.....................The Ten Commandments.....................

I have been contemplating for a while, about the Ten Commandments. How can the 10 be of use to us today, and are they the God?s commands?
I will make some analysis of them, coupled with my background and understanding, to see if some sense can be made of them. I will also use other quotes from various sources to give a coherent whole of it. I will also mix from the OT and NT because they are intertwined with Jesus and his attributed sayings.
I realise that they are not in the original language, which holds huge importance, due to the dichotomy of words, and especially in the aramaeic/hebrew language.
I am also aware that my sentences can be muddled, and I hope with the help of you, that I may be able to be more precise.

I got the commandments from this site:Ten Commandments

God is here the highest, the one principle, as put forward in the bible. We will not discuss if that is the correct way to believe, but how it works within this system of thought that the OT gives.

Ok this is the protestant version, from the King James Bible. Which can serve as a template for all of them.


Protestant

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Seems fairly straight forward, but it isn?t. On one level God, who is somewhere else, says that you must hold God the highest, and not pray to lesser God?s, like the sun God Ra. Ra is included in God. Also notice, that God says that there are other God?s!!! So is there more than one God or is it misquoted from the original texts? So you could say that the christian God is one amongst many, and that that God made contact to Moses, and said that he/she is the ?best?.
Another level is this: When you get the commandment and say it out loud or in your mind, what are you saying? Then YOU are saying ?Thou shalt have no other gods before me?, now YOU are the God, who doesn?t want others to pray to another God.
Jesus said(AFAIK); "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Lk 17:21).. This corresponds to the idea that God, or paradise, is inside yourself, and that you are it. Jesus also said; ?The kingdom of heaven is spread upon earth, but people do not see it.? Here Jesus says that paradise is outside of man. So Jesus said that paradise is both within and without, which is very interesting. The original texts holds a word that means both ?inside? and ?outside?. So Jesus could use one sentence and say that God/paradise is in- and outside man.
From genesis 1:27; ?God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him?
Genesis teaches us, that we look like God, we are not the God, but we look like him, and are one with him.
From John 10:34 (book of psalms 82:6) ?I have said, Ye are gods(Deities, my addition); and all of you are children of the most High.?
Here we are told that we ourselves are God, and God is the one who told us! So I look like God, I am a God/deity, and we co-exist, only?. my Life/existance is from him, as the angels are from him, and my existance is dependant on God.
So even though we are all God?s/deities in God, we shall not have other God?s, i.e. humans in this case, before him. Deities would be a better word for us humans, since we are not God in the normal sense of God as the creator of heaven and earth.

2. Thou shalt not make unto 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 water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to 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; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

This is connected with the first. Having a deity as your object of prayer, i.e. something less than God, will arouse God?s jealousy. God?s jealousy will be expressed through his many agents, namely us. If God want?s to take over for me, God can easily d

 

I have been contemplating for a while, about the Ten Commandments. How can the 10 be of use to us today, and are they the God?s commands?

Not everyone believes in the same God, don't generalize that Christian/Jewish/Muslim God's command can be of use in the modern world of diverse cultures and beliefs.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Seems fairly straight forward, but it isn?t. On one level God, who is somewhere else, says that you must hold God the highest, and not pray to lesser God?s, like the sun God Ra. Ra is included in God. Also notice, that God says that there are other God?s!!! So is there more than one God or is it misquoted from the original texts? So you could say that the christian God is one amongst many, and that that God made contact to Moses, and said that he/she is the ?best?.
Another level is this: When you get the commandment and say it out loud or in your mind, what are you saying? Then YOU are saying ?Thou shalt have no other gods before me?, now YOU are the God, who doesn?t want others to pray to another God.

And when looking at ancient texts like the 10 Commandments, you need to look at the context of when it is recorded down.

The first commandment is pretty clear if you look at the time when God communicated with Moses, when the Jews were first out of Egypt, a polythesist nation. Many Jews adopted Egyptian gods, and the 1st commandment is just to straighten those Jews out in a way they understand.

Jesus said(AFAIK); "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Lk 17:21).. This corresponds to the idea that God, or paradise, is inside yourself, and that you are it. Jesus also said; ?The kingdom of heaven is spread upon earth, but people do not see it.? Here Jesus says that paradise is outside of man. So Jesus said that paradise is both within and without, which is very interesting. The original texts holds a word that means both ?inside? and ?outside?. So Jesus could use one sentence and say that God/paradise is in- and outside man.

That discussion was settled in the fourth century AD by Roman theologists. They believed what Jesus was talking there about was the Holy Ghost, which is part of every one of God's creations, that still have His grace.

This is connected with the first. Having a deity as your object of prayer, i.e. something less than God, will arouse God?s jealousy. God?s jealousy will be expressed through his many agents, namely us. If God want?s to take over for me, God can easily do it.

If by "we" you meant Humans then no, we are not God's agents... there is a special term for God's messenger/agent and that word is "angel."

5. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

What if your parents are evil and does bad things, are we still then to honor them?

Of course you should honour them, for they are your parents, how else were you born into this world? Jumped out of a rock?

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.

Greed is the center of this commandment, greed will lead you astray. Those who have money wants more of it, until they own the world. But what then? All these things you will abandon when you leave earth.

That last commandment just says that you should not steal your neighbors... never prohibt anything done to someone who is not your neighbor. That was the excuse the ancient Jews used to conduct ethnic cleansing of original Palestinians when they first reached the Holy Lands.

 

I s'pose you didn't read all of it.

I can't tell that this is true.

But take it in context. These are the ten commandments from God. Those who follow them(supposedly) are Jews, protestants, catholics.

This is meant as a discussion of this God's commandments.





DD - Read Spliff

 

The number 'ten' has always had me suspicious. It's an artificial, padded list. I've also always disliked the fact that the most important ones 'don't kill/steal' are so far down the list. No wonder religious fanatics don't take them seriously.

 

That's a long, long post. I can't respond all of it in ONE edit!

More edits are to come, be patient please.

 

redxavier, it's not a ranked list ... #10 is as important as #1

 

The hindu's/yogi's have this order.


Ahimsa - non-violence
Satya - truthfullness
Asteya - non-stealing
Brachmacharya - moderation, selfconstraint
Aparigraha - Non-Possessiveness
Shaucha: Purity/Clarity
Santosha: Contentment
Tapas: Austerity
Swadhyaya: Self-Education, Study
Ishwara-Pranidhana: Surrender to God/Light/Energy of the Universe



Note the different order here!!!!





DD - Love Spliff

 

Something funny my friend said while we were reading it.

"The 11th Commandment is for men:
It says, '...and get caught.'"




For "Thou shalt not kill," I follow some of the translations I've seen and take that to mean "Thou shalt not murder." Murder is a different animal than killing. Killing is something that must be done at times, like self-defense. Murder is evil, killing not as much.

 

"The 11th Commandment is for men:
It says, '...and get caught.'"

LOL, heheheheh typically male statement???

Ah humour is a great connecter of humans





DD - Laughing Spliff

 

"redxavier, it's not a ranked list ... #10 is as important as #1"

I don't think so. The fact that God commands his creations to obey him first is a clear indication of how he sees us. But this isn't God's list, it's the list of a religious order designed to control what people say and do. 'No other gods but me'? That implies that God is aware that there are in fact other gods.

Why are all the commandments negative? Why does God command his creations to be good to each other?

Imagine how different man's history would have been if Moses had come down with just one commandment - Be excellent to each other.

 

redxavier:

Thats why Jesus is so special:'


"Love thy neighbor as you would love yourself"

It is the most? positive commandment ever...



Love is all you need




DD - Love Spliff

 

redxavier:

Thats why Jesus is so special:'


"Love thy neighbor as you would love yourself"

It is the most? positive commandment ever...



Love is all you need

That is actually pretty scary. Just think how those maschoists will love their neighbors. *shiver*

 

LOL Masochists.

Well, you just say no thank you. I don't like this.

Even masochists will stop if asked.





DD - Love Spliff

 

Although I don't have the time or resource's to make a long thought out counter post to match yours I'll just nit pick on one little comment you made. ~> Also notice, that God says that there are "other" God's!!!

I believe what he meant by that was idol worshipping, you know how they used to bow down and pray to statue's in city sqaure's daily back then which was disobediance and sacrilige's(sp?).

I thought this was a thread on the legality of the Ten Commandments when it first caught my eye.

<[-]> Saber

 

Sabergiiet7:

Thats partly the point of the thread. You will make your very own interpretation of the ten commandments. How can anyone, priests included tell how you should understand God. God makes you capable of understanding God in just the way you need to understand God. Same goes for atheists

Religion in groups have flaws, when one say his interpretation is the correct one, and the rest says "yes, and amen". Use your own understanding, because that will be the one you can understand. God will not make it impossible to understand him/her. Each of us is given just the way we need to understand.




DD - Love Spliff

 

Oh got it now Darth Dane, I understand your point of view on this and I would prefer not to sound like a Christian broken record but our country under our fore fathers was founded under those principles.

Whether you choose to accept that is your decision alone but in the Court room or in the pledge we should'ent tamper with tradition.

Beacuse: IMO in another hundred years or so we'd be a mere shell of our former principles.

<[-]> Saber

 

Star Fire is correct. No commandment is more important than the other. We should also still have them in schools and other public places.
The Supreme Court needs to leave our pledge of allegiance alone.

 

We should also still have them in schools and other public places.

Why? They are not law (like the U.S. Constitution), and they are not historical American documents (like the Declaration of Independence).

(This probably has nothing to do with the current thread, but if you'd like to continue the discussion in a different thread, I'd be happy to oblige. )


The Supreme Court needs to leave our pledge of allegiance alone.

Perhaps they would have, if Congress had left it alone in the first place. (But isn't there already a thread on this?)


EDIT: D'oh, guess I should read the username and sig before replying...

So instead, let's back up one post to here:

Whether you choose to accept that is your decision alone but in the Court room or in the pledge we should'ent tamper with tradition.

We shouldn't uphold traditions simply for the sake of tradition, especially if they infringe on others' rights. But again, perhaps a different thread would be more appropriate for this discussion.

 

True. Jesus did stress the most important commandment. So in the vein of Christian thought, this discussion is not very accurate.

As far as having the 10 commandments in schools, I don't know about that. However I think religion should be taught and discussed in schools. Not discussing something kids deal with and actually think about is ridiculous. Same goes for sex.

 

However I think religion should be taught and discussed in schools.

I agree. Specifically, it should be taught and discussed in Sunday School.

Oh, you meant public schools?

(And I'm almost certain there's a thread on that... or maybe I'm thinking of the sex ed thread.)

 

Religon should be taught in PUBLIC schools.

And I don't mean Christianity. I mean all religons. Obviously not eveyr religon will be represented, but the concepts of different religions should be tuaght. This is major issue in every society on the planet. Why shouldn't schools discuss it? Same with sex. Same with racism, homophobia. These are real issues. Kids need to learn and think about them.

 

As long as you mean students should be taught about religion (as opposed to being taught religion, which is what parents and churches are for), I don't have any problem with it. Discussions about religion have their place in social studies, history, and world cultures classes.

That's quite different, however, from a particular religion recognition as an authority - such as prominently displaying the Ten Commandments in a classroom.

 

Number two is a bit confusing... is God going to doom my third generation and fourth generation for my misbehavior but God will spare the second generation?

It could say "unto the second, third, and fourth generation" and make more sense.

Or it could say "unto the fourth generation" and make more sense.

Or it could say "unto the third generation if you commit the sin on a saturday or tuesday, but unto the fourth generation if sin is committed on thursday until ten P.M. and Sunday until two-thirty."

Perhaps God shoulda junked number two and just said "Thou shalt wash thine hands many times a day and be sure to blame the rats when plague comes about".

but I guess it was just too difficult for that information to be given to us humans? Just the important stuff, I guess.

 

Yes, Mister_bunny, they are indeed confusing LOL


Is noone going to comment on the womens 10 commandmnets?

Is noone going to challenge some of my ideas more thoroughly?

Where is Farraday, Bubba, Jedimaster201 and all the rest of the combatants of religious tones.

Boba, BobaFetish...where?


I must have hit something here.



We can also discuss teh inherent use of many of the commandments in the law of our countries.

Like: "Thou shall not kill." If we do we are jailed. So that commandment is followed somewhat.


Sabergiiett7: What did you mean "legality" of the ten commandments?


If it covers the ten commandments, let us discuss them here. I couldn't cover all subjects related to them.





DD - Challenging Spliff of Love

 

Jedi_Master201 is here... He just doesn't know how to deal with this thread.


I'll be back.