Mosaic Law Summary Sheet
When and Where:
The Mosaic Law comes from the Torah, a book consisting of the first 5 books found in the Bible’s Old
Testament. The famous Ten Commandments are the primary rules of Mosaic Law , claimed to have
been told to Moses atop Mount Sinai by God in 1280 B.C.E.. The Torah itself is also said to be the word
of God as told to Moses.
The Torah goes into much greater detail about the laws people need to follow with some applying to all
people but most are specifically for the Jewish people. The book has laws to follow, such as the Ten
Commandments, but it goes into great detail about people’s responsibilities and relationship with God.
Moses also passed along an oral Torah, not meant to be written down but told from generation to
generation. These teachings contain also many laws but it also includes instructions on the
interpretation of the written Torah and how to apply the rules found within it.
Main Features of Mosaic Law:
Whether you believe in the divine higher power or not, Moses and his followers certainly did.
Thanks to Moses’ preaching, the word had been spread about their fairly uncommon monotheistic
religion (one god, as appose to polytheism which is more than one). But although the word ‘religion’
can be seen as synonymous with the word ‘faith’, some people do need reassurance or ‘proof’ to fuel
their beliefs. Moses realized this, along with the fact that some structure was needed in order for
everyone to worship their god ‘correctly’ in the same way. From this need of order, the Ten
Commandments were created. Whether they were created by Moses or ‘god’, they outlined specific
rules that were to be followed in order to please god, live well, and be accepted into heaven.
List of Commandments:
1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You
shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them
nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to
those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who
takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your
daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is
within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your
God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male
servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”
The punishments for each commandment:
1 Genocide. Entire cities with men, women, children and animals must be killed. Sometimes the girls
were allowed to be kept alive for raping.
2 See above.
3 Condemned to death (execution, death by stoning)
4 See above.
5 Death by strangulation.
6 Death by decapitation.
7 Death by stoning.
8 Condemned to death in some cases depending on the individual
9 ‘Despisement and scorn’ (looked down upon by the rest of the town/city, social pariah)
10 See above.
These rules were not guidelines, but actual laws that were punishable and taken very seriously in
Christianity dominant areas. Some say these laws were an elaboration on The Code of Hammurabi, as
they were just as barbaric and biased depending on the individual.
Impact on Canadian Legal System:
Mosaic Law has had a huge impact on our modern day legal system this is because the laws were based
off the Ten Commandments which are essentially common courtesy. “You shall not murder” and “you
shall not steal” are two commandments that modern law still doesn’t allow. Other commandments
although not used directly in law are courtesy that everyone is able to agree on such as, “Honour your
father and mother.” There is no law saying if you are disrespectful to your parents you will have to pay a
fine or be put to death but it is still an expectation held by society today. A lot of these commandments
have become rules instead of laws. With the exception of a few they are all still very relevant today.