The Ten Commandments: A Literary Analysis

Section 3: Comparison of Text Between Exodus 19-31 and 33-40

Background ● Section 1 ● Section 2 ● Section 4 ● Section 5

Comparison 1:

 

31:15 - Work must be done for six days, but the seventh day will be a day of complete rest, consecrated to Yahweh. Anyone who works on the Sabbath day will be put to death.

 

35:2 - Work must be done for six days, but the seventh must be a holy day for you, a day of complete rest, in honour of Yahweh. Anyone who does any work on that day will be put to death.

 

Comparison 2:

 

23:15 - You will observe the feast of Unleavened Breat. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one will appear before me empty-handed.

 

34:18,20 - You will observe the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.

 

...no one will appear before me empty-handed.

 

Comparison 3:

 

23:23 - My angel will precede you and lead you to the home of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, whom I shall exterminate.

 

33:2 - I shall send an angel in front of you and drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

Discussion:

All three of these comparisons show a high degree of similarity between the actual text between the two sections. At worst, the compared texts are faithful paraphrases of each other or an unknown original text. At best, the compared texts are exact copies of each other, distinguished only through slight differences in grammar.


I conclude that these comparisons indicate that a common text can be seen mirrored in the two sections. Fragments of this text are apparent between the two sections, communicating the same ideas, and with highly similar wording in each. If this conclusion is accurate, then I would predict that comparison of text found in shared narrative elements between the two sections will illustrate similarities and differences between the original narratives.