law for the people but only to ensure that the people will not rebel. Or better still, to provide law that will ensure continuing support. Throughout history, propaganda has been an important tool of rulers. The tradition of the Ten Commandments fits this interpretation. For me, despite their high authority and the great respect paid to them, the Ten Commandments have surprising features just as had Justinian’s treatment of ius naturale and ius gentium, and just as had Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis itself. Their success is just as astonishing to me. Their appearance in U.S. court rooms is in flagrant contradiction to the doctrine of separation of church and state. The surprising features are that the laws divide into two parts, on the behavior of men towards God, and on inter-relations between humans. The first appears as the more important not just because it comes first but also because it is much more detailed. A bigger surprise - - astonishing, in fact -- is the nature of the rules on inter-personal relations. We are told that there should be no murder, no theft and no adultery. So what? It is not just that the rules are banal, but what is contained within each offense is not expressed, nor, moreover, is the essential matter of the appropriate penalty. Then, one has to honor one’s father and mother. This is so vague as to have no legal content as is shown by the experience with modern civil codes such as those of France and the Netherlands that have adopted similar provisions. Then, the reason or the penalty for the law is “That your days may be long upon the land that God gave you.” What does this mean? How can it be enforced? The final command is not to covet what is your neighbor’s. Coveting is an act of the imagination, in itself invisible to others. Finally, the laws are remarkably unthreatening in tone. I should perhaps add a further surprise: God’s insistence that when he gives the laws to Moses the people are to be excluded from seeing him. My explanation for all this is that in the tradition Moses is a leader in trouble, and he wishes to retain power. Moses’ authority comes
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