The Ten Commandments We Always See, Aren’t The Ten Commandments

by Russ Kick on February 18, 2010 in News
The following is the first chapter from my bite-size Disinformation book 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know, published in 2003.

For more on me, check out this website, The Memory Hole.

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First Amendment battles continue to rage across the US over the posting of the Ten Commandments in public places — courthouses, schools, parks, and pretty much anywhere else you can imagine.

Christians argue that they’re a part of our Western heritage that should be displayed as ubiquitously as traffic signs. Congressman Bob Barr hilariously suggested that the Columbine massacre wouldn’t have happened if the Ten Commandments (also called the Decalogue) had been posted in the high school, and some government officials have directly, purposely disobeyed court rulings against the display of these ten directives supposedly handed down from on high.

Too bad they’re all talking about the wrong rules. Every Decalogue you see — from the 5,000-pound granite behemoth inside the Alabama State Judicial Building to the little wallet-cards sold at Christian bookstores — is bogus. Simply reading the Bible will prove this. Getting out your King James version, turn to Exodus 20:2-17. You’ll see the familiar list of rules about having no other gods, honoring your parents, not killing or coveting,
and so on. At this point, though, Moses is just repeating to the people what God told him on Mount Si’nai. These are not written down in any form.

Later, Moses goes back to the Mount, where God gives him two “tables of stone” with rules written on them (Exodus 31:18). But when Moses comes down the mountain lugging his load, he sees the people worshipping a statue of a calf, causing him to throw a tantrum and smash the tablets on the ground (Exodus 32:19).

In neither of these cases does the Bible refer to “commandments.” In the first instance, they are “words” which “God spake,” while the tablets contain “testimony.” It is only when Moses goes back for new tablets that we see the phrase “ten commandments” (Exodus 34:28). In an interesting turn of events, the commandments on these tablets are significantly different than the ten rules Moses recited for the people, meaning that either Moses’ memory is faulty or God changed his mind.

I. Thou shalt worship no other god.

II. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

III. The feast of unleavened bread thou shalt keep.

IV. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest.

V. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest,
and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

VI. Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God.

VII. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.

VIII. Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

IX. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.

X. Thou shalt not seethe a kid [ie, a young goat] in his mother’s milk.

Gee, I wonder why no one has responded to this. As my old theology professor would say people who respect the bible never actually read it. It often doesn't say what you have been taught it says. I remember an old lady asked me a trick question: how many of each animal did Moses take on the ark? I told her not Moses but Noah and he took 7 of each animal. She laugh and said I got her, but Noah took 2 of each animal; I told her to go and read her bible. She read her bible everyday and was a devout member of Billy Graham Organization. The next day- I used to bring her fancy desserts- she suddenly looked at me and almost whispered: I read my bible last night, Noah took 7 of each animal on the Ark. I said yes deary, but what does that have to do with loving and caring for each other. She smiled

The rules/laws given in exodus are the "10 commandments". Notice "10 commandments" isn't specifically a title, it's not like they are called "The Ten Commandments". It is just a list of commandments given to us, and there happens to be 10 of them specifically there. So we ourselves specifically refer to them in title form as the "Ten Commandments" so in discussion in any shape about them, it is clear to which of the commandments are in reference.

Cleary, Exodus 34 calls them the 10 Commandments, that g-d wrote on stone; you can call something else the 10 commandments, but that doesn't make it so

Exodus 34
10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

Notice I make a "covenant". Show where it says the 10 commandments in a title form, not just stating that there are 10 commandments, but specifically that's what they are called.

32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai.

Notice again just says "gave them in commandment all that the..". Did not say "gave them The 10 Commandments".

Exodus 34:28
28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

And yes it does specifically say "10 commandments". But also notice, it is lower cased meaning it is not a proper noun meaning it's not specifically the "name" of them. Just was going into more details bout what was on the tablets.

Gee my torah has it:
28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

Ooh, mine is capitalized! Does it matter? It is the only place where something called the 10 commandments are mentioned

Even weather it does or doesn't is truly kinda moot and unimportant. What is the point of this thread? I noticed something about it's different then.. and so forth. Explain the reasoning of this thread please.

because actually they are based on an earlier Codex!
Like the Codex of Hammurabi,and,if memory serves me right,he borrowed some of them as well!

Simply to point out that much of what people take for granted is not always accurate and they should actually think/study/read for themselves

It's still kinda moot/unimportant if it capitalized or not, thus the reason I asked him what the actual purpose of this thread was about. Where are these "differences" he claims. He said the Torah says this, while the king james says that, and shared what he claims the Torah states, but failed to give the verse/reference or whatever they are called in the Torah so that I could cross reference it on the internet.

And it being capitalized or not in the Torah is pretty close to irrelevant as well. Those scriptures were not written along the lines of grammar and punctuation and what not that our language consists of today. And still all of what I just said there is quite irrelevant till we are given something to work on to cross reference what is claimed about, it's called hearsay.

Ok what you just said in this quote is entirely blown up from the one little simple example you've shown, which again as I've addressed you have failed to give any form of cross reference to investigate this hearsay statement. It's not like the verse(s) were entirely different in what they said, just one little grammatical difference. So please do enlighten us with this way to cross reference what you state please.

I am confused- you brought up Capitalization; again the point is that they even made a movie of the 10 commandments, but did not use the 10 commandments as clearly stated; they used some other communication and just called them the 10 commandments. Again the point is to do your own study and not fall for others BS or Belief System

That was the only difference in the verse from the Torah to the King James version. That was what I thought this thread was about, the difference from the original "Torah" and that which a lot to most use "King James". If grammatical difference is the only difference, that was already assumed as the difference in culture from then to now.

And the movie is entirely irrelevant to the belief in itself. The movie, not stating is right or wrong or anything along those lines as it's been a long time since I've seen that movie and don't remember specifically how they did everything in that movie. But nevertheless, that movie doesn't represent the belief in itself, at best it represents the writer(s) belief thereof.

It is not grammar differences, it is specific different commandments

And thus the reason I requested a book/verse or whatever they are called from specifically the Torah to cross reference and read the context used to see if it is in fact entirely different and not just grammatical.

You don't one, firstly I quoted them in the OP, they are in Exodus 34, which you can compare to the others.

Ok I apologize. Did not realize it was called exodus in the Torah as well, figured it had some other name that translated into Exodus. Again my apologies.