A “String Cite” is a powerful legal writing tool. Briefs and Court Opinions often cite authority. Authority can be reference to anything from a statute, regulation, case cite to a legal treatise. String cites are like an authority on steriods; they often list three or four specific references. The cumulative nature of them suggest a concensus well-adopted position.
Unlike other types of writing, legal writing encourages plagiarism. Copying authoritative cases and statutes are a good thing. Copying a string citation means that you have likely found an authority that widely accepted. Over time, some of the string cites become popular and often repeated by various parties in briefings and opinions. Some of these string cites take a life of their own. They are like strands of DNA. Often, when I am writing a brief or a doing research, I detect legal writing based upon past foundations of string cites.
As the Hebrew Bible is packed with law and legal references, it seems only likely that strings of laws would get connected together to convey a point. In this post, we explore this issue with respect to a passage involving the Ten Commandments of course.
In the Book of Malachi, the Prophet, in speaking for the Lord, declares: “I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers; against the adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who extort the wage of the worker, the widow and the orphan; and [against] those who wrong the stranger and do not fear Me.” Malachai 3:5.
Thus, this passage has a grouping of laws. While it is not a complete expression of the Decalogue, it contains arguably four provisions of the Ten Commandments. With the other provisions, we see some commonality. There are social concerns for workers, widows, orphans and strangers. Arguably, the references to the Decalogue also focus on social concerns.
Thus, at the time of the Prophets writing, we can speculate that these were pressing matters for the populace. People were becoming employees. [note: did this constitute a departure from slavery?] Men were likely conscripted into the military and dying. Populations were being displaced and strangers were entering foreign cities and lands. Finally, there was heightened anxiety about the state of world affairs and there was the need to trust God.
The absence of the total Decalogue can be explained. This particular moment in time was not a matter in which there was a pressing need to specifically address the Mt. Sinai covenant. Rather, it was a time in which there were pressing social needs.
In essense, with this particular Prophet’s words tells us a variety of things. First, there may have been no need to package the Decalogue into one string at the time. Second, the string of the Decalogue may not have been something that the Prophet had within his tools of expression. Third, there was a development of passages addressing social matters for which certain provisions of the Ten Commandments were indicated.
In sum, unlike the traditional legal string cites, the biblical string references can perhaps offer insight into the contemporary state of affairs that existed at the time of their expression. Further, these strings may provide an opening as to understand the social turbulance that was occurring.
Be well!!
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The Ten Commandments Project 