, and Sabbath-breaking. (2025). 9780800634919, Fortress Press. ISBN 9780800634919
During an 1846 uprising, now known as the Galician slaughter, by impoverished and famished Galician Eastern European peasants (Serfdom) directed against szlachta (Poland nobles) because of their oppression (for example, manorial prisons), a popular rumor had it that the Austrian Empire Emperor had abolished the Ten Commandants, which the peasants took as permission and religious justification to massacre the szlachta (1989). 9780582356665, Routledge. ISBN 9780582356665 – the prime representatives and beneficiaries of the crown in Austrian Galicia. This uprising is credited with helping to bring on the demise, in 1848, of serfdom with corvée labor in Galicia.
In the 1950s and 1960s the Fraternal Order of Eagles placed possibly thousands of Ten Commandments displays in courthouses and school rooms, including many stone monuments on courthouse property.Emmet V. Mittlebeeler, (2003) "Ten Commandments." P. 434 in The Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics. Edited by P. A. Djupe and L. R. Olson. New York: Facts on File. Because displaying the commandments can reflect a sectarian position if they are numbered, the Eagles developed an ecumenical version that omitted the numbers, as on the monument at the Texas capitol. Hundreds of monuments were also placed by film director Cecil B. DeMille as a publicity stunt to promote his 1956 film The Ten Commandments. Placing the plaques and monuments to the Ten Commandments in and around government buildings was another expression of mid-twentieth-century U.S. civil religion, along with adding the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
/ref> and the American Jewish Congress.American Jewish Congress, " AJCongress Voices Opposition to Courtroom Display of ten Commandments," (16 May 2003)
In 2023, Texas Republican politician Phil King introduced SB 1515 of the 88th Session of the Texas Senate, which would require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom of every public school in Texas. SB 1515 88th Session Legislative Session , Texas Legislature Online, April 23, 2023. The bill eventually lapsed in the State House when the session closed without voting it. It was later passed in 2025 as Texas Senate Bill 10.
On June 19, 2024, Louisiana Governor
mandating display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. The bill also permits the additional display of the Mayflower Compact, the United States Declaration of Independence or the Northwest Ordinance. Governor Landry stated that the Ten Commandments are "not solely religious, but that it has historical significance." The bill mandates a text that includes the phrase "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images" indicating that it comes not from a traditional Bible but instead from the Eagles-DeMille promotion campaign. A group of parents challenged the law in court, and on November 12, 2024, United States District Judge John W. deGravelles granted a temporary injunction, stating that the law is "unconstitutional on its face." On November 15, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted an Injunction motion from the Louisiana state, limiting the ruling to the five whose school boards were named as defendants in the case. In June 2025, the Fifth Circuit ruled that Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms in the state is unconstitutional. The court affirmed the lower court's November 2024 decision.
In Arkansas, a Ten Commandments law was signed into law by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on April 14, 2025. 10 Commandments now in Arkansas classrooms by law
Two famous films with this name were directed by Cecil B. DeMille: a 1923 silent film which stars Theodore Roberts as Moses, and a 1956 version filmed in VistaVision starring Charlton Heston as Moses.
Both Dekalog, a 1989 Polish film series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, and The Ten, a 2007 American film, use the Ten Commandments as a structure for 10 smaller stories.
Other media about the Ten Commandments include a 2000 musical, , 2006 miniseries, 2007 film, 2010 film, and a .
The receipt of the Ten Commandments by Moses was satirized in Mel Brooks's 1981 movie History of the World Part I, which shows Moses (played by Brooks, in a similar costume to Charlton Heston's Moses in the 1956 film), receiving three tablets containing fifteen commandments, but before he can present them to his people, he stumbles and drops one of the tablets, shattering it. He then presents the remaining tablets, proclaiming Ten Commandments.
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