Ten Commandments

Terminology

The term, "Ten Commandments" originates in several places in the Torah: Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13 and Deuteronomy 10:4. In all sources, the phrase is translatable as "the ten words", "the ten sayings", or "the ten matters". In Mishnaic Hebrew they are called עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת (ʿĂśéreṯ had-Dibbərôṯ), a precise equivalent.

In the Septuagint, the 2nd–3rd BC century Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the phrase was translated as δεκάλογος, dekálogos or "ten-word"; this Greek word became decalogus in Latin, which entered the English language as "Decalogue", providing an alternative name for the Ten Commandments. The Tyndale and Coverdale English Christian biblical translations used "ten verses". The Geneva Bible used "ten commandments", whose convention was followed by the Bishops' Bible and the Authorized Version (the "King James" version). Most major English versions henceforth have used the word "commandments".

The stone tablets, as opposed to the Ten Commandments inscribed on them, are called לוּחוֹת הַבְּרִית (Lūḥôṯ hab-Bərîṯ), "tablets of the covenant", or לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת (Lūḥôṯ hā-ʿƏḏūṯ), "tablets of the testimony".

Biblical narrative

The biblical narrative of the revelation at Sinai begins in Exodus 19 after the arrival of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai (also called Horeb). On the morning of the third day of their encampment, "there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud", and the people assembled at the base of the mount. After "the LORD came down upon mount Sinai", Moses went up briefly and returned to prepare the people, and then in Exodus 20 "God spoke" to all the people the words of the covenant, that is, the "ten commandments" as it is written. Modern biblical scholarship differs as to whether Exodus 19–20 describes the people of Israel as having directly heard all or some of the decalogue, or whether the laws are only passed to them through Moses.

The people were afraid to hear more and moved "afar off", and Moses responded with "Fear not." Nevertheless, he drew near the "thick darkness" where "the presence of the Lord" was to hear the additional statutes and "judgments", all which he "wrote" in the "book of the covenant" which he read to the people the next morning, and they agreed to be obedient and do all that the LORD had said. Moses escorted a select group consisting of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and "seventy of the elders of Israel" to a location on the mount where they worshipped "afar off" and they "saw the God of Israel" above a "paved work" like clear sapphire stone.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. 13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.

The mount was covered by the cloud for six days, and on the seventh day Moses went into the midst of the cloud and was "in the mount forty days and forty nights." And Moses said, "the LORD delivered unto me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly." Before the full forty days expired, the children of Israel collectively decided that something had happened to Moses, and compelled Aaron to fashion a golden calf, and he "built an altar before it" and the people "worshipped" the calf.

Commandments text and numbering

Religious traditions

Surviving Hebrew manuscripts from before the seventh century, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, format the text of the commandments as a single seamless flow of prose together with its context.

The commandments begin in the first (rightmost) column, on the bottom line, at the third word (from the right):

...אנוכי יהוה אלוהיך אשר'I am the Lord your God who...'.

They continue through to the end of the third column (from the right):

שורו וחמרו וכול אשר לרעך...'...his ox, his donkey or anything which is your neighbour's'.

While there are occasionally large gaps between words which seem to be to justify the shape of the column, they cannot be closed portion breaks, because they are found in grammatically nonsensical places, such in the third column on the second line:

...כמוך וזכרתה כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים ויציאך...'...like you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and he removed you...'

From the last such space to the end includes nearly half the commands together, everything from

...למען יאריכון ימיך...'...so that your days will be prolonged...'

until the end. Since the text elaborates on some commands more than others, it contains far more than ten grammatical sentences. Due to this, the originally intended way of grouping them into ten enumerable commands is not obvious from the text itself. Since then, various traditions have emerged which divide the same text into ten in different ways.

By the tenth century, the Masoretic Text had established consistent formatting for the Hebrew text which has closed portion breaks (similar in appearance to a tab character in the middle of a line) that correspond to the Lutheran divisions in the chart below.

Categorization

There are two major approaches to categorizing the commandments. One approach distinguishes the prohibition against other gods (verse 3) from the prohibition against images (verses 4–6):

LXX: Septuagint (3rd century BC), generally followed by Eastern Orthodox Christians.

R: Reformed Christians follow Calvin's Institutes (1536) which follows the Septuagint; this system is also in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

Another approach combines verses 3–6, the prohibition against images and the prohibition against other gods, into a single command while still maintaining ten commandments. Samaritan and Jewish traditions include another commandment, whereas Christian traditions will divide coveting the neighbor's wife and house.

P: The works of Philo are mostly allegorical interpretations of the Torah (known in the Hellenic world as the Ashburnham Pentateuch) but also include histories and comments on philosophy.

T: Jewish Talmud (c. 200 AD), makes the "prologue" the first "saying" or "matter."

S: Samaritan Pentateuch (c. 120 BC), contains additional instruction to Moses about making a sacrifice to Yahweh, which Samaritans regard as the 10th commandment.

A: Augustine (4th century), combines verses 3–6 into a single commandment, similar to the grouping found in the Talmud, but omits the prologue as a commandment and divides the prohibition on coveting into two commandments, following the word order of Deuteronomy 5:21 rather than Exodus 20:17.

C: Catholicism largely follows Augustine, which was reiterated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) changing "the sabbath" into "the lord's day" and dividing Exodus 20:17, prohibiting covetousness, into two commandments, in order to fulfill the number 10.

Religious interpretations

The Ten Commandments are written with room for varying interpretation, reflecting their role as a summary of fundamental principles. They are not as explicit or as detailed as rules or as many other biblical laws and commandments, because they provide guiding principles that apply universally, across changing circumstances. They do specify severe punishments for their violation. Their precise import must be worked out in each separate situation.

The Bible indicates the special status of the Ten Commandments among all other Torah laws in several ways:

They have a uniquely terse style.

Of all the biblical laws and commandments, the Ten Commandments alone are said to have been "written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18).

The stone tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:21, Deuteronomy 10:2,5).

Judaism

The Ten Commandments form the basis of Jewish Rabbinic law, stating God's universal and timeless standard of right and wrong – unlike the rest of the 613 commandments which Jewish interpretative tradition claims are in the Torah, which include, for example, various duties and ceremonies such as various halachich kashrut dietary laws, and the rituals to be performed by priests in the Holy Temple. Jewish tradition considers the Ten Commandments the theological basis for the rest of the commandments. Philo, in his four-book work The Special Laws, treated the Ten Commandments as headings under which he discussed other related commandments. Similarly, in The Decalogue he stated that "under [the "commandment … against adulterers"] many other commands are conveyed by implication, such as that against seducers, that against practisers of unnatural crimes, that against all who live in debauchery, that against all men who indulge in illicit and incontinent connections." Others, such as Rabbi Saadia Gaon, have also made groupings of the commandments according to their links with the Ten Commandments.

According to Conservative Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, the Ten Commandments are virtually entwined, in that the breaking of one leads to the breaking of another. Echoing an earlier rabbinic comment found in the commentary of Rashi to the Song of Songs (4:5) Ginzberg explained—there is also a great bond of union between the first five commandments and the last five. The first commandment: "I am the Lord, thy God," corresponds to the sixth: "Thou shalt not murder," for the murderer slays the image of God. The second: "Thou shalt have no strange gods before me," corresponds to the seventh: "Thou shalt not commit adultery," for conjugal faithlessness is as grave a sin as idolatry, which is faithlessness to God. The third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain," corresponds to the eighth: "Thou shalt not steal," for stealing results in a false oath in God's name. The fourth: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," corresponds to the ninth: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," for he who bears false witness against his neighbor commits as grave a sin as if he had borne false witness against God, saying that He had not created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day (the holy Sabbath). The fifth commandment: "Honor thy father and thy mother," corresponds to the tenth: "Covet not thy neighbor's wife," for one who indulges this lust produces children who will not honor their true father, but will consider a stranger their father.

The traditional Rabbinical Jewish belief is that the observance of these commandments and the other mitzvot are required solely of the Jewish people and that the laws incumbent on humanity in general are outlined in the seven Noahide laws, a concept that is not found anywhere in the Tanakh, several of which overlap with the Ten Commandments. In the era of the Sanhedrin transgressing any one of six of the Ten Commandments theoretically carried the death penalty, the exceptions being the First Commandment, honouring your father and mother, saying God's name in vain, and coveting, though this was rarely enforced due to a large number of stringent evidentiary requirements imposed by the oral law.

Christianity

Most traditions of Christianity hold that the Ten Commandments have divine authority and continue to be valid, though they have different interpretations and uses of them. The Apostolic Constitutions, which implore believers to "always remember the ten commands of God," reveal the importance of the Decalogue in the early Church. Through most of Christian history the decalogue was considered a summary of God's law and standard of behaviour, central to Christian life, piety, and worship.

Distinctions in the order and importance of said order continues to be a theological debate, with texts within the New Testament Romans 13:9 confirming the more traditional ordering, which follows the Septuagint of adultery, murder and theft, as opposed to the currently held order of the Masoretic of murder, adultery, theft.

Protestantism, under which there are several denominations of Christianity, in general gives more importance to biblical law and the gospel. Magisterial Protestantism takes the Ten Commandments as the starting point of Christian moral life. Different versions of Christianity have varied in how they have translated the bare principles into the specifics that make up a full Christian ethic.

During his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explicitly referenced the prohibitions against murder and adultery. In Matthew 19:16–19 Jesus repeated five of the Ten Commandments, followed by that commandment called "the second" (Matthew 22:34–40) after the first and great commandment.

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul the Apostle also mentioned five of the Ten Commandments and associated them with the neighbourly love commandment.

Islam

The receiving of the Ten Commandments by Prophet Musa (Moses) is dealt with in much detail in Islamic tradition with the meeting of Moses with God on Mount Sinai described in Surah A'raf (7:142-145). The Revealing of the Tablets on which were the Commandments of God is described in the following verse:

And We wrote for him (Moses) on the Tablets the lesson to be drawn from all things and the explanation of all things (and said): Hold unto these with firmness, and enjoin your people to take the better therein. I shall show you the home of Al-Fasiqun (the rebellious, disobedient to Allah).

The Tablets are further alluded to in verses 7:150, when Moses threw the Tablets down in anger at seeing the Israelites' worshipping of the golden calf, and in 7:154 when he picked up the Tablets having recovered from his anger:

And when the anger of Musa (Moses) was appeased, he took up the Tablets, and in their inscription was guidance and mercy for those who fear their Lord.

Three verses of Surah An'am (6:151–153) are widely taken to be a reinstatement (or revised version) of the Ten Commandments either as revealed to Moses originally or as they are to be taken by Muslims now:

151. Say: "Come, I will recite what your Lord has prohibited you from: 1Join not anything in worship with Him; 2And be good (and dutiful) to your parents; 3And kill not your children because of poverty – We provide sustenance for you and for them; 4And come not near to Al-Fawahish (shameful sins, illegal sexual intercourse, adultery etc.) whether committed openly or secretly, 5And kill not anyone whom Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause (according to the Law). This He has commanded you that you may understand.

152. "6And come not near to the orphan's property, except to improve it, until he (or she) attains the age of full strength; 7And give full measure and full weight with justice. We burden not any person, but that which he can bear. 8And whenever you give your word (i.e. judge between men or give evidence, etc.), say the truth even if a near relative is concerned, 9And fulfill the Covenant of Allah. This He commands you, that you may remember.

Main points of interpretative difference

The Abrahamic religions observe the Sabbath in various ways. In Judaism it is observed on Saturday (reckoned from dusk to dusk). In Christianity, it is usually observed on Sunday, sometimes observed on Saturday, and sometimes not at all (non-Sabbatarianism). Observing the Sabbath on Sunday, the day of resurrection, gradually became the dominant Christian practice from the Jewish-Roman wars onward. The Church's general repudiation of Jewish practices during this period is apparent in the Council of Laodicea (4th century AD) where Canons 37–38 state: "It is not lawful to receive portions sent from the feasts of Jews or heretics, nor to feast together with them" and "It is not lawful to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety". Canon 29 of the Laodicean council specifically refers to the sabbath: "Christians must not judaize by resting on the [Jewish] Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ."

Multiple translations exist of the fifth/sixth commandment; the Hebrew words לא תרצח (lo tirtzach) are variously translated as "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not murder".

The imperative is against unlawful killing resulting in bloodguilt. The Hebrew Bible contains numerous prohibitions against unlawful killing, but does not prohibit killing in the context of warfare (1Kings 2:5–6), capital punishment (Leviticus 20:9–16) or defending against a home invasion (Exodus 22:2–3), which are considered justified. The New Testament is in agreement that murder is a grave moral evil, and references the Old Testament view of bloodguilt.

German Old Testament scholar Albrecht Alt: Das Verbot des Diebstahls im Dekalog (1953), suggested that the commandment translated as "thou shalt not steal" was originally intended against stealing people, against abductions and slavery, in agreement with the Talmudic interpretation of the statement as "thou shalt not kidnap" (Sanhedrin 86a).

Alt's claim is somewhat questionable, because the decalogue verse (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16) forbids theft in general, whereas the Sanhedrin 86a discussion (abductions and slavery) deals with another biblical verse: Deuteronomy 24:7 which explicitly refers to theft (i.e. abduction) of a person in order to sell that person.

Critical historical analysis

Scholars have proposed three main datings for the Decalogue—early Mosaic authorship during the Sinai period, a pre-exilic monarchic origin, or a postexilic composition influenced by deuteronomistic, priestly, prophetic, and wisdom traditions.

Early theories

Julius Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis (1883) suggests that Exodus 20–23 and 34 "might be regarded as the document which formed the starting point of the religious history of Israel." Deuteronomy 5 then reflects King Josiah's attempt to link the document produced by his court to the older Mosaic tradition.

Bernard Levinson argues that the idea of Exodus 34:11–26 as an ancient, independent, pre-Deuteronomic legal source originated with Goethe, significantly influenced Wellhausen’s formulation of the documentary hypothesis, and reflects broader intellectual currents, including Goethe’s construction of the Jew as the particularistic "other" in contrast to the universal German Protestant self.

20th century discussion

According to John Bright, there was an important distinction between the Decalogue and the "book of the covenant" (Exodus 21–23 and 34:10–24). The Decalogue, he argues, was modelled on the suzerainty treaties of the Hittites (and other Mesopotamian Empires), that is, represents the relationship between God and Israel as a relationship between king and vassal, and enacts that bond.

"The prologue of the Hittite treaty reminds his vassals of his benevolent acts... (compare with Exodus 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery"). The Hittite treaty also stipulated the obligations imposed by the ruler on his vassals, which included a prohibition of relations with peoples outside the empire, or enmity between those within." (Exodus 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before Me"). Viewed as a treaty rather than a law code, its purpose is not so much to regulate human affairs as to define the scope of the king's power.

Julius Morgenstern argued that Exodus 34 was distinct from the Jahwist document, identifying it with king Asa's reforms in 899 BC. Bright, however, believes that like the Decalogue this text has its origins in the time of the tribal alliance. The book of the covenant, he notes, bears a greater similarity to Mesopotamian law codes (e.g. the Code of Hammurabi which was inscribed on a stone stele). He argues that the function of this "book" is to move from the realm of treaty to the realm of law: "The Book of the Covenant (Ex., chs. 21 to 23; cf. ch. 34), which is no official state law, but a description of normative Israelite judicial procedure in the days of the Judges, is the best example of this process." According to Bright, then, this body of law too predates the monarchy.

According to Yehezkel Kaufmann, the Decalogue and the book of the covenant represent two ways of manifesting God's presence in Israel: the Ten Commandments taking the archaic and material form of stone tablets kept in the Ark of the Covenant, while the book of the covenant took oral form to be recited to the people.

21st century scholarship

Michael Coogan argues that each of the three versions of the Ten Commandments are "significantly different… indicating that its text was not fixed in ancient Israel."

Archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman argue that "the astonishing composition came together… in the seventh century BC". An even later date (after 586 BC) is suggested by David H. Aaron; his book argues for "the probability that these documents were written very late in the history of biblical literature - indeed, so late as to constitute a literary afterthought in the development of Israelite ethnic self-definition."

Biblical scholar Timothy S. Hogue argues that the Decalogue in the book of Exodus originated in the northern kingdom of Israel around the 9th-8th centuries BC, based on parallels with Luwian texts from that time as well as the references in the Decalogue to the masseboth which were destroyed during the religious reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah.

According to Book of Deuteronomy, the tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant. Thomas Römer argued in 2015 that "clearly… the tablets of the law are a substitute for something else." He holds that "the original Ark contained a statue [i.e. a cult image] of Yhwh" and that it was "brought into the Jerusalem temple under Josiah", which he specifically identifies as "two betyles (sacred stones), or two cult image statues symbolizing Yhwh and his female companion Ashera or a statue representing Yhwh alone."

The Ritual Decalogue

Exodus 34:28 identifies a different list, that of Exodus 34:11–27, as the Ten Commandments. Since this passage does not prohibit murder, adultery, theft, etc., but instead deals with the proper worship of Yahweh, some scholars call it the "Ritual Decalogue", and disambiguate the Ten Commandments of traditional understanding as the "Ethical Decalogue".

Richard Elliott Friedman argues that the Ten Commandments at Exodus 20:1–17 "does not appear to belong to any of the major sources. It is likely to be an independent document, which was inserted here by the Redactor." In his view, the Covenant Code follows that version of the Ten Commandments in the northern Israel E narrative. In the J narrative in Exodus 34 the editor of the combined story known as the Redactor (or RJE), adds in an explanation that these are a replacement for the earlier tablets which were shattered. "In the combined JE text, it would be awkward to picture God just commanding Moses to make some tablets, as if there were no history to this matter, so RJE adds the explanation that these are a replacement for the earlier tablets that were shattered." He suggests that differences in the J and E versions of the Ten Commandments story are a result of power struggles in the priesthood. The writer has Moses smash the tablets "because this raised doubts about the Judah's central religious shrine".

Political importance

Christopher Hitchens criticised the Ten Commandments for failing to prohibit either rape, child abuse, slavery or genocide, while elsewhere, he said, the Bible even appears to endorse slavery and genocide. He explained these failings by concluding that the commandments were man-made, reflecting "a nomadic tribe whose main economy is primitive agriculture and whose wealth is sometimes counted in people as well as animals"; furthermore, a tribe which believes it has been "promised the land and flocks of other people: the Amalekites and Midianites and others whom God orders them to kill, rape, enslave, or exterminate". Hitchens described the God of the Bible as "a Bronze Age demagogue", whose omission of these offences was "negligent ... even by the lax standards of the time". He criticised as immoral the collective punishment of future children for the failings of their ancestors, where it states in the third commandment: "I the lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." Regarding the tenth commandment, he questioned why, given that human beings seem so susceptible to the temptations of lust and envy that their creator prohibits, a god would have in fact created them that way. He wrote: "This leaves us with the insoluble mystery ... Create them sick, and then command them to be well?" Hitchens argued that the Ten Commandments are not a sound foundation for law or morality, as they reflect authoritarianism, insecurity, and outdated tribal values, and that the real issue is not their public display but the incompatibility of religion with true ethical reasoning.

According to Richard J. Clifford, Jesuit priest and professor emeritus of Old Testament at Weston Jesuit School of Theology, the tenth commandment accepts slavery as normal, as it states: "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

According to some scholars, certain interpretations of the Commandments have been problematic for people, like capital punishment for blasphemy, idolatry, apostasy, adultery, cursing one own parents, and Sabbath-breaking.

During an 1846 uprising, now known as the Galician slaughter, by impoverished and famished Galician Eastern European peasants (serfs) directed against szlachta (Polish nobles) because of their oppression (for example, manorial prisons), a popular rumor had it that the Austrian Emperor had abolished the Ten Commandments, which the peasants took as permission and religious justification to massacre the szlachta – the prime representatives and beneficiaries of the crown in Austrian Galicia. This uprising is credited with helping to bring on the demise, in 1848, of serfdom with corvée labor in Galicia.

United States debate over display on public property

European Protestants replaced some visual art in their churches with plaques of the Ten Commandments after the Reformation. In England, such "Decalogue boards" also represented the English monarch's emphasis on rule of royal law within the churches. The United States Constitution forbids establishment of religion by law; however images of Moses holding the tablets of the Decalogue, along other religious figures including Solomon, Confucius, and Muhammad holding the Quran, are sculpted on the north and south friezes of the pediment of the Supreme Court building in Washington. Images of the Ten Commandments have long been contested symbols for the relationship of religion to national law.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Fraternal Order of Eagles placed possibly thousands of Ten Commandments displays in courthouses and school rooms, including many stone monuments on courthouse property. Because displaying the commandments can reflect a sectarian position if they are numbered, the Eagles developed an ecumenical version that omitted the numbers, as on the monument at the Texas capitol. Hundreds of monuments were also placed by director Cecil B. DeMille as a publicity stunt to promote his 1956 film The Ten Commandments. Placing the plaques and monuments to the Ten Commandments in and around government buildings was another expression of mid-twentieth-century U.S. civil religion, along with adding the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.

By the beginning of the twenty-first century in the U.S., however, Decalogue monuments and plaques in government spaces had become a legal battleground between religious as well as political liberals and conservatives. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans United for Separation of Church and State launched lawsuits challenging the posting of the ten commandments in public buildings. The ACLU has been supported by a number of religious groups such as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the American Jewish Congress.

In public schools

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court in Stone v. Graham ruled unconstitutional a Kentucky statute that required the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall of each public classroom in the state, because the statute lacked a nonreligious, legislative purpose.

In 2023, Texas Republican politician Phil King introduced SB 1515 of the 88th Session of the Texas Senate, which would require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom of every public school in Texas. The bill eventually lapsed in the State House when the session closed without voting it. It was later passed in 2025 as Texas Senate Bill 10. The law faces multiple legal challenges under the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. In November 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state law. On April 21, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the state law does not violate the U.S. Constitution or establish a state religion and reversed the lower court's injunction.

On June 19, 2024, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 mandating display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. The bill also permits the additional display of the Mayflower Compact, the United States Declaration of Independence or the Northwest Ordinance. Governor Landry stated that the Ten Commandments are "not solely religious, but that it has historical significance." The bill mandates a text that includes the phrase "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images" indicating that it comes not from a traditional Bible but instead from the Eagles-DeMille promotion campaign. A group of parents challenged the law in court, and on November 12, 2024, United States District Judge John W. deGravelles granted a temporary injunction in Roake v. Brumley, stating that the law is "unconstitutional on its face." On November 15, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted an emergency stay motion from the state of Louisiana, limiting the ruling to the five parishes whose school boards were named as defendants in the case. In June 2025, a three-member panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled that Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms in the state is unconstitutional and affirmed the lower court's November 2024 decision. On February 20, 2026, the en banc Fifth Circuit voted 12–6 to lift the injunction, on the grounds that it was premature to decide the law's constitutionality before it had been enacted. Writing in concurrence, Judge James Ho, stated that the statute "is not just constitutional – it affirms our nation's highest and most noble traditions." The six dissenting judges argued that the law subjects students to government-endorsed religion in public school classrooms in violation of the Establishment Clause. Judge James L. Dennis wrote in dissent that such state action "is precisely the kind of establishment the Framers anticipated and sought to prevent."