In addition to being apodictic, the form of the Ten Commandments are also elliptical, meaning that they contain something that is not stated in addition to that which is stated. The unstated content is assumed and can legitimately be inserted. The primary elliptical character of the law of God—which we can see by seeing how Jesus expounds the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount—is that when the law of God prohibits one thing, it at the same time silently, tacitly enjoins or requires its opposite. And conversely, when it enjoins something, it at the same time prohibits its opposite.
