ABSTRACT
The Decalogue is said to be the best-known and most influential passage in the whole of the Old Testament. Understandably, scholars have spent much energy elucidating this text, and in fact, during the past generation or so, some progress has been made in its understanding. From what has been written, I accept the assumption that the Deuteronomic version (Deuteronomy 5), rather than the one included in the book of Exodus (Exodus 20), should be considered the older and more original text. 1 I also accept the notion that the Decalogue represents an edited text, a passage in which several textual layers can be identified. In what follows I propose a new approach to the Decalogue by taking a fresh look at the number of the commandments and at the expression ‘the iniquity of the fathers’.
