The 10 Commandments?

The Church Of Truth™
Free persons of all faiths from the tyranny of their religion
The Bible is Wrong About the 10 Commandments
The Bible gives us two versions of the 10 commandments. The first set of “thou shalt nots” that
most people mistakenly think are the  “10 commandments” were recited by God to Moses, and
then from Moses (or from God?, the Bible says God spake)  to “them”.
Exodus
19:25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven    above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth me..
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5.  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9.Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass,nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

So what’s this about? Contradiction already. Moses spake…. No! God spake. None-the-less these “shalt not” commandments were recited by either God or Moses.  The words of the conventional wisdom 10 commandments WERE SPOKEN! These “conventional wisdom” 10 commandments were merely spoken.  Get it? Spoken!  If these words were spoken by God|Moses, who wrote them down? On what? How is it that we have them now? There is nothing about stone tablets in this first narrative. So, we don’t have the stone tablets referred to below but we have the above spoken words ? Not Likely!

BTW – 10th Commandment Condones Slavery
The conventional wisdom 10th  commandment is abominable. It equates wives and manservants and maidservants with houses, oxen, asses and any other property that is thy neighbor’s. Wives and slaves are property, no doubt.

The 2nd Version
The next time Moses received the 10 commandments, after 40 days and 40 nights on the mount,  There are stone tablets written by “the finger of God”.

32:15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
32:16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

However, Moses dropped and broke the first set of stones writ by the finger of God!. Again we find it interesting that Moses would deign to intentionally break STONES written on by God and suffer no consequence!

32:19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

So… we don’t really know what was on those stones; but we are soon going to find out!

Finally, the REAL 10 commandments
34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

34:4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
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.

Exodus 34:14-26

1. For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3. 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.
4. 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.
.5. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
6. 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.
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.

34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
Wait a minute! WHO wrote the words? God said “I will write”; this verse says Moses wrote. Another piece of nonsense!

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

Read that carefully. Here is the bible stating in no uncertain terms that the above commandments  are the REAL 10 commandments as dictated, (“write thou these words”),  by God to Moses.

You didn’t know that did you. There’s a lot in the bible you don’t know.

Lest you believe that this is from an odd-ball translation, read 19 different bible translations HERE . They all say the same thing “…these are the 10 commandments”.

I had a Jewish friend claim that “it only says 10 commandments in the Christian bibles but when you read the Hebrew, it doesn’t say 10 commandments. He was wrong… HERE it is in Hebrew. It says “these are the 10 commandments.

WAIT! WHAT WAS THAT?
This section has been challenged by Mitchell below. He says I am misreading the concept of “redeem” and “consecration”. He is probably correct. But, I am leaving this in. You decide what this nonsense means. It is not absolutely clear to me that you are not to kill your first kid.

You are to sacrifice your first born son to God right along with your ass or a lamb instead of your ass. It says so, right here in Exodus 34:19-20.

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.

Lest you think I am misquoting this passage, you are invited to see it represented in 19 different translations in the Bible Hub.

NO…. you did not misread or misunderstand. God makes it clear in other verses that he means you should sacrifice your firstborn son!

Exodus 13:2
“Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.“

Exodus 22:29
“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. “You must give me the firstborn of your sons.

“But wait!” my Jewish friend exclaims. “That’s not what it says in the Hebrew” he says. “Yes it is!” we say. Have a look for yourself.

Exodus 34:20 in Hebrew
Exodus 13:2 in Hebrew
Exodus 22:29 in Hebrew

And then of course this is confirmed in Leviticus and Numbers.

Leviticus 27:28-29 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD. None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.

What gibberish but it appears that something that is first born is surely going to be put to death

Numbers 3:13 Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the LORD.

Ahh, much more to the point; all the firstborn in Israel (both man and beast) belong to the LORD, just as they did in Egypt.

Analysis – For Critical Thinkers Only
Whereas the “conventional wisdom” 10 commandments have four, common sense moral prohibitions, the REAL 10 commandments are total, utter and complete nonsense. The real 10 commandments are even less prohibitive of amoral behavior than are those commonly accepted 10 commandments.

So, we have two, maybe three different versions of the 10 commandments. Which one is “true”.  One of the versions is wrong and therefore the Bible is wrong. How is it that conventional wisdom gives us the version that was recited (Moses went down and spake/ god spake ) to the Children of Israel? Who wrote them down on what? There never was a written record of those 10 commandments that are now recognized as THE 10 commandments. The first stoney version was broken. There is no question that the bible is wrong on this matter.

Wait, There’s More
There are three radically different accounts of what happened after Moses angrily smashed the tablets containing the 10 commandments when he came down from Mount Sinai. These accounts are well discussed in “What Really Happened After Moses Broke The Tablets?” written by Thomas McDaniel from Palmer Seminary. Briefly, here are the variations:

According to Exodus 32;20, Moses made the people drink water contaminated with the toxic powder from the ashes of the golden calf, seemingly for the purpose of fatally poisoning all who had worshiped the golden calf. And then he turned brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor. Some loving God what?
According to Exodus 32:35, God sent a plague upon the people,
According to Deut 9:21, Moses threw the toxic ashes into a brook so that the waters would carry the ashes into oblivion—without anyone being made to drink a  concocted toxic beverage.
Again contradictory stories in the inerrant bible. Can’t be. The Bible is wrong about two of the above fables.

The Most Egregious Contradiction
6. Thou shall not kill.
Pretty clear. God commands us not to kill!

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

And what is the penalty for violating the fourth commandment?

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Exodus 35:2

And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. … And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. Numbers 15:32-36

Well isn’t that just peachy! God commands us not to kill but in the next breath commands us to kill anyone who does anything on the Sabbath. Can ANYONE spin this nonsense into sense? I thought not.

Another Example of the Lord Speaking Out of Both Sides of His Wholly Mouth
God told Moses to kill. Even though it was Moses who purposely broke the stones containing the words of God, God wants those who thought Moses was gone forever to be killed.

“And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. Exodus 32:27

OMG – more nonsense. How can anyone believe this rubbish?

These contradictions are all that is needed to prove the bible is wrong. According to God, EITHER one should not kill OR  one should kill those who don’t believe you. Apparently it will “bestow a blessing upon you” Ex 32:29 if you do kill. Everyone knows it is wrong to kill. Why can’t the Bible get it right?

Wrong By Hubris
And do you think that prior to hearing Moses recite the commandments, everyone thought that it was OK to commit adultery, murder, theft and perjury? There were already laws against all of those transgression codified by Confucius, Hammurabi and others. Ancient Egyptian Laws from which the Children of Israel had “escaped” were far superior to what God told Moses. By the way, in the next three books of the Pentateuch, God commits, commissions and condones 143 separate instances of rape, murder, infanticide, genocide, slavery and torture.

Wrong By Impossibility
WAIT A MINUTE!

“And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount….And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.” Exodus 34:2-4

“The two tables of stone”. According to the Bava Batra*  the length and width of each of the Tablets was six Tefachim, and each was three Tefachim thick – respectively roughly 20 and ten inches. That’s 4000 cubic inches of stone for each tablet! Mount Sinai displays a ring complex[4] that consists of alkaline Granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. With all that considered, let’s take the middle ground – the weight of the rock in that area then is 3500 pounds per cubic yard.

Therefore, the weight of the one (of the two) rocks that Moses allegedly carried is 300 pounds (4000/46,656 * 3500). Since Moses was carrying TWO stone tablets, the total weight of Moses’ load was 600 pounds! That’s a show stopper right there. We have no indication that Moses had super strength. This is the same old goat who needed help to even hold his arms up so God’s “children” would keep on killing some people.

“Come up in the morning… the top of the mount“. Mount Sinai is over 7400 ft high! At a 4% grade, it would take 34 miles to reach an elevation of 7400 feet.  In addition, as Moses climbed higher, the the density of oxygen in the air decreases in direct proportion to increasing altitude. Moses was at least 80 (according to the bible) at this time. No one, let alone an 80 year old,  is capable of walking  34 miles up to  a 7500 foot elevation with stones weighing over 600 pounds  “in his hand”.

Now, about the descent.

Really? After 40 days without food or water? Think about that. Forty days without food or water and yet Moses is able to walk a 34 mile route down from an elevation of 7500 feet with two tables totaling 600 pounds?

No way! It could not happen, it did not happen. This is a man made story by ignorant Jews in the marketing department of The Children of Israel.

WAIT A MINUTE
With what did Moses “write” the 10 commandments? A sharpie? Probably not. Coal? Not in the middle of the desert. Quill pen and India ink? Not invented yet. A chisel! Yeah, that’s it a Stanley chisel purchased from Lowes (or Home Depot). Wait…. chisels only work on wood. The Egyptians shaped stones in the pyramids by pounding rock on rock, but that wouldn’t have worked for Moses because he was etching intricate hieroglyphic (not Greek or Arabic) characters into stone. Hmm … We have no idea how Moses  “…wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant”. Don’t say that God wrote them because the last we’re told, Moses is doing the writing. It’s a wonder it only took Moses 40 days. No wonder there was no time for food or water.

WAIT A MINUTE!
Forty days without water? Forty days without food? No one can live for 40 days without water.  You can say that God was in charge of allowing Moses to live 40 days without food and water but then what is the big deal? It isn’t even worth mentioning if it’s a God miracle. So, this is just one more show stopper in the 10 commandments fable. Another proof the bible is wrong.

WAIT A MINUTE!
Where is it? A document of stone written by Moses would surely be worth preserving at all costs. Presumably there were two copies of it, albeit one was broken by Moses (why didn’t God kill Moses for breaking the stones that HE had written on? Heck, God had a man killed for collecting sticks on the sabbath). We digress.  Yes the temple was destroyed several times over but the stones written on by God and/or Moses surely would have been removed prior to the destruction. The fact that there is no trace of stone written on by God or Moses is a strong indicator that they never existed. Wasn’t the Ark of the Covenant moved around until it was lost?

WAIT A MINUTE!
“To the Children of Israel? Biblical scholars estimate that the size of the Exodus would have been more than 1.5 MILLION (who would have formed an 85 mile long column, 10 abreast, 3 feet between rows) people, the same number of people who live in Philadelphia.  How could Moses possibly have communicated with all of them?   He couldn’t. He didn’t. Bible is wrong.

Wrong By Omission
The 10 Commandments fail to prohibit atrocities that have been universally recognized throughout the ages as equal to or more heinous than lying, coveting, stealing or murder.

Why are not these the first six commandments ….

Thou shall not enslave.
Thou shall not torture.
Thou shall not kidnap.
Thou shall not molest children.
Thou shall not rape women.
Thou shall not commit genocide (even though I, your Lord,  did many times)
Almost universally, people will identify slavery, torture and kidnapping as the most heinous of acts one person can perpetrate on another person.
Why are these heinous acts… slavery, torture, kidnapping, child molestation, rape not included in God’s list of proscribed behaviors?

Why, instead of “Thou shall not enslave“,
do we have “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God“?
Why, instead of “Thou shall not torture“,
do we have “Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel.“?
Why, instead of “Thou shall not kidnap“,
do we have “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.“?
Why, instead of “Thou shall not molest children“,
do we have the opposite  “All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.“? i.e. kill your firstborn son.
Why instead of “Thou shall not rape women” do we have
Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
Why are the worst possible crimes against humanity ignored in favor of homage to God? Nowhere in the bible is there any admonishment not to do any of the above barbaric, savage atrocities.

10th Commandment Condones Slavery, Treats Women As Chattel
In the first set of unwritten, “conventional wisdom” 10 commandments, the tenth “commandment” condones behavior we find reprehensible: women are seen as chattel, no different than the house, the oxen and the ass or any other object the neighbor owns. Servitude is condoned and protected (thou shalt not covet ….his manservant, nor his maidservant).  In fact slavery is condoned in both the old and new testaments. God even gives instructions on “How To Sell Your Daughter Into Slavery” (Exodus 21:7-8). And yes, we know the New Testament uses the word “servant’ but the behavior described, that is, ownership of another person,  is slavery!

A loving god would have included these despicable acts in his prohibitions. So, whether or not you believe the fable of the 10 commandments, you have to see that no truly loving God, wishing the best for his children, would have failed to prohibit the worst kinds of human deprivation. Don’t steal, don’t lie, …. ,  these are better than don’t molest children?

Summary
We have just provided numerous examples, in just this one story of the 10 commandments, where the bible is in error, e.g. it is wrong! Only one is needed to falsify the bible. Take your pick. All of the examples can withstand any spin the apologists want to apply.

Q.E.D.
* Bava Batra – the third of the three tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin.