![Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](/bundles/ncbsw/media/584px-Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_079.webp "Moses with the Tablets of the Law")
There was a famous billboard, with this text: "What was it about 'Thou shalt not'... that you didn't understand?"
It was a good billboard. But, do people still even know the Ten Commandments? Bible literacy is probably lower than it's been for a long time; maybe than at any time since the Protestant Reformation got rolling back in 1517. It's more than a little worrisome. Still, the Ten Commandments are basic to both Christianity and Judaism, though; hopefully they're still part of the bedrock of society.
In the Bible, in the Book of Exodus, God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses, on Mount Sinai, inscribing them on two tables of stone. Here's that brief, power-packed story: Exodus 20:1-17.
Swedenborg had much to say about this story, and about the commandments. One of the most interesting passages in his description is about why the ten commandments were given in such a miraculous way. Here's a link to that passage, in his work entitled "True Christian Religion": True Christian Religion 282.
