BOOKENDS OF OLD TESTAMENT ETHICS: THE FIRST AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS AND HUMAN DIGNITY

Abstract

The final position of the tenth commandment might suggest that it is intended as the climactic statement of a series of ‘ten words’ and is linked to the first commandment to form an inclusio. While the first commandment insists that there is no other God and that this is rooted in an internal posture; so too the tenth commandment is opposed to an inner attitude of self-interest that could influence and precipitate actions that violate one of the preceding commandments.