Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

The 10 Commandments

  • 27-01-2008 1:35am
    #1
    Pompey Magnus
    Registered Users Posts: 5,406 ✭✭✭


    I'm currently reading a book by the French philosopher Michel Onfray in which he puts out a suggestion on the 10 Commandments which I found interesting. Could it be possible that the Commandments which were given to Moses were meant only to apply among the Jewish community, in that I mean for example "Thou Shalt Not Kill" was intended to be "Thou, a Jew, Shalt Not Kill Another Jew", and this was understood as such by the Jews of the time. The Commandments were only intended to be a structure for ensuring the survival of specifically the Jewish community and not as a greater guide for humanity.

    I expect that this hypothesis will be rejected as nonsense and to be told God obviously intended the rules to protect the heathen as well as the Jew, but why? The suggestion that it was only to apply within the community seems to me to be the perfect solution to the problem of the genocide of the Midianite men and married women and the rape of the Midianite virgins, as well as other similar events in the Old Testament. Why did God allow murder and rape in these cases? Because the commandments didn't apply to these people. Why could the tribe of Benjamin covet and abduct the women of Shiloh? Because they were not Jews.

    I can see, coming from an atheist perspective, as to why this would have made sense. I don't believe the commandments truely were God given, they would have been written by men as a basic form of a community legal system. It makes perfect sense why they would not want in-fighting among the community which could be caused by coveting your neighbours ass or to go and kill a neighbour you don't like but in the dog-eat-dog of ancient Judea it makes no sense to say "You can't kill anyone" or "You can't covet any man's wife".


Comments

  • #2
    PDN
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,686 ✭✭✭✭PDN


    Depeche_Mode wrote: »
    I expect that this hypothesis will be rejected as nonsense and to be told God obviously intended the rules to protect the heathen as well as the Jew, but why?

    I wouldn't call it nonsense as it is a serious suggestion, but I think it is wrong. Why? Well, one reason would be that the Jews' own Scriptures state that before there was ever a Jewish race God said, "And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." (Genesis 9:5-6)

    Biblically, the reason why men are not to murder one another is because all men are made in God's image, not any doctrine of racial solidarity. The Genesis verse I've quoted is significant in that it actually mandates one form of killing (capital punishment of a murderer) while forbidding other forms of killing. The 10 commandments, to my understanding, prohibited murder while permitting other forms of killing (eg capital punishment and warfare).

    BTW, before the trolls get busy with their usual silliness, as a Christian who follows the New Testament I do not believe in genocide or rape. In fact I am opposed to all killing of people, including murder, capital punishment, warfare and abortion.


  • #3
    philologos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,479 ✭✭✭✭philologos


    Jesus also used it in the New Testament to speak to the rich man. He also redefined the definition of neighbour, to mean all mankind including Gentiles. I conclude that the Ten Commandments mean to all man, not just to the Jewry from the New Covenant as well as the Old Testament.


Advertisement