I still maintain that the 10 commandments are a pretty severe departure from the beliefs of their pagan neighbours.
And yet you don't really explain why. Which is odd, seeing as there is nothing at all unusual about the ten commandments.
Prohibitions against theft and against murder are pretty much universal features of every list of commandments any religion or culture has ever dreamed up, and are part of just about every moral code or philosophy.
False witness is explicity forbidden in the Code of Hammurabi (it's actually the very first commandment), so is clearly a part of the standard laws and moral codes of the Anicent Middle East.
The idea of a Sabbath - a holy day in which you can do no work, is also a standard part of Middle Eastern tradition. Every seventh day in the Babylonian calendar was a holy day in which certain activities were prohibited. Even the word 'Shabbat' may be related to a Sumerian word used to refer to the 15th day after the new moon, considered an extra-special rest day when sacrifices were made to the gods.
'Honouring your father and mother' is hardly a special idea. I don't know anything specific about traditions in the regard in the milieu the ten commandments were written, but respecting your elders is a major part of Confucian teachings. I find it very hard to believe that the idea was novel to the authors of the Ten Commandments.
Adultery is, once again, commonly prohibitied by legal and moral systems all over the world. Adultery was punished by drowning under Babylonian law.
The prohibition against taking other gods is just a declaration that Yahweh is Israel's god. Hammurabi's code starts by saying that the god Marduk has dominion over Bablyon. Again, standard stuff.
So what's left, exactly, that sets this code of rules apart as a significant departure from cultural norms. All we've got so far is a listing of the exact cultural norms that existed the in the region. All that's left is idolatry and the instruction not to covet. If you think one religious quirk (idolatry), and the idea that it's wrong to want to steal as well as just to steal, constitute a severe departure, then I have to ask how you define 'severe'.
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