THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WE ALWAYS SEE
AREN'T THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
First Amendment battles continue to rage across the US over the posting
of the Ten Command-ments in public places — courthouses, schools,
parks, and pretty much anywhere else you can imagine.
Christians argue that they're a part of our Western heritage that
should be displayed as ubiquitously as traffic signs. Congressman
Bob Barr hilariously suggested that the Columbine massacre wouldn't
have happened if the Ten Commandments (also called the Decalogue)
had been posted in the high school, and some government officials
have directly, purposely disobeyed court rulings against the display
of these ten directives supposedly handed down from on high.
Too bad they're all talking about the wrong rules.
Every Decalogue you see — from the 5,000-pound granite behemoth
inside the Alabama State Judicial Building to the little wallet-cards
sold at Christian bookstores — is bogus.
Simply reading the Bible will prove this. Getting out your King James
version, turn to Exodus 20:2-17. You'll see the familiar list of rules
about having no other gods, honoring your parents, not killing or
coveting, and so on. At this point, though, Moses is just repeating
to the people what God told him on Mount Si'nai. These are not written
down in any form.
Later, Moses goes back to the Mount, where God gives him two "tables
of stone" with rules written on them (Exodus 31:18). But when
Moses comes down the mountain lugging his load, he sees the people
worshipping a statue of a calf, causing him to throw a tantrum and
smash the tablets on the ground (Exodus 32:19).
In neither of these cases does the Bible refer to "commandments."
In the first instance, they are "words" which "God
spake," while the tablets contain "testimony." It is
only when Moses goes back for new tablets that we see the phrase "ten
commandments" (Exodus 34:28).
In an interesting turn of events, the commandments on these tablets
are significantly different than the ten rules Moses recited for the
people, meaning that either Moses' memory is faulty or God changed
his mind.
Thus, without further ado, we present to you the real "Ten Commandments"
as handed down by the LORD unto Moses (and plainly listed in Exodus
34:13-28). We eagerly await all the new Decalogues, which will undoubtedly
contain this correct version:
I. Thou shalt worship no other god.
II. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
III.. The feast of unleavened bread thou shalt keep
IV. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest.
V. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat
harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
VI. Thrice In the year shall all your men children appear before the
Lord God.
VII. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.
VIII. Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be
left unto the morning.
IX. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto
the house of the LORD thy God.
X. Thou shalt not seethe a kid [ie, a young goat] in his mother's
milk.
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things you are not suppose to know - Russ Kick
The above book is very badly written and contains failry useless
information. The only thing that was remotely interesting is displayed
above.
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