Ten utterances. Ten words.
That is how some scriptural traditions refer to the imperatives Moses brought down from Mount Sinai on stone tablets.
Those utterances, known today as the Ten Commandments, transformed the world. They clarified for an emerging nation of Bronze Age refugees that deity was not simply manifest through miraculous deliverance. Yes, the God of Israel could unfathomably part the Red Sea — but instead of drawing his chosen people to him through repeated displays of awe-inspiring interventions, he would free and refine each one of them through the expectation of adhering to ethical edicts.