From Ross Nichols’ post to Patreon 8/12/2025.
The Ten Words with their corresponding blessings and curses as they appear in the Shapira fragments.
The blessed man loves Elohim his Elohim, and worships and serves Him alone.
The blessed man sanctifies the seventh day and ceases thereon.
The blessed man honors his father and mother.
The blessed man does not take vengeance, nor hold a grudge against his brother’s soul.
The blessed man does not defile his neighbor’s woman.
The blessed man does not wrong his neighbor.
The blessed man does not swear in Elohim’s name to deceive.
The blessed man does not deal falsely, nor practice deceit with his neighbor.
The blessed man does not lift his eyes toward the property of his neighbor.
The blessed man loves his neighbor.
The blessed man establishes all the words of this teaching to do them.
From Ross’ 2021 paper at Academia.edu
The Shapira Decalogue contains noticeable peculiarities compared to the Decalogue versions in the Masoretic texts of Exodus and Deuteronomy. Interpuncts separate the words, as we find in other texts from antiquity, including Paleo Hebrew manuscripts from Qumran and inscriptions such as the Mesha Stele and Siloam inscription. The Shapira Decalogue introduces the reader to unique words and spellings of words. Each of the Ten Words ends with the phrase, “I am Elohim your Elohim,” thus signaling how they are to be counted. The order and arrangement are different than all other known versions of the Decalogue, and because of the manner of counting, room is made to include “You shall not hate your brother in your heart” as the final and tenth “commandment.” The phrase concerning the “iniquity of fathers…”, associated in the Masoretic versions with bowing down to and serving idols, is attached to the seventh here, which deals with false oaths. Of particular note is the presentation of the Decalogue in the first person throughout and that each word has a corresponding blessing and curse recorded later in the manuscript. Shapira’s manuscript presents a unique version of the Decalogue. The manuscript deserves a thorough re-investigation as to the question of its authenticity.
English Translation of the Decalogue of Moses Shapira’s Leather Strips
EB1 I “I am Elohim, your Elohim who liberated you from the land of
EB2 Egypt, from a house of servitude. There shall not be to you
EB3 other Elohim. You shall not make for yourselves a carved thing or any formed
EB4 thing that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth below,
EB5 or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow
EB6 down to them, and you shall not serve them. I am Elohim
EB7 your Elohim.
EB8 II Sanctify…[the seventh day, and you shall cease on it because in]
EC1 Six days I made the heavens and the earth,
EC2 and all that is in them, and I ceased on the seventh day,
EC3 therefore, you shall also cease, you and your animal and all that is
EC4 yours. I am Elohim your Elohim.
EC5 III Honor your father and your mother, [thereby lengthening your days.] I am Elohim your Elohim.
EC6 IV You shall not kill the soul of your brother. I am Elohim your Elohim.
EC7 V You shall not commit adultery with the woman of your neighbor. I am Elohim your Elohim.
EC8 VI You shall not steal the property of your brother. I am Elohim your Elohim.
ED1 VII You shall not swear in My Name to deceive because I will avenge
ED2 the iniquity of fathers upon children unto a third and unto a fourth for lifting
ED3 My Name to deceive. I am Elohim your Elohim.
ED4 VIII You shall not respond against your brother with a testimony of deceit. I am Elohim your
ED5 Elohim.
ED6 IX You shall not desire [your neighbor’s] woman, his servant, his maidservant, or anything that
ED7 is his. I am Elohim your Elohim.
ED8 X You shall not hate your brother in your heart. I am Elohim your Elohim.”
ED9 Elohim spoke these ten words.
