The Promise of The Ten Commandments
MORE THAN COMMANDMENTS Have you ever wondered why the Ten Commandments repeatedly say, "Thou Shalt Not"? Not, "Thou should not," or "Thou must not," but, "Thou shalt not." The difference in meaning is plain although we tend to gloss over it as if it were merely a rhetorical flourish. The difference is that "shall" is a word that indicates what will be in the future. The Hebrew uses the imperfect tense, which expresses a continuous action, so that the words might be translated, "you do not kill, you do not steal, you do not covet", which sounds like the description of a person. The Greek Septuagint simply uses the future tense, which also makes the commandment sound like the description of a person yet to be born. Something that "shall be," as the Greek, or is a continuous reality as the Hebrew, cannot be disobeyed or avoided: it is a statement of fact. "Should", on the other hand, speaks of what is righ