Abstract

A close analysis of the composition of both versions of the Decalogue in Ex 20 and Dt 5 shows the central place of the two positive commandments: the consecration of the sabbath and the honour due to father and mother. The literary and semantic relation between these two commandments provides the key for understanding the entire text: addressing man, the first text as father and the other as son, they define him as subject of a freedom received from another and recognised in the other. Freedom is also offered to the reader in so far as two texts are given to him, which are similar and different: Presence is revealed in the space left open between them