This commandment, like the one preceding it, is stated positively, and like that one, has been “returned” by some commentators (Nielsen, Ten Commandments, 115–18; Harrelson, Ten Commandments, 92–105; cf. H. Schmidt, Eucharisterion, 78–82, who omitted the fourth and fifth commandments altogether) to a supposed negative original form. To date, no convincing evidence for such an alteration has been put forward (see Gerstenberger, Wesen, 43–50; A. Phillips, Criminal Law, 66, 80), or for the suggestion
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