Exodus 20:3 Komentář

All things being prepared for the solemn promulgation of the divine law, we have, in this chapter, I. The ten commandments, as God himself spoke them upon mount Sinai (v. 1-17), as remarkable a portion of scripture as any in the Old Testament. II. The impressions made upon the people thereby (Exo 20:18-21). III. Some particular instructions which God gave privately to Moses, to be by him communicated to the people, relating to his worship (Exo 20:22, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 20 In this chapter we have an account of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai; the preface to it, Exo 20:1, the ten commandments it consists of, Exo 20:8, the circumstances attending it, which caused the people to remove at some distance, Exo 20:18, when they desired of Moses, that he would speak to them and not God, who bid them not fear, since this was for the trial of them; but still they kept at a distance, while Moses drew nigh to God, Exo 20:19 who ordered him to caution the children of Israel against idolatry, and directed what sort of an altar he would have made whereon to offer their sacrifices, promising that where his name was recorded he would grant his presence and blessing, Exo 20:22.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This is the first command, and is opposed to the polytheism of the Gentiles, the Egyptians, from whom Israel was just come, and whose gods some of them might have had a favourable opinion of and liking to, and had committed idolatry with; and the Canaanites, into whose land they were going; and to prevent their joining with them in the worship of other gods, this law was given, as well as to be of standing us to them in all generations; for there is but one only living and true God, the former and maker of all things, who only is to be had, owned, acknowledged, served, and worshipped as such; all others have only the name, and are not by nature gods; they are other gods than the true God is; they are not real, but fictitious deities; they are other or strange gods to the worshippers of them, that cry unto them, for they do not answer them, as Jarchi observes: and now for Israel, who knew the true God, who had appeared unto them, and made himself known to them by his name Jehovah, both by his word and works, whom he had espoused to himself as a choice virgin, to commit idolatry, which is spiritual adultery with other gods, with strange gods, that are no gods, and this before God, in the presence of him, who had took them by the hand when he brought them out of Egypt, and had been a husband to them, must be shocking impiety, monstrous ingratitude, and extremely displeasing to God, and resented by him; and is, as many observe, as if a woman should commit adultery in the presence of her husband, and so the phrase may denote the audaciousness of the action, as well as the wickedness of it; though, as Ben Melech from others observes, if it was done in secret it would be before the Lord, who is the omniscient God, and nothing can be hid from him: several Jewish commentators, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret the phrase "before me", all the time I endure, while I have a being, as long as I live, or am the living God, no others are to be had; that is, they are never to be had; since the true God will always exist: the Septuagint version is, "besides me", no other were to be worshipped with him; God will have no rivals and competitors; though he was worshipped, yet if others were worshipped with him, if others were set before him and worshipped along with him, or it was pretended he was worshipped in them, and even he with a superior and they with an inferior kind of worship; yet this was what he could by no means admit of: the phrase may be rendered "against me" (c); other gods opposition to him, against his will, contrary to obedience due to him and his precepts: this law, though it supposes and strongly inculcates the unity of the divine Being, the only object of religious adoration, yet does not oppose the doctrine of the trinity of persons in the Godhead; nor is that any contradiction to it, since though the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, there are not three Gods, but three Persons, and these three are one God, Jo1 5:7. (c) "contra me", Noldius, No. 1801. p. 731.

Again, he who says “you shall never worship a strange god” forbids us to worship another god, and the strange god is so called in contradistinction to our own God. Who then is our own God? Clearly, the true God. And who is the strange god? Surely, he who is alien from the nature of the true God. If therefore our own God is the true God, and if, as the heretics say, the only-begotten God is not of the nature of the true God, he is a strange God and not our God.

The entire law of Christ depends upon charity. And charity depends on two precepts, one of which concerns loving God and the other concerns loving our neighbor. Now God, in delivering the law to Moses, gave him Ten Commandments written upon two tablets of stone. Three of these Commandments that were written on the first tablet referred to the love of God; and the seven Commandments written on the other tablet related to the love of our neighbor. The whole law, therefore, is founded on these two precepts. The First Commandment which relates to the love of God is: "You shall not have strange gods." For an understanding of this Commandment, one must know how of old it was violated. Some worshipped demons. "All the gods of the Gentiles are devils" [Ps 95:5]. This is the greatest and most detestable of all sins. Even now there are many who transgress this Commandment: all such as practise divinations and fortune-telling. Such things, according to St. Augustine, cannot be done without some kind of pact with the devil. "I would not that you should be made partakers with devils" [1 Cor 10:20]. Some worshipped the heavenly bodies, believing the stars to be gods: "They have imagined the sun and the moon to be the gods that rule the world" [Wis 13:2]. For this reason Moses forbade the Jews to raise their eyes, or adore the sun and moon and stars: "Keep therefore your souls carefully... lest perhaps lifting up your eyes to heaven, you see the sun and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error you adore and serve them, which the Lord your God created for the service of all the nations" [Deut 4:15,19]. The astrologers sin against this Commandment in that they say that these bodies are the rulers of souls, when in truth they were made for the use of man whose sole ruler is God. Others worshipped the lower elements: "They imagined the fire or the wind to be gods" [Wis 13:2]. Into this error also fall those who wrongly use the things of this earth and love them too much: "Or covetous person (who is a server of idols)" [Eph 5:5]. Some men have erred in worshipping their ancestors. This arose from three causes. (1) From their carnal nature: "For a father being afflicted with a bitter grief, made to himself the image of his son who was quickly taken away; and him who then had died as a man, he began now to worship as a god, and appointed him rites and sacrifices among his servants" [Wis 14:15]. (2) Because of flattery: Thus being unable to worship certain men in their presence, they, bowing down, honored them in their absence by making statues of them and worshipping one for the other: "Whom they had a mind to honor... they made an image... that they might honor as present him that was absent" [Wis 14:17]. Of such also are those men who love and honor other men more than God: "He who loves his father and mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me" [10]. "Put your trust not in princes; in the children of man, in whom there is no salvation" [Ps 145:3]. (3) From presumption: Some because of their presumption made themselves be called gods; such, for example, was Nabuchodonosor (Judith 3:13). "Your heart is lifted up and you have said: I am God" [Ez 28:2]. Such are also those who believe more in their own pleasures than in the precepts of God. They worship themselves as gods, for by seeking the pleasures of the flesh, they worship their own bodies instead of God: "Their god is their belly" [Phil 3:19]. We must, therefore, avoid all these things. "You shall not have strange gods before Me." As we have already said, the First Commandment forbids us to worship other than the one God. We shall now consider five reasons for this. The first reason is the dignity of God, which, were it belittled in any way, would be an injury to God. We see something similar to this in the customs of men. Reverence is due to every degree of dignity. Thus, a traitor to the king is he who robs him of what he ought to maintain. Such, too, is the conduct of some towards God: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man" [Rom 1:23]. This is highly displeasing to God: "I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven things" [Is 42:8]. For it must be known that the dignity of God consists in His omniscience, since the name of God, Deus, is from "seeing," and this is one of the signs of divinity: "Show the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that you are gods" [Is 41:23]. "All things are naked and open to His eyes" [Hb 4:13]. But this dignity of God is denied Him by practitioners of divination, and of them it is said: "Should not the people seek of their God, for the living and the dead?" [Is 8:19]. The second reason is God's bounty. We receive every good from God; and this also is of the dignity of God, that He is the maker and giver of all good things: "When You openest your hand, they shall all be filled with good" [Ps 103:28]. And this is implied in the name of God, namely, Deus, which is said to be distributor, that is, dator of all things, because He fills all things with His goodness. You are, indeed, ungrateful if you do not appreciate what you have received from Him, and, furthermore, you make for yourself another god; just as the sons of Israel made an idol after they had been brought out of Egypt: "I will go after my lovers" [Hosea 2:5]. One does this also when one puts too much trust in someone other than God, and this occurs when one seeks help from another: "Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord" [Ps 39:5]. Thus, the Apostle says: "Now that you have known God... how turn you again to the weak and needy elements?... You observe days and months and times and years" [Gal 4:9,10]. The third reason is taken from the strength of our solemn promise. For we have renounced the devil, and we have promised fidelity to God alone. This is a promise which we cannot break: "A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by one who treads under foot the Son of God, and esteems the blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and outrages the Spirit of grace!" [Hb 10:28-29]. "While her husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be with another man" [Rom 7:3]. Woe, then, to the sinner who enters the land by two ways, and who "halts between two sides" [1 Kg 18:21]. The fourth reason is because of the great burden imposed by service to the devil: "You shall serve strange gods day and night, who will give you no rest" [Jer 16:13]. The devil is not satisfied with leading to one sin, but tries to lead on to others: "Whoever sins shall be a slave of sin" [Jn 8:34]. It is, therefore, not easy for one to escape from the habit of sin. Thus, St. Gregory says: "The sin which is not remitted by penance soon draws man into another sin" [Super Ezech. 11]. The very opposite of all this is true of service to God; for His Commandments are not a heavy burden: "My yoke is sweet and My burden light" [Mt 11:30]. A person is considered to have done enough if he does for God as much as what he has done for the sake of sin: "For as you yielded your members to serve uncleanness and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to serve justice for sanctification" [Rm 6:19]. But on the contrary, it is written of those who serve the devil: "We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways" [Wis 5:7]. And again: "They have labored to commit iniquity" [Jer 9:5]. The fifth reason is taken from the greatness of the reward or prize. In no law are such rewards promised as in the law of Christ. Rivers flowing with milk and honey are promised to the Muslims, to the Jews the land of promise, but to Christians the glory of the Angels: "They shall be as the Angels of God in heaven" [Mt 22:30]. It was with this in mind that St. Peter asked: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" [Jn 6:69].

The preface to the ten commandments, Exo 20:1, Exo 20:2. The First commandment, against mental or theoretic idolatry, Exo 20:3. The Second, against making and worshipping images, or practical idolatry, Exo 20:4-6. The Third, against false swearing, blasphemy, and irreverent use of the name of God, Exo 20:7. The Fourth, against profanation of the Sabbath, and idleness on the other days of the week, Exo 20:8-11. The Fifth, against disrespect and disobedience to parents, Exo 20:12. The Sixth, against murder and cruelty, Exo 20:13. The Seventh, against adultery and uncleanness, Exo 20:14. The Eighth, against stealing and dishonesty, Exo 20:15. The Ninth, against false testimony, perjury, etc., Exo 20:16. The Tenth, against covetousness, Exo 20:17. The people are alarmed at the awful appearance of God on the mount, and stand afar off, Exo 20:18. They pray that Moses may be mediator between God and them, Exo 20:19. Moses encourages them, Exo 20:20. He draws near to the thick darkness, and God communes with him, Exo 20:21, Exo 20:22. Farther directions against idolatry, Exo 20:23. Directions concerning making an altar of earth, Exo 20:24; and an altar of hewn stone, Exo 20:25. None of these to be ascended by steps, and the reason given, Exo 20:26.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me - אלהים אחרים elohim acherim, no strange gods - none that thou art not acquainted with, none who has not given thee such proofs of his power and godhead as I have done in delivering thee from the Egyptians, dividing the Red Sea, bringing water out of the rock, quails into the desert, manna from heaven to feed thee, and the pillar of cloud to direct, enlighten, and shield thee. By these miracles God had rendered himself familiar to them, they were intimately acquainted with the operation of his hands; and therefore with great propriety he says, Thou shalt have no strange gods before me; על פני al panai, before or in the place of those manifestations which I have made of myself. This commandment prohibits every species of mental idolatry, and all inordinate attachment to earthly and sensible things. As God is the fountain of happiness, and no intelligent creature can be happy but through him, whoever seeks happiness in the creature is necessarily an idolater; as he puts the creature in the place of the Creator, expecting that from the gratification of his passions, in the use or abuse of earthly things, which is to be found in God alone. The very first commandment of the whole series is divinely calculated to prevent man's misery and promote his happiness, by taking him off from all false dependence, and leading him to God himself, the fountain of all good.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. (Exo. 20:1-26) And God spake all these words--The Divine Being Himself was the speaker (Deu 5:12, Deu 5:32-33), in tones so loud as to be heard--so distinct as to be intelligible by the whole multitude standing in the valleys below, amid the most appalling phenomena of agitated nature. Had He been simply addressing rational and intelligent creatures, He would have spoken with the still small voice of persuasion and love. But He was speaking to those who were at the same time fallen and sinful creatures, and a corresponding change was required in the manner of God's procedure, in order to give a suitable impression of the character and sanctions of the law revealed from heaven (Rom 11:5-9).

Thou shalt have no other gods before me--in My presence, beside, or except Me.

The First Word. - "Let there not be to thee (thou shalt have no) other gods פּני על פּן," lit., beyond Me (על as in Gen 48:22; Psa 16:2), or in addition to Me (על as in Gen 31:50; Deu 19:9), equivalent to πλὴν ἐμοῦ (lxx), "by the side of Me" (Luther). "Before Me," coram me (Vulg., etc.), is incorrect; also against Me, in opposition to Me. (On פּני see Exo 33:14.) The singular יהיה does not require that we should regard Elohim as an abstract noun in the sense of Deity; and the plural אחרים would not suit this rendering (see Gen 1:14). The sentence is quite a general one, and not only prohibits polytheism and idolatry, the worship of idols in thought, word, and deed (cf. Deu 8:11, Deu 8:17, Deu 8:19), but also commands the fear, love, and worship of God the Lord (cf. Deu 6:5, Deu 6:13, Deu 6:17; Deu 10:12, Deu 10:20). Nearly all the commandments are couched in the negative form of prohibition, because they presuppose the existence of sin and evil desires in the human heart.