Koenig, Sara M. The Ten Commandments through the Ages. Eerdmans, 2025. x+269 pp. Hb. $35.99 Link to Eerdmans
Sara Koenig is professor of biblical studies at Seattle Pacific University. She previously published two books on Bathsheba: Isn’t This Bathsheba? A Study in Characterization (Princeton Theological Monograph; Pickwick 2011) and Bathsheba Survives (USC Press, 2018). She co-edited the Robert Wall festschrift, The Usefulness of Scripture (Eisenbrauns, 2018).
In the thirty-six-page introduction to the book, Koenig suggests that the brevity of the Ten Commandments invites discussion in application. This begins in the Hebrew Bible itself, as well as in the Christian New Testament, early Judaism, and church history. This book is therefore a reception history of the Ten Commandments. It is certainly not exhaustive (239), reception history can rarely cover every time a text is used in other times and places. But she does manage to highlight how commandments grow over the centuries. Readers are invited to consider how they would receive these Commandments today.
Using “honor your father and mother” (Exod 20:12) as an example, she observes that Exodus 21:15-17 immediately expands on this commandment, and 1 Kings 15:11 demonstrates the commandment (David is honored as a father). In Luke 14:26, Jesus challenges the command (“hate your father?”), and in Ephesians 6:1, Paul briefly discusses what it means to “honor.” She then tracks how the commandment is interpreted in rabbinic literature and later Christian interpretation. Her main question is, “What does it mean to ‘honor your father and mother’ at different times and in different places?”
The introduction also asks, “Why Ten Commandments?” Citing one of the most significant theological voices of the twentieth century, George Carlin, it just sounds official to have Ten Commandments (11). She explains the variation in the Ten Commandments between the Jewish, Roman Catholic/Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant lists in a helpful chart (7). Her introduction also offers a brief overview of modern reactions to the Ten Commandments today. Ted Turner, for example, publicly stated that the Ten Commandments were outdated and offered his own version. Some in the media will point out that these Commandments are not even unique. They’re quite comparable to other ancient law codes or religious systems. In America, the Ten Commandments have been particularly controversial as some of them posted in public courts or schools.
Koenig follows her introduction with ten chapters on each of the Ten Commandments. After a short introduction and explanation of the Commandment, she offers several sections that expand the Commandment. Focusing on the sixth Commandment as an example, she asks, Is the commandment “do not murder,” or “do not kill”? Does the commandment refer to only killing humans? What about war? Capital punishment? Modern gun violence? Suicide, euthanasia, abortion? She covers New Testament applications, such as Jesus’s extension of the commandment to include controlling one’s anger. Koenig then surveys the rabbinic literature, historical Christian interpretation (Luther, Calvin, Aquinas), modern commentaries, and popular authors.
In her commentary on each commandment, she avoids too much prescription or legalism 243. She’s rarely dogmatic about application. Nevertheless, she does offer some method for applying the Ten Commandments in a modern context. She suggests a positive formulation of the Commandments. So, for example, “do not commit adultery” becomes something like “preserve marriage.” Do things that protect the family (179).
Conclusion. Koenig’s book is an excellent introduction to the reception history of the Ten Commandments. Like Eerdmans’s Illuminations commentary series (see this review, for example), she draws together a wide range of rabbis, pastors, scholars, and pop culture which discuss each commandment. Koenig’s book will serve pastors and teachers preparing to teach the Ten Commandments in both the church and the academy. But more than that, this is an entertaining and challenging book that will appeal to any reader interested in thinking more deeply about the Ten Commandments and their application in new contexts.
NB: Thanks to Eerdmans for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not influence my thoughts regarding the work.