The year the Ten Commandments were written is unknown. Scholars have proposed a wide range of dates on the basis of different interpretations of the commandments’ origin, from between the 16th and 13th centuries BCE to after 750 BCE. Those interpretations include regarding the commandments as precepts given to Moses, as a prophetic text, or as a summary of legal and priestly tradition.
When were the Ten Commandments written?
How do the Ten Commandments differ in different religious traditions?
The numbering of the Ten Commandments differs in different religious traditions. In Talmudic Judaism, the “prologue” is the first commandment, or utterance, and the prohibitions against false gods and idols are the second. Medieval Roman tradition regards these elements as one and splits the commandment forbidding coveting another’s wife and another’s property into two. Greek Orthodox tradition regards the prologue and prohibition against false gods as the first commandment and the prohibition against idols as the second.