Hamlet and the Numbering of the First and Second Commandments - Series
The ways that different Christian groups numbered the Ten Commandments may mean little to us today, but these meant a great deal in Shakespeare’s lifetime and may have left its marks on Hamlet.
Catholics and Lutherans followed the numbering of St. Augustine (5th century):
1. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BUT ME - and - THOU SHALT NOT MAKE TO THYSELF ANY GRAVEN IMAGE.
The second half emphasizes the first: Worship God alone, not other gods or graven images.
But reformed churches (including Calvinist Scottish and English churches) used an older numbering of Origen (3rd Century):
1. "THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BUT ME."
2. "THOU SHALT NOT MAKE TO THYSELF ANY GRAVEN IMAGE."
Graven images included icons, statues, paintings: targets of Elizabethan iconoclasm.
To reformed churches, Catholics were idolators, worshiping statues, rosaries, and paintings of saints instead of God alone. Following the older numbering from Origen made it easier to justify iconoclasm and criticism of Catholic practices.
Graven images also represented “works” instead of “faith alone.” Faith in God requires no statue, painting, or rosary made by human hands.
Are these ideas embodied in Shakespeare's Hamlet?
GRAVEN IMAGES:
Hamlet, after talking with the ghost in 1.5., sounds like a demonically possessed iconoclast [1], speaking of how he will erase all old forms in his memory (like graven images) and replace them with the ghost's command alone, like replacing idolatrous Catholic images with Commandment Boards.
WORKS:
Hamlet can be understood as the tragedy of a prince who tries at first to be saved by works (personal revenge) – works corrupted by sin:
- delaying the killing of Claudius to damn him;
- killing Polonius;
- being harsh to Ophelia;
- sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths.
Hamlet has to realize, after knowing the mercy of pirates, that all of his "rough-hewing" of works was not enough, and that he must "let be" and wait for the right moment to set right what was corrupt in Denmark.
NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu
[1] “Hamlet the Demonic Iconoclast” (Ten Commandments Series) - August 16, 2026: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/08/hamlet-demonic-iconoclast-ten.html
IMAGE:
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) was born Martin Luther (1483–1546) and outlived him. They were close friends. This image, first of ten from a larger image of the Ten Commandments, follows the Augustinian numbering, showing a person on the left, praying to God (represented by the two tablets given to Moses, from which we have the Ten Commandments), and on the right, prayer to a statue, a graven image. The painting is “housed at the Lutherhaus in Wittenberg.” Public Domain in the USA (more than 100 years) via Wikipedia
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/10_Gebote_%28Lucas_Cranach_d_A%29.jpg
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I usually post every week.
