These then, at least according to the bible, are the true Ten Commandments, and they differ radically from the commandments verbally announced in Ex.
From here on I will refer to this new set of commandments as the Ritual Ten Commandments. The text says that these are what were on the first set of stone tablets. The Judgments include all the substance of the Ritual Ten Commandments but, as with the Traditional Ten Commandments, use very different language and have a different sequence.
Only three of the Ritual Commandments exhibit any similarity to the Traditional Commandments. Although, both ban the worship of other gods, in the Ritual version the Israelites are specifically commanded to destroy the religious icons of the other peoples. Both ban the making of graven images, but the Ritual version is less restrictive as to the kinds of images that are banned.
And finally, both versions require obedience to the Sabbath, but the Ritual version extends it to some other holiday occasions also. Unlike the two Traditional Versions of the Ten Commandments, each of which gives a different explanation for the Sabbath, the Ritual Ten Commandments provide no explanation at all.
But in the Judgments, a very different explanation appears. This seems to be the more logical and more likely origin of the Sabbath law. The common touch-point between the Traditional and Ritual versions of the Ten Commandments concerns the rules of behavior towards God.
They differ in that the Traditional Version prohibits wrongful behavior towards other people while the Ritual Version concentrates solely on the religious principles of worshipping god.
The viewpoint expressed within the Ritual Ten Commandments makes more sense as the basis of a religious covenant than does the Traditional Ten Commandments.
The restrictions on immoral behavior towards others were commonplace and widespread in ancient society. Everybody generally recognized that killing and stealing and lying were bad. Why would God need to impose those conditions as the basis of a special covenant?
As all the versions show, God was a jealous being, and any covenant he was likely to make would be based on how the people treated him, not how they treated other people. Its placement in the context of the golden calf story provides a good clue as to which faction authored the text. We saw in a previous chapter that the Golden Calf story was a myth created by a Levite faction that opposed both the special authority of the Aaronites and the split of the northern kingdom from Judah.
This militaristic attribute of the priestly Levites suggests that the same Levite group that invented the Golden Calf story put forth the Ritual Ten Commandments with its martial religious nature.
This dates the origin of the Ritual Ten Commandments to after the breakup of the monarchy. Since the Golden Calf story was a fiction, the breaking of the tablets in reaction was also a fiction.
Prior to the invention of the Ritual Ten Commandments there would have been an earlier set of laws handed down on stone but it had been lost. The Levites invented a story about a new set of stone tablets in order to substitute their set of rituals for the rival collection.
The mention precedes the subsequent listing of the Deuteronomy version of the Traditional Ten Commandments. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand.
And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me. This passage refers specifically to the second set of tablets as containing the Ten Commandments, although it says that God wrote them instead of Moses.
Since the Deuteronomy text also introduces these tablets after the Golden Calf incident, it must have been written after the invention of the Ritual Ten Commandments and offered as a replacement.
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.
According to 2 Ki. The scribe in turn brought it to King Josiah and they read it together. To their amazement they found that they were in violation of the laws handed down by Moses and Josiah became so upset he rent his clothes, fearing that God would be angry at Judah. Based on this newly found manuscript Josiah launched a series of religious reforms intended to bring back the Law of Moses.
His priests and scribes probably wrote Deuteronomy. One wonders how anything as simple as a handful of commandments forming a sacred bond between God and the nation could be so easily forgotten and lost, especially if they were written on stone. The Exodus version must have been written later, otherwise Josiah would have known about it and perhaps even commented in some manner on the differences between them.
The only version specifically and clearly identified in the bible as the Ten Commandments is the Ritual version, which dates to sometime after Israel and Judah split. Both versions of the Traditional Ten Commandments, which Moses supposedly gave Israel in the wilderness, date to after the Ritual Ten Commandments and no earlier than the reign of Josiah. Finally, we have a fourth version known as the Judgments, encompassing both the Traditional and Ritual versions of the Ten Commandments along with many other legal obligations.
May 1, Posted at h in by patrick 0 Comments. Enter Email Confirm Email. Select one CSN International. American Family Radio Network. Bott Radio Network.
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Good News Media Inc. Truth Network. Liberty Baptist Church of Las Vegas. Now one can return to chapter 25 of Exodus. Verses 20 - 16 describe the ark and verses 17 - 22 discuss the special cover to go upon it.
It is interesting to note that the first items shown to Moses appear to be these. The text is as follows:. The next text is in the book of Revelation. This book contains various elements of sanctuary imagery. A portion of that imagery is placed in the context of heaven. Some of the items that are shown in heaven correspond to those items know to have existed in the earthly tabernacle. As to whether what John saw in his vision of heaven are exactly how things exist in the heavenly sanctuary is open to discussion.
Since some of the images are typical of the symbolism of the book such as the lamb that is slain that has seven horns and seven eyes , it may be that John sees the heavenly realities in terms of the earthly copies. Nevertheless, heavenly realities are in view to the reader of Revelation.
Given this and what has been mentioned above about the earthly tabernacle and the ark, note Revelation 11 : And there were lightnings , noises, and thunderings , and an earthquake, and great hail. Here John is drawn to the heavenly original of the ark and cover of Exodus Now note that Exodus 25 mentions in both verse 16 and 21 that Moses was to put the testimony given by God into the ark such that it came to be called the ark of the testimony or covenant in some translations or in other texts just the testimony e.
Lev 16 : What was the testimony? For that, one must go to the last part of Exodus The rest of Exodus 25 and the text after that up to Exodus 31 : 17 give the plans for the rest of the tabernacle with a few directions related to its operation, set up, and building.
Interestingly enough this section ends with a reemphasis of the Sabbath law and its designation as a "perpetual covenant".
After this, a connection is made between the testimony of 25 : 16 , 21 and the two tablets mentioned in Exodus 24 : Look at Exodus 31 : Moses had been on the mountain for forty days and nights. While gone, the Israelites committed the sin of idolatry.
Moses, after pleading with God on the people's behalf, went down to the camp with the two tablets of testimony in his hands.
Exodus 32 : 15 , 16 mentions this and emphasizes God's role in the tablets' creation. Moses then smashed the tablets upon coming to the camp Exod 32 : Later, after interceding with God concerning His going with them to the promised land , Moses is commanded concerning some new tablets, which will contain the things written on the former. The text for this is Exodus 34 : 1 - 4. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai , as the LORD had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.
Again Moses is upon the mountain for forty days and nights. This time he receives the promised vision of God's glory, and the covenant is renewed. At the end of this time on the mount he goes back down with the two new tablets and his face aglow.
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