The Ten Commandments:A Preaching Commentary by John C. Holbert

Recent debates over the advisability of United States military action have included, among other topics conversation about the meaning of the sixth commandment (“You shall not murder” – Exodus 20:13, NRSV). Does the commandment’s prohibition against the taking of human life include government sanctioned action or is it limited to a prohibition against murder as an act of aggression of one person against another? Other examples of the place of the Ten Commandments in “culture wars” could be listed. Should the Commandments be posted in courthouses as examples of law? What is the place of the Commandments in the life of the Christian faith community, shaped as it is by the central notion of grace and the law of love? How does one interpret the Commandments in the 21st century: what does it mean, for example, not to covet in a consumer oriented society? The very fact that the Commandments generate such conversations in cultural debates highlights the timeliness and importance of John Holbert’s recent work ,The Ten Commandments.

Any preacher who wishes to address the ethical and formative issues raised by the Decalogue will find Holbert’s work both encouraging and helpful. Holbert reframes the question of the nature of the Commandments by suggesting that the “Ten ought never to be heard as ‘merely’ legislation” but rather stand as an extended reflection on its opening statement: I, YHWH, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. While a preacher may preach a series of sermons based on each commandment (an exercise Holbert encourages), she should first frame them as interconnected. Holbert helps us understand that obedience to the Commandments is a response to the initiative of a gracious God; that is what gives them their formative power.

Each commandment is considered in a fourfold pattern that is resourceful to the working pastor. The commandment is addressed by considering its place in its original context, the Jewish tradition. This is followed by a “subsequent history of the commandment” which locates it for us in its historical/theological context as employed by the Christian church. Here, one notices that Holbert’s bias is toward the works of the 16th century reformers Luther and Calvin, although some 20th century evangelical flavor spices the conversation. The heart of the work is the exegetical section where Holbert does a word study of each Commandment, setting the language of the Commandment in larger context of the canon. I found this to be the most valuable section of the book and most readers, whether versed in Hebrew or not, will find new insights into the “meaning” of the Commandment here. Finally, Holbert offers “sermonic notes” – suggestions for ways one may preach the Commandment that stirs the creativity and employs one’s own homiletic imagination.

Holbert, the Lois Craddock professor of Homiletics at the Perkins School of Theology, has produced a book that is helpful to pastors who wish to engage the difficult task of leading congregational reflection on the central text of Hebrew scripture. This volume bridges so many chasms: that between the ancient world and the contemporary; that between differences in language and nuance; that between the reader and the text; and, perhaps most importantly, that between law and grace. The reader who wishes to cross over will find a clearer understanding of the formative place of the Ten Commandments in the community of faith. The added benefit will be the groundwork for a series of ten, or even twenty, sermons!

Carl Frazier Pastor, Hay Street United Methodist Church Fayetteville, NC