In the beginning, controversy was created. While the divergent creation narratives perplex readers, the Pentateuch’s first portion also ignites a Ten Commandments’ debate. The rationale for Sabbath observance’s is at issue.
The Sabbath
Sabbath observance, a central feature of the Ten Commandments, is allegedly Creation Narrative inspired.
The Portion Bereshit famously notes: “And in the seventh day God finished His work that He had done and ceased in the seventh day from all His work He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because he ceased in it from doing all His work, which God had created. Genesis 2:2-23.
In the Torah’s initial Ten Commandments’ utterance, the Creation Narrative serves as the Sabbath observance’s rationale. See Exodus 20:11.
Deuteronomy’s Decalogue
In contrast, there is the second utterance of the Decalogue in the Book of Deuteronomy. The Sabbath rationale in that this rendition is the Exodus itself. See Deuteronomy 5:15. The Sabbath observance’s purpose relates to the Egyptian bondage and the Lord’s deliverance from slavery.
The Creation Narrative was not included within the Decalogue recounting.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls reveals that scriptural literacy was in full force during antiquity. Torah fluent individuals over two thousand years ago were fully aware of the Ten Commandments’ Sabbath rationale controversy. The evidence is astonishing.
The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of documents dating from the Third Century BCE to the First Century CE. Bedouins began discovering them in the late 1940s.
The ancient awareness of the controversy is evidenced by a scroll fragment.
The Dead Sea Scroll Fragment 4Q41- Deuteronomy’s Ten Commandments version- revised the Decalogue.
The Sabbath Commandment was harmonized to include both the Creation and the Exodus rationales. [ Dead Sea Scrolls Translation: You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day, to sanctify it, because in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all which is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day to sanctify it.]
This harmonizing arguably violated the Deuteronomy 4:2 provision to not add or subtracted from the commandments. Was this scriptural change sanctioned?
Thus, the Dead Sea Scroll discovery enlightens us. Those studying the Torah in antiquity shared the same concerns as people have in the present.
In this instance, the question “what were they thinking back then?” can legitimately answered. It is “the same thing that we are thinking about.” Despite being separated by thousands of years, for this controversy, we are all on the “same page.”
Conclusion
The Dead Sea Scrolls discovery provides insight into the mindset of those in antiquity.
They reveal that our present day Sabbath Commandment controversy was something that troubled the learned in antiquity.
While science and archaeology can unlock the Hebrew Bible’s mysteries and puzzles, they also reveal something about humans.
Our quest for the answers has ancient origins. And, this thirst for seeking scriptural knowledge is shared with the Pentateuch’s readers who were present at its very beginning.
Be well!!
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