One Commandment, Three Versions

Sidebar to: The Fluid Bible

Why should the Israelites observe the Sabbath day? The answer in the Hebrew Bible is not so straightforward. According to the Book of Exodus (quoted in italic type in the left column), it’s because after six days of Creation, God rested on the seventh day. But Deuteronomy (center, underlined) offers a somewhat different explanation: The Israelites should rest because they were once slaves in Egypt. Both these documents must have been in circulation at the time the Dead Sea Scrolls were composed: An enterprising scribe tried to straighten out the confusion in a manuscript known today as 4QDeuteronomyⁿ, which combines the message of both Exodus (in italics) and Deuteronomy (underlined), as shown in the right column.

Exodus (20:8–11)

Remember the Sabbath day,

and keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God;
you shall not do any work—
you, your son or your daughter,
your male or female slave,

your livestock,

or the alien resident in your towns.

For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
but rested the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day
and consecrated it.

Deuteronomy (5:12–15)

Observe the Sabbath day
and keep it holy,

as the Lord your God commanded you.
Six days you shall labor
and do all your work.
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord you God;
you shall not do any work—
you, or your son or your daughter,
or your male or female slave,
or your ox or your donkey,
or any of your livestock,

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