Ainea wrote: “...Would you care to revise what you posted about God giving the Law to Moses? Is it your contention that since God wrote the 10 Commandments with His finger that the 10 Commandments are the only ones that apply to humanity?”
Response: Well, first, we have to identify which Ten Commandments?
(1) The first given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai which he broke
(2) The set replacing the original broken tablets
(3) Jewish version
(4) Catholic version
(5) Protestant version
Although there are 613 rules, regulations, injunctions, prohibitions, commandments, laws, bi-laws, whatever you want to call them, according to the Bible, only the 10 commandments given to Moses on stone tablets on Mount Sinai are said to have been written by the very finger of God,
thereby, identifying them with God’s¡ authorship. Therefore, all the others, not having the exclusive credentials of divine imprimatur as The TEN, are additional tribal laws legislated by the elders of the Hebrew tribes.
“...One of the best-kept secrets in the discussions on the Ten Commandments concerns the fact that (according to the story) Moses smashed the first set of tables in a fit of anger, because the Israelites chose to worship the golden calf. (That this would happen or would be told casts doubt on the whole Exodus tale, but we will not cover that here.)
As the tale goes, Moses smashed the tables of stone, and God said he'd make a new set of tables containing "the words that were on the first" (Exodus 34:1). However, as we see on the second page, the second Ten Commandments in no way resemble the first set...
...A discrepancy not mentioned is that between the original Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 and the recap listed in Deuteronomy 5. Exodus 20 requires keeping the Sabbath because "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day."
But in Deuteronomy, Jews must "remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath [sic] day." Nothing is said about
God resting after the six days it took to create the universe...”
The above quote is from http://www.positiveatheism.org/crt/whichcom.htm which also contains
the different Jewish, Catholic & Protestant versions of the Ten Commandments.
Why the different versions from the one, inerrant original, hmmmmm? They can't all be inerrant translations. They can't all be rght.
BTW, I am not atheist but truth makes itself known in the most diverse & unexpected places & errors abound in the most self-righteous of orthodoxies.
According to Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, Verses 5 - 22, the commandments written on the stone tablets given to Moses by God, however you care to enumerate them, DO NOT TALLY 613.
Moreover, take special note that in Verse 22, after the list of commandments not numbering 613, it says, “These words the lord spake unto you...and he ADDED NO MORE...”
Deuteronomy Chapeter 5: "...5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount saying, 6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 8 Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: 9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 11 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the
LORD thy God hath commanded thee. 13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. 16 Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 17 Thou shalt not kill. 18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery. 19 Neither shalt thou steal. 20 Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. 21 Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's. 22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of
the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me..”
Note that Moses carried in ONE hand two tablets on which were written by the very finger of God the above-mentioned Commandments. Are we to believe 613 laws were able to fit on four sides of two tablets that can be carried in ONE HAND?
One must have had to read the fine print, indeed.
According to Exodus, Chapter 32, Verse 15 & 16:
“...15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand (not hands) the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. 16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables...”
Well, if you want to split hypothetical hairs, how about the following?
Either Moses had big hands or, since the specific type of stone of which the tablets were made is not identified, perhaps, the commandments were incised almost microscopically on micro chips of quartz crystal.
Can you imagine Moses carrying two Rosetta Stone size tablets down Mount Sinai? Please. Give me a break. :roll: