The other Commandments

[Sammy-San]

Purely for the sake of argument, let's say God had more time with Moses, or more space on the tablets, and decided to issue more commandments than the 10 we all know, what do you think he would have chosen? Another way of putting this is, what do you think is missing, if anything, from the 10 commandments?

I'll start the ball rolling with a couple of obvious ones:

11) Thou shall not rape
12) Never take another human being as a slave

To be honest, there's an argument that one or both of these could have made it into the top ten. I mean, we all dislike graven images, but they're not as bad as rape.

Anyway, let's hear what people think about which commandments failed to make the cut...

Then why did God order the Israelites to take people of cities in the Holy Land as forced labor?

 

[Belk]

Then why did God order the Israelites to take people of cities in the Holy Land as forced labor?

Yes, why did God do that?

 

[Aldebaran]

Just accept you were wrong. No need for incredulity.

Wrong about what? You made a vague statement, indicating that you weren't even sure of the wording, so I looked it up for you, then you became incredulous that I found it and refuted your claim. Rather than project your failure onto me, just accept it as your own.

 

[Sammy-San]

Yes, why did God do that?

Was Joshuas Conquest Justified

Border Peoples lived in cities and villages on the outer edges of Canaan, who were not part of the seven or so indigenous tribes of Canaan. Cities outside the region inhabited by the Canaanites and other condemned peoples, but within the land designated as belonging to Israel, were first to be offered terms of peace, in which its people would become forced labor and serve the Israelites. If a city refused, Israel was to make war against it, kill all its men, and allow the women and children to live (Deuteronomy 20:10-15). The distinction drawn between the outlying cities of the land and the cities of the Canaanites and other peoples clustered within the land reflects the belief that the indigenous peoples were too far gone to be shown any mercy, while other people groups were not deemed similarly degenerate.

Can somebody please explain this? I somewhat understand why God ordered the Israelites to wipe out the Caananites because of their wickedness sins, but why were the other people treated so harshly-forced to become slaves for the Israelites?

 

[BL2KTN]

Wrong about what? You made a vague statement, indicating that you weren't even sure of the wording, so I looked it up for you, then you became incredulous that I found it and refuted your claim. Rather than project your failure onto me, just accept it as your own.

You have me confused. And as a third party observer, I can say your account of the exchange is untrue. It appears you very much have a need to feel right, rather than be right.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

No I'm not. And I find it rather embarrassing that a lowlife atheist would have to correct a man of faith on his understanding.

This verse - it's from Matthew -

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

Now, if the coming of the very man that was speaking those lines WAS the 'fulfillment', then why the need to indicate the passing of such a long period of time?

Jesus is assuring the disciples, in a hyperbolic way, that what he says is true, that 'heaven and earth would pass away' before his declarations on these subjects would fail. It would hardly serve anyone for the heaven and earth to actually pass away prior to the fulfillment of everything intended by the law and prophets.

 

[Strathos]

And exactly how would my quickly proposed commandments do that?

Your commandment against harming living creatures

 

[BL2KTN]

Your commandment against harming living creatures

There is no such commandment, which is why you purposefully didn't copy and paste it.

 

[Strathos]

7) Do not desire to kill, injure, or maim living, breathing creatures.

Your memory seems faulty

 

[Euler]

Jesus is assuring the disciples, in a hyperbolic way, that what he says is true, that 'heaven and earth would pass away' before his declarations on these subjects would fail. It would hardly serve anyone for the heaven and earth to actually pass away prior to the fulfillment of everything intended by the law and prophets.

The passing away of heaven and earth would be seen as a final, distant, future event. Why put such a boundary around the 'fulfillment' of this plan, unless it was envisaged that this 'fulfillment' was not going to occur for a long, long time?

 

[CryOfALion]

The 10 commandments are special because an event happened in which God specifically "gave" directives. Putting this into context, He had just shown His power to the Hebrews by mocking the alleged power of ten of Egypt's highest ranking gods: thus, literally declaring His dominance as the Most High in liberating and leading the Hebrews to a better place. Now, there were many other commandments given by God that were, are and will always be "in effect/important," but the 10 commandments were specific directives outlining a new agreement: the Hebrews will be His people, and He will be their God IF they follow the ten directives. The Hebrews could always do what they wanted and test their luck on their own; they had that option, and many did that.

The 10 directives encompass the entirety of law. Commandment 1 is a covenant of allegiance to God, if the Hebrews chose Him. Commandment 2 reminds the Hebrews not to make any perceived art, images, sculptures, etc. of the spiritual world especially out of worship. This is also because Egypt was full of occult practices that openly used graven images to "draw power" for rituals and the gods. Commandment 3 underlines His holiness, and further accentuates His power, and His dislike of vanity especially when relating to Him. Commandment 4 was a reminder to the Hebrews to abandon slave mentality. No need to work every day like in Egypt when He - their God - even took one day off. So, the seventh day is a day of rest for a communion with God. But, you can not do servile work more than one day.

Those are spiritual laws (4).

The last 6 are all about how humans should interact with each other: honor/respect parents, no murder , no stealing, no committing adultery, no lying/bearing false witness, and no envying what your fellow man has.

10 is a spiritual number for completeness.

4 is for material creation and completeness.

6 is the number of man.

The first four commandments contains all necessary for creation to exist with God. The last six contains all necessary for created man to live with man. The first four make up a spiritual covenant with God, and the last six make up what is supposed to be a human covenant with man. Together, you get a complete (10) overview and guide on how to be a man of God. An entire Bible's worth of rules in ten mandates - if humans were that obedient, wise and righteous. As before the commandments, since the Hebrews constantly rebelled and didn't learn, He had to give specifics. You would think you wouldn't have to write a rule about witchcraft when He already gave commandment 1. Or, perhaps there would be no need for a rule about rape and violence if people were wise enough to compare it to commandments against stealing, false witness and coveting.

Skip three thousand years or so into the future, and Christ condenses it into two commandments. Now, two is a spiritual number for division, or duality - like knowledge of good and evil , so it should have been even easier for us to understand these commandments on a carnal level, yet there is confusion. Parenthetically, these "two" commandments on which the whole law falls foreshadows the two dual fighting natures of humans being perfected in unity through Him: perfect spirituality (1,) and perfect morality (2) contained in the perfect man of God (Christ, others who follow Him.)

Love God with all of your heart, might, and soul = obeying the first four commandments
Love your neighbor as you love yourself = obeying the last six commandments.

Now, first four commandments are spiritual covenant mandates with God: so any rules accordingly come up under this category (like idolatry, witchcraft, etc.) The last six commandments are man-to-man covenants, so any laws accordingly come up under this category (stranger relations, relationships with relatives, property, honor, business, etc.) So


Love God with all of your heart, might, and soul = obeying the first four commandments = laws pertaining to relationship with God

Love your neighbor as you love yourself = obeying the last six commandments = Laws pertaining to relationships with man.

On the two "great laws" of Christ, therefore, fall the entire law, and how to be a man of God fully. So, nothing is lacking in the ten commandments, the Law of God, or in Christ.

 

[BL2KTN]

Your memory seems faulty

What part of the word "desire" do you not understand?

 

[Strathos]

What part of the word "desire" do you not understand?

So it's okay to accidentally trip over a plant, pulling it up by its roots, and then eat it?

Seems kind of a haphazard system.

 

[BL2KTN]

So it's okay to accidentally trip over a plant, pulling it up by its roots, and then eat it?

Seems kind of a haphazard system.

Stop trying to complicate this so the horribly inadequate commandments from the Iron Age look better. The little commandment I came up with in a few seconds says you shouldn't desire to kill, maim, or harm living, breathing creatures. If I kill a cow for meat, that doesn't mean that I wanted to kill the cow... but if it must be done for survival, it must be done. If I had spent minutes rather than seconds on this, I might have re-worded it so that it said "Thou shalt not desire to kill, maim, or harm conscious creatures, but do so remorsefully when necessary." But then again, seconds already outdid the original ten.

 

[Aldebaran]

Stop trying to complicate this so the horribly inadequate commandments from the Iron Age look better. The little commandment I came up with in a few seconds says you shouldn't desire to kill, maim, or harm living, breathing creatures. If I kill a cow for meat, that doesn't mean that I wanted to kill the cow... but if it must be done for survival, it must be done. If I had spent minutes rather than seconds on this, I might have re-worded it so that it said "Thou shalt not desire to kill, maim, or harm conscious creatures, but do so remorsefully when necessary." But then again, seconds already outdid the original ten.

That would basically fall under "Thou Shalt not murder", but attempting to apply it to animals.

 

[BL2KTN]

That would basically fall under "Thou Shalt not murder", but attempting to apply it to animals.

Nope. And quite frankly, I'm tired of trying to explain concepts that fourth graders could grasp in seconds.

 

[Aldebaran]

Nope. And quite frankly, I'm tired of trying to explain concepts that fourth graders could grasp in seconds.

Not desiring to kill but doing it when necessary would mean doing it either in self defense. If you wanted to apply it to animals, then hunting and livestock farming would be banned.

 

[BL2KTN]

Not desiring to kill but doing it when necessary would mean doing it either in self defense. If you wanted to apply it to animals, then hunting and livestock farming would be banned.

Although some people do live a vegan lifestyle, it requires that they take artificial supplements and is generally viewed as an unhealthy means for acquiring nutrients. Furthermore, children really can't be vegan and acquire all the nourishment they need. Humans are omnivores, and we do need to eat animal product - whether that is eggs, dairy, fish, poultry, etc. It is necessary at times that we kill creatures for food, as well as for safety, though we should take no delight in it or cause undue suffering.

 

[Aldebaran]

Although some people do live a vegan lifestyle, it requires that they take artificial supplements and is generally viewed as an unhealthy means for acquiring nutrients. Furthermore, children really can't be vegan and acquire all the nourishment they need. Humans are omnivores, and we do need to eat animal product - whether that is eggs, dairy, fish, poultry, etc. It is necessary at times that we kill creatures for food, as well as for safety, though we should take no delight in it or cause undue suffering.

As surprising as it may seem, I can't find anything in your post to disagree with.

 

[CryOfALion]

It is possible to be nutritiously optimal and vegan. It just takes money, or a farm/garden. There are more vitamin, minerals and antioxidants in vegetation than meat. Where do you think the meat gets it from?

Adam and Eve, and pre-antediluvian people were vegan, or vegetarian (the Hebrews, at least.)