Ten Commandments
Exodus 20: 1-26
Artist: Thomas Ingmzre

God's giving of the Ten Commandments atop of Mount Sinai ranks was one of the greatest religious events of all time. Moses acts as the intermediary for the people who are too frightened to approach the mountain or who have been prohibited from doing so. Not only do the Ten Commandments have significance in religious history, but they have also had a tremendous effect on civil law the world over. Just as the creation in Genesis brought order from the chaos, the Law, according to Jewish interpretation, brings order from the chaos of lawless society. In this sense, the giving of the Law is a new creation. The law forms the foundation of the covenant that God is establishing with His people.

In the words of Thomas Ingmire: "The most fascinating part for me in the Ten Commandments is their relationship to the history of writing. The Commandments were given in alphabetical form, rather than pictograms. As I see it, the Commandments could only be taken in as a mysterious code by the Hebrews (themselves slaves and not necessarily literate). The Lord, by the second Commandment which forbade the creation of engraved images, reinforced the mystery. His words, in alphabetical form, were the strongest evidence of his existence: I am who I am - no pictures, statuesâ€¦..Words = God. This is clearly an abstract concept - just as the alphabet, when one really thinks about it, is a completely abstract concept. I am interested in the idea that God presented himself as an abstraction and the abstraction was the Word. There is a cold clarity to the idea reinforced by the Commandments - no images or any "likeness of anything that is in heaven above or earth below". I wanted to show the power and promise of the Commandments, showing them forming out of a beautiful chaos. To reinforce the sense of abstraction, power and promise, I wanted the letters to be in the Latin alphabet and with use of typography."

A vast illuminated manuscript, The Saint John's Bible, has been commissioned by Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, from the contemporary scribe and illuminator, Donald Jackson. Mr. Jackson works in the Scriptorium in Wales, where he handwrites the Bible and creates illuminations in a unique collaboration with other artists and scribes.

Ten Commandments, Thomas Ingmire, Copyright 2003, The Saint John's Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA. Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition, Copyright 1993, 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.