The Ten Commandments
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Did Moses really receive the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, or is that just ancient legend? Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Dylan Johnson to unpack how the Book of Exodus disagrees with Deuteronomy, what “do not take God’s name in vain” really meant, and how these commands blurred law and morality for ancient peoples.
MORE
The Ark of the Covenant
Moses & The Exodus
Watch this episode on our NEW YouTube channel: @TheAncientsPodcast
Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Tudorburg forest? |
| 0:04.0 | What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? |
| 0:07.0 | Or what made Alexander truly great? |
| 0:10.0 | With a subscription to history hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. |
| 0:17.0 | You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. |
| 0:26.6 | Just visit history hit.com slash subscribe. |
| 0:29.6 | Hello, I hope you're doing well. I'm all good here. I'm slightly cold as I walk through my nearby park for my lunch break, but it is near in Christmas, so I |
| 0:39.9 | cannot complain. Today's episode, we are going back to the Old Testament, and we're exploring |
| 0:45.5 | the story, the topic of the Ten Commandments. We've all heard of the Ten Commandments, but what |
| 0:50.7 | exactly are they? One of my favourite parts of this chat was actually going through them |
| 0:55.2 | one by one with our guest, our returning guest, the wonderful Dr Dylan Johnson, a lecturer in ancient |
| 1:02.4 | near Eastern history at the University of Cardiff. Dylan, he's been on before to talk through |
| 1:06.8 | other Old Testament topics like Sodomond, Gomorrah and the Ark of the Covenant. |
| 1:11.3 | He's a lovely guy and a fantastic speaker. |
| 1:13.8 | He came into our recording studio in London. |
| 1:15.8 | We filmed it as well, so it will also be available on our Ancient's YouTube channel. |
| 1:21.0 | I really do hope you enjoy. |
| 1:23.1 | Let's go. |
| 1:41.3 | The Ten Commandments, the Bedrock, the famous stone tablets given to Moses on Mount Sinai. |
| 1:47.5 | This instruction set, written on stone to be housed in the legendary arc of the covenant, still forms the basis of so much of our own legal and moral code today. |
| 1:52.9 | We know the biblical story intimately, the golden calf, the shattered stone, the covenant |
| 1:58.8 | forged in the desert after the exodus from Egypt. |
... |
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