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Even before beginning a discussion of the ‘Big 10', the biblical “10 Commandments” claimed to be "the basis of all morals and laws", we encounter a problem; Which ‘10 Commandments ?. Of the 633 biblical 'commandments' made by God, the Church, in all it's wisdom, has somehow narrowed it down to 10, but there are two different sets of even these (Ex 20 & Ex 34): The first set, those traditionally accepted as “The 10 Commandments”, even though the Bible itself only calls them the “covenant”, are contained in Exodus 20: 2-17 (and almost* repeated in Deuteronomy 5). This first set was destroyed by an angry Moses upon discovery of “the Golden Calf”, so God authored a replacement set claimed to be identical to the first. The second set, are those the Bible actually names the “10 Commandments” (Ex 34:28 and Deut 4:13), are enumerated in Exodus 34 . Although claimed by God to be scribed, by God's own finger, identical to the first they are vastly different. Let’s compare these two variant versions: 1st....Thou shalt not have any gods before me.....................................................Thou shalt worship no other god: 2nd....Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven........................................Thou shalt make thee no molten image, 3rd....Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain...The feast of the leaven bread shalt thou shall keep 4th....Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.........Six days shalt thou work but on the seventh day thou shalt rest, 5th....Honour thy father and thy mother......................................Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks 6th....Thou shalt not kill.............................Thrice a year shall all of your menchildern appear before the Lord God, 7th....Thou shalt not commit adultry...................................Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven: 8th....Thou shalt not bear false witness...Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left until the morning 9th....Thou shalt not steal.........The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God 10th...Thou shalt not covet ...............................................Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mothers milk Well, even though the actual ones named “10 Commandments” are those in Exodus 34, for the sake of this discussion we’ll have to disregard the ‘slight’ difference between these two versions and examine the traditionally accepted version of Exodus 20, those many people, who obviously haven't read them, want plastered all over every public place, schools, Courts, City Halls, State Capitals, etc. The First four are not related to morality or laws at all. These are strictly religious teachings relating to the worship of a monothestic Judeo-Christian God. As for the remaining six, Are they the all encompassing, God given moral guidelines claimed?. Would society not have arrived at the same conclusions by common sense without God's help. Let's see: 5th, “Honour thy father and thy mother” - Honor is something to be earned, not granted. What if ‘thy’ father is a rapist and ‘thy’ mother an axe murderess? 6th, “Thou shalt not kill” - ‘Killing’ in the case of wars, most of which are religiously motivated to begin with and gleefully demanded by a 'merciful' God, are excepted, of course. Certainly killing another being should not be tolerated in a civilized society, but there are exceptions, ie, in self-defense. Common sense tells us killing is bad, if for no other reason than no-one wants to “killed” and those that kill, without cause, should be punished as the Code of Hammurabi from 1700 BC recognized. 7th, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” - Certainly our society considers adultery undesirable, however many other societies and cultures don't, including those in the bible itself where numerous wives and concubines are openly discussed in a positive manner, something not the least bit undesirable. A blatant demonstration of Early Church duplicity and hiprocity. 8th, “Thou shalt not bear false witness” - As a general rule lying is not the thing to do. Common sense also tells us no-one likes to be lied to however there are exceptions when a “little white lie” is warranted , ie, when an overweight wife asks her husband, “Dear, do you think I look fat in this dress?”. 9th, “Thou shalt not steal” - Stealing, though never good, as the Code of Hammurabi also notes and common sense also tells us as no-one wants their things stolen. Not only that but stealing may be justifiable in some cases, ie, when a husband and father is forced to steal food to feed his starving family. 10th, “Thou shalt not covet...” - It’s natural to want to better one’s self, to ‘covet’ a better life for self and family, our whole commercialized society is based on it. The above illustrates there are no hard, fast ‘commandments’ and, even if there were, these traditional “10 Commandments” are not them, least of all the moral model claimed for society. Neither are they basis of our Laws - The Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States are, including, as Thomas Jefferson said to the Danbury Baptists (1802), “legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’, thus building a wall of separation between church and state”. |
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