The Ten Commandments MS / Social Studies Law, Justice, Cause and Effect (After doing seminar on Hammurabi s Code) Ask students if they have ever heard of the Ten Commandments and if so, what they know/think about them. Distribute text and have students look at the Ten Commandments noticing those which begin Thou shalt Also note that the some of the commandments address man s relationship with God and some address man s relationship with each other. Read the Ten Commandments together aloud. 1
Share that the Ten Commandments were written in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Ten Commandments are significant to both Jewish and Christian religions and were written around 1200 BC. Share too that this was an important shift because the Bible captured beliefs of the first monotheistic religion. Have students identify unfamiliar vocabulary and share definitions as appropriate. Be sure to include verb forms such as shalt, spake, shewing; other words students may need include: commandment, bondage, mercy, Sabbath. Have students read the Ten Commandments again silently. After the second read, ask students to categorize each of the Ten Commandments based on their focus: relationship with God; relationship with humanity. 2
Which of the Ten Commandments is most challenging? (round-robin response, noting the number of the law and reading it aloud)) What does that law challenge one to do? (spontaneous discussion) In the second commandment, what seems to be the relationship between heaven, earth, and water? What do the Ten Commandments imply about God and man? According to the Ten Commandments, how should people treat each other? Do you agree? Why or why not? If you could choose one these commandments for everyone to keep today, which would it be? 3
Take a few minutes to note in writing key points that you heard, read, and thought during seminar. After reading Hammurabi s Code and the Ten Commandments, create a graffiti board that illustrates at least three key points made in the text. (LDC Task#: 14 ) Ask students to create a t-chart and make a short list of key points from each text, and to put a star next to the points that both texts have in common. Tell students to imagine that their graffiti board will have between 3-5 sections or points of emphasis, and ask them to decide what point each section will feature. They should include images and words that illustrate what these texts have in common. Challenge students to sketch the graffiti board, either on paper or electronically. Students work in pairs to view and respond to graffiti boards. Creator listens (and take notes) while the viewer expresses what s/he sees and gathers from the board; share for 1-2 minutes and then switch roles. 4
Having heard a viewer s response, students should edit or revise their graffiti board to make the points more clearly and then finish the illustration. Post the graffiti boards in a public space at school. Laura Billings National Paideia Center 5
The Ten Commandments KING JAMES VERSION And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour s. 6