62. Every Form of Murder, Adultery, Theft, or False Witness, Including Every Urge to Commit Them, Is an Evil Which Must Be Refrained from as Being a Sin

People know that the law at Sinai was written on two tablets, and that the first tablet contains laws having to do with God, and the second laws having to do with man.

That the first tablet contains everything having to do with God, and the second everything having to do with man, is not something apparent in the letter. But everything is present in them. That is why the commandments are called the Ten Commandments, which symbolizes all truths in their entirety (see no. 61 just above). But in what way those truths are all present there cannot be explained in a few words. However, it may be comprehended from what we presented in The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 67, to which the reader is referred.

That is why we say, “every form of murder, adultery, theft, and false witness.”

61. The precepts of that law are called the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, 10:4), and are so called because the number ten symbolizes everything, and commandments symbolize truths. For there were more than ten.

Because the number ten symbolizes everything, therefore the Tabernacle had ten curtains (Exodus 26:1). Therefore the Lord said that a man about to receive a kingdom called his ten servants and gave them ten minas with which to do business (Luke 19:13). Therefore the Lord likened the kingdom of heaven to ten virgins (Matthew 25:1). Therefore the dragon in Revelation 12:3 is described as having ten horns, and upon the horns seven jewels. Likewise the beast coming up out of the sea in Revelation 13:1. So, too, another beast, in Revelation 17:3, 7, and also the beast in Daniel 7:7, 20, 24.

The number ten has the same symbolism in Leviticus 26:26, Zechariah 8:23, and elsewhere.

This is the origin of the “tenths” or tithes, which symbolize something from all.