[Apparently unaware of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi " target="_blank">Codex Hammurabi</a> (1780 BC), codex of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2050 BC), the Codex of Eshnunna (ca. 1930 BC), and the codex of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin (ca. 1870 BC).]
Ask any scholar of religion and he or she will tell you that the Ten Commandments are the most unique laws of the ancient world. You won't find any laws like them anywhere else.
26 comments
He's right in the fact that the genuine 10 Commandments are pretty unique - they're not what he thinks they are though.1. Ye shall destroy their(*) altars, break their images, and cut down their
groves:
2. For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons,and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
3. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
4 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
5. All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
6. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
7. Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
8. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
9. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.
10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
I haven't broken 3 and 10... (maybe I should add them to my list of things to do)
"You won't find any laws like them anywhere else."
They are not unique, and most of them are very poor laws. The first 4 only feed "god's" ego. I'll go along with no murder and don't steal. Adultery is a bad idea, but laws against it are largely unworkable, so I figure 80% of "the 10 commandments" is a bust.
Pointless laws designed to feed the ego of a magic sky fairy? Yeah, very unique. Prohibition against murder? "You're not allowed to kill when you're not allowed to?" Tautology. Weird food laws? Stupid, and not unique.
I would agree with you on the food laws in today's society, Maronan. But keep in mind they did not have refridgerators or freezers back then and they had very limited food preservatives, assuming they had any. Most of the Kosher rules were created for health reasons. Now with modern technology, these food laws are obsolete.
TDR - had it squirrelled away on my hard drive from last time I was reaming someone (I think I was trolling a Christian group on myspace - they started it though) about the 10 Commandments and God's morality, so don't have all the sources.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_Decalogue
(Oh and the second paragraph of the 'Academic Interpretation' is fucking awesome!)
mad dog - Roman's had many preservatives, the two most common were salt (which absorbed water from bacteria, osmosing it through their membrane, so sucking them dry and killing them) and sulphur dioxide (preservative 220). They even used sulphur dioxide in wines back then, and it's still one of it's most common uses today. (Sadly it readily mixes with water to form sulphuric acid, so is bad for you in large quantities, especially when inhaled)
Wander, are you talking about the Ten commandments of the first tablets of stone, the second ones after moses broke them, Protestant, Catholic or Hebrew?
Only if you don't look.
By the way, which ten?
Reality is a bitch.
"Ask any scholar of religion and he or she will tell you that the Ten Commandments are the most unique laws of the ancient world. You won't find any laws like them anywhere else."
Yes, that's right dear.
(*Performs a 'Patronise You no Jutsu': pats Wander on head *)
Now you go back to your ninja cartoon dear, the adults are talking.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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