Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Which 10 Commandments?

If you haven't heard Todd Friel interview Christopher Hitchens, check it out. It's a treat. The Friel/Comfort/Cameron method is to ask you how you're doing upholding the 10 Commandments. Since they say nobody is keeping them, this is why we need Jesus, etc, etc.

What a lot of people don't know is that there are two versions of the 10 Commandments. When Friel asked Hitchens how he's doing keeping them they both assumed he had in mind the more traditional ones, which are summarized below. These are from Exodus 20.

1-Have no gods before me.
2-Make no graven images
3-Don't take name of the Lord in vain
4-Observe the Sabbath
5-Honor your father and mother
6-Don't kill
7-Don't commit adultery
8-Don't steal
9-Don't bear false witness
10-Don't covet

If it were me I'd probably ask Friel to clarify which set of 10 commandments he has in mind. The Exodus 34 version is also cut out of rock into tablets, and this is the only one actually referred to as "The Ten Commandments" in the Bible. Here they are:

1-Worship no other God but YHWH
2-Make no molten gods
3-Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread
4-The firstborn is mine
5-Rest on the seventh day
6-Observe the Feast of Weeks
7-Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice with leaven
8-Do not let the Passover sacrifice remain until morning
9-The firstfuits of the land go to the House of the Lord
10-Don't boil a calf in its mother's milk

Those don't look quite so good displayed in a court room. They also don't fit well into Todd Friel's spiel. Which is why they are ignored.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It has been a while but I believe Deutoronomy also has a version of the 10 commandments. It may be similar to one of the two you mentioned but if memory serves there are also differences.