Book Review

Book Review

Introduction to the book and Author

Mark Rooker is lecturer of Old Testament and Hebrew in North Carolina at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In his book entitled “The Ten Commandments: Ethics for the Twenty-First Century”, He begins with an introductory chapter on the power, meaning, record, division, setting, context and significance of the Ten Commandments. Next, each commandment is discussed from five different views: The primeval Near Eastern setting, the novel meaning of the commandment's mandate, the manner in which commandments were practiced or disregarded in the Old Testament, The New Testament perspective of the commandment and current implication and applications of each commandment. The closing part deals with the relationship of the Ten Commandments with each other, Covenant of the Mosaic, implications relating to Israel and the decree, the law including the church and, the New Testament relation to the law, and the position of the law in the life of a Christian. A lot has being changed in the present times and the change is in the ever increasing and perpetual form. Christians over the world appear to lose touch with the faith, belief and religion, noting it and often thinking of it as an uphill task. Mark Rooker has kept this religious disinclination in mind and has tried to explore ways how some of the basics of religion presented in The Ten Commandments be comfortably applied today and what if the disregard goes on. He therefore has named his interpretive version “ethics for the twenty-first century”.

The book could be called as a summation and enhancement on an elaborative interpretation of The Ten Commandments. According to Heimbach, “Mark Rooker has produced a book that is beautifully written and intellectually exhilarating. Since the Ten Commandments are central to biblical ethics, and biblical ethics is central to Christian ethics, what Rooker has written should be the required reading for anyone doing Christian ethics or engaging in present culture on moral issues.”

The Ten Commandments: A Quick Look

We present here a summarized and interpreted form of Ten Commandments which the book tries to explain. We just need to read what they mean in modern times. We must keep in mind that the Ten Commandments were written in a hierarchical order. These principles of God are a quick summary of the six hundred commandments Old Testament contained. Four of these deal with our bond with God. The latter six deal with our bond with other people. A quick glance at The Ten Commandments as they appear in Rooker's book is presented below. The Commandments have their record in Exodus and Deuteronomy scripts: (1) "have no other gods before me" This commandment is against the worship of any god other than the one true God. All others are false gods. Rooker draws on this conclusion in a very coherent way. In contrast with pagan and polytheistic gods, the God of the Bible is not in any way part of the creation. Rooker marks the Creator as the one who stands outside the ...