ecco

Personally I like this one:

8. Leviticus 20:10: And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death

Let's not only post it, let's make it the law of the land. Then let's start with our lawmakers - president down to the lowest congressman - investigate their private lives and, if adultery has occurred, they "shall be put to death"

gravitybow

I suspect that is not an accurate translation of the visible parts, but I could be wrong. As you can see in this photo, the verses are blocked at various lengths, more than can account for the translation of the word "not." But I don't read Hebrew, and frankly, I've been wondering exactly what words or phrases are clearly visible. So, if any of you folks can read this, how about a translation?

Wallener

Starting with the "murder" restriction, the Hebrew is in the form "No murder. No adultery. No stealing." Since Hebrew reads right to left, the beard is covering the "No" part - so yeah, it does read a lot like "Murder! Adulter! Steal!".

hope4ALLeternity

Malachi151: In Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:1-22 God gives some, ten to be exact, commandments to the people. You are wrong however when it comes to what God wrote on the stone tablets. God wrote exactly what He said in Exodus 20:1-17, this can be clearly gathered from Deuteronomy 5 (pointedly verse 22). In regard to Moses killing everyone, that isn’t necessarily true. First of all, let’s not forget that in Exodus 32:11 Moses pleads with the Lord to spare Israel (the Lord was ready to bring His wrath upon all of Israel), and He does. So, when Moses finds the people worshiping the idol He calls “whoever is on the Lord’s side� to gather together. Then those who gathered together killed those who were engaged in evil. Furthermore, Moses then beseeches God on their behalf, to forgive their sin and if not then to “blot me out of Your book� (in other words, Moses was saying if allowed he would become cursed so that the salvation of the people could be secured).

J-D: What prayer book, the siddur? The Shema consists of three portions and subtle references to the Ten Commandments can be found, is that what you mean? The Ten Commandments were removed from daily prayer in the Mishnaic period (1st-3rd centuries of the Common Era or Anno Domini/AD), so what exactly are you referring to?
Mike:
1. Moses doesn’t go on to list a whole bunch of other commandments; they are judgments (Exodus 21:1). In fact the word translated here the judgments is one of several Hebrew words that describe the Law (the Torah). This word describes God’s response to a specific action, something like an umpire’s call. Laws that appear in this section are responses to specific cases among the Israelites. Often the people would present critical or difficult disputes to Moses (Ex. 18). When Moses had to render a decision on an issue he wasn’t sure about, he would ask the Lord. The decisions that he gave became known as case law or caustic law. Such laws differed from the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17), known as apodictic law. The Ten Commandments were general laws not based on specific cases.
2. On what basis are there ten commandments?
3. In Exodus 34:28 the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words� and he did. Moses wrote down the ceremonial and judicial injunctions comprehended in verses 12-26. The Lord commanded him to write down the words He had just spoken to him, because “according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel,� he wasn’t to write the Ten Commandments. The rewriting of the Ten Commandments on the newly prepared slabs was done by God Himself, “and He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.� The Lord was the writer every time (Exodus 31:18; 32:15, 16; 34:1; 34:28). Oh, and if you still don’t see that the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments the second time, try reading Deuteronomy 10:1-4.

yummyfur

34:27 Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."
34:28 And he was there with Yahweh 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.
34:29 And 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.
34:30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
34:31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
34:32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that Yahweh had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.

is the full qoute, it's pretty clear that Moses is still the writer(in contradiction to 34:1). It's also clear that the verses Exodus 34:12-26 are the Ten Commandments, as this is the only time the word "Ten Commandments" are used in the OT, and god just happened to have just stated ten commandments that he wanted to be written. There is nothing in the text that makes the covenant, and the Ten Commandments as seperate things, in fact the wording of the text is such that the "Ten Commandments" is a clarification of what the covenant was. Also verse 34:32 given above, makes clear that what was just spoken by god in verses 12-26 were the commandments. There is really nothing ambiguous at all about this, the only text that is clearly the Ten Commandments in the OT are Exodus 34:12-26.

Wallener

It doesn't take 40 days and nights to chisel a few short sentences. Flip side: the entire law cannot fit on two portable stone tablets. I don't think it makes sense to read the story as an attempt at historical accuracy.

yummyfur

Good point, I think the forty days without food and water are necessary to start being able to "see" and "talk" with god. There is no way anyone could live for 40 days without water, but if Moses came even close to these figures he would have been hallucinating up a storm as his body enetered total exhaustion. So it doesn't take 40 days to chisel Ten Commandments, it certainly might take that long to deprive your body enough, to enter a hallucinatory state to "recieve" said commandments, and this state of mind might explain such commandments as the not seething a kid in it's mother's milk

John Kesler

Actually the term appears in Deuteronomy 10:4, too:

Malachi151

hope4ALLeternity:

The story clearly states that God speaks the "10" Commandments, and then Moses goes back up to Mt. Sinai, and God then tells Moses all the laws, then Moses comes down and tells the people the laws, then he goes back up again and God tells him more stuff, and then, at the end of that session, God creates the two tablets that contain ALL of the "Testimony" of God, not JUST the 10 C.

Exodus 24:12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."

Exodus 31:18 When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

Exodus 32:15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

The second time the two tablets are created, however, the story says that it is just the 10C that is on the tablets, but the 10C contians a different mix of the origional 10C and some of the laws.

andrewcriddle

It has been claimed that the Ras Shamra texts from Syria in the late 2nd Millennium BCE describe a fertility ritual in which a kid is cooked in its mother's milk.

If this is right then the practice is very ancient.

The date when it was prohibited in Israel is less clear. IMO the fact that the prohibition comes in several rather different law codes indicates that the prohibition was introduced long before the exile, others on this forum will certainly disagree.

Andrew Criddle