Mosaic Precepts: Moral, Ceremonial, and Judicial

Within the Christian tradition is the recognition that the Mosaic Law contained three kinds of precepts: 1) moral precepts; 2) the ceremonial precepts; 3) the judicial precepts. As a Protestant, I had always assumed that this nice arrangement was an astute observation, rather than a biblical categorization.

However, Thomas Aquinas cites Deuteronomy 6:1 as the authoritative witness of this threefold delineation:

“These are the precepts and ceremonies, and judgments”: where “precepts” stands for “moral precepts” antonomastically. Therefore there are judicial precepts besides moral and ceremonial precepts (Deut 6:1, cited in Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae Ia IIa q. 99, a. 4).”