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  • Jack O'fagan
    With faith as immovable as the Earth
    True Christian™
    • Feb 2011
    • 4836

    #1

    Have I been taught the wrong Ten Commandments?

    I put aside some more time for Bible study today and I must say I am a bit confused about something. At school I was taught the Ten Commandments. However reading Exodus again today it seems to me that the final Commandments that would have gone into the Ark of the Covenant were different ones? This relates to the second set after Moses smashed the first.

    Exodus 34


    1And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
    2And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
    3And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
    4And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
    5And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
    6And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
    7Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
    8And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
    9And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O LORD, let my LORD, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
    10And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
    11Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
    12Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
    13But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
    14For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
    15Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
    16And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
    17Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
    18The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
    19All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.
    20But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
    21Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
    22And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
    23Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel.
    24For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
    25Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
    26The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.
    Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
    27And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
    29And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.



    No mention of do not kill or do not steal. I for one have never observed the feast of weeks.

    The Ten Commandments I learnt at school are in Exodus 20. They start

    And God spake all these words, saying,

    2I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

    Moses then wrote down what the Lord said in the book of the covenant.

    Exodus 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD

    Exodus 24:7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.


    So were the Commandments on the tablets different from what I always thought? I have a history of being wrong on most important matters so am very happy to be corrected. I mean no disrespect for asking the question.

    YiC

    Jack
    Genesis 22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

    sigpic

    I know God wouldn't let me believe in Him if He didn't exist.
  • True Disciple
    True Christian™ Creation Scientist
    Landover Baptist University Associate Professor
    Smashing atheist science one fact at a time
    True Christian™
    • Nov 2009
    • 2445

    #2
    Re: Have I been taught the wrong Ten Commandments?

    I think, friend, that we should also look at Deuteronomy here:

    Deuteronomy 5:1-6:
    And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.
    The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
    The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
    The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
    (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,
    I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

    And after this, the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 follow, not those of Exodus 34, to finish with:

    Deuteronomy 5:22:
    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.


    What does this mean? Which tables were in the Ark of the Covenant?

    I think that maybe both were, meaning that there are two sets of the Ten Commandments we should put back into our courtrooms. As both are in the Bible, we both have to follow them anyway.
    Sweet Lord Jesus,
    I want to pray for those who persecute me, my Lord.
    Please, treat their children as you treated those of Egypt, when they upset you! (Psalm 135:8-9)
    Dash their little children against the stones for their fathers iniquity! (Psalm 137:8-9)
    Hit them on the cheek, and smash out their teeth! (Psalm 3:7)
    Make their death and descent into Hell swift and terrible! (Psalm 55:15)
    Scatter their broken bodies over the streets of their evil cities, like Benghazi, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Mecca! (Psalm 110:6)
    Praised be Your Glorious Name™.

    Amen.

    Comment

    • Jack O'fagan
      With faith as immovable as the Earth
      True Christian™
      • Feb 2011
      • 4836

      #3
      Re: Have I been taught the wrong Ten Commandments?

      Thank you True Disciple for clearing that up. Yes you are quite right I think both sets should definitely be in the courtrooms and in our classrooms. After all if we were not given these laws on tablets of stone we would not know what was right. I know that I would definitely be out stealing and killing right now if the Lord hadn't seen fit to guide me.And I'm going to celibrate the Feast of Weeks, I could do with an extra holiday.


      YiC

      Jack
      Genesis 22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

      sigpic

      I know God wouldn't let me believe in Him if He didn't exist.

      Comment

      • Pastor Rune Enoe
        Apostle of the North
         
        • Sep 2006
        • 11680

        #4
        Re: Have I been taught the wrong Ten Commandments?

        Originally posted by Jack O'fagan View Post
        This relates to the second set after Moses smashed the first.
        That is indeed a thorny theological conundrum. At first glance the Ten Commandments you quoted sound different from the ones we all know and love. On the other hand we have God's personal word that the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 34 are identical to the ones on the first set of tablets:
        Exodus 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
        Since we know God's Word does not contradict itself (John 10:35), there has to be another explanation. And indeed, the Holy Writ tells us:
        Exodus 32:15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

        The tablets had two sides like an old fashioned vinyl record. So the way I interpret it is that the Ten Commandments we are all are actively posting in our courthouses and public schools are the A-side, whereas the Ten Commandments from Exodus chapter 34 are from the B-side of the tablets..
        A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left. (Ecclesiastes 10:2)

        Comment

        • Jack O'fagan
          With faith as immovable as the Earth
          True Christian™
          • Feb 2011
          • 4836

          #5
          Re: Have I been taught the wrong Ten Commandments?

          Thank you for your help Pastor, I must admit I was starting to suspect that I had found an inconsistancy in the Bible but I just KNEW this could not have been true. God would use two sides of the tablets because why would you have two tablets and only use one side of each? He is MUCH more clever than that . Also when secular law is gone we can have the normal side showing when we are about to stone someone for blasphemy and then turn the tablets around when someone is being tried for boiling a kid in it's mothers milk. I'm not sure what the punishment is for this but it would probably be best to stone them to be on the safe side .

          YiC

          Jack
          Genesis 22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

          sigpic

          I know God wouldn't let me believe in Him if He didn't exist.

          Comment

          • handmaiden
            Is a good, decent True Christian™ lady
            True Christian™
            • May 2010
            • 11570

            #6
            Re: Have I been taught the wrong Ten Commandments?

            Originally posted by Jack O'fagan View Post
            Thank you for your help Pastor, I must admit I was starting to suspect that I had found an inconsistancy in the Bible but I just KNEW this could not have been true. God would use two sides of the tablets because why would you have two tablets and only use one side of each? He is MUCH more clever than that . Also when secular law is gone we can have the normal side showing when we are about to stone someone for blasphemy and then turn the tablets around when someone is being tried for boiling a kid in it's mothers milk. I'm not sure what the punishment is for this but it would probably be best to stone them to be on the safe side .

            YiC

            Jack
            It pleases me that someone has mentioned this. Some orthodox Jews that I have known have used this verse to explain their strict separation of milk and meat foods. Doesn't that seem like stretching a single verse to an absurd point to you? It's really a case of interpreting to the point of extrapolating, if you ask me--which you really shouldn't, because I don't know that much to begin with.

            Bemusedly Yours,

            Handmaiden
            His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

            Guns For God and the Economy

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