Ten Commandments - Why nothing about how to treat others?

by jws 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jws

  There are many words in the bible, but very few of them claim to be written by god himself.

  Some of them claim to be spoken by god. People say the books are inspired by god. But what does inspired really mean? Charles Manson was inspired by a Beatles song to lead his followers to go kill people. Doesn't mean the Beatles had anything to do with it. Inspired doesn't mean dictated.

  But there's one time (actually he did this twice), that god actually wrote things down when he gave Israel the 10 commandments.

  The JWs like to say Jesus summed these up by giving us two laws. Love your god and love your neighbor.

  But when god actually put his own finger to tablet, why did he NEVER say anything about how to treat each other? Jesus said love your neighbor. God mostly gave commands about worshiping him. And a couple of others that give NO practical advice on how to treat one another.
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  stillin

  Not sure I get where you're going with this. "Honoring " your father and mother is a way of acting towards them. But it's true that mostly it's a list of what NOT to do.
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  jws

  Where do the 10 commandments say anything about your father and mother? There's 8 commandments about different types of worship, one about the sabbath and another about cooking. NOTHING about your neighbor or your parents.
  
  The actual 10 commandments god wrote on tablets (twice).
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  stillin

  Read them.
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  jws

  I did. What are you reading? I'm talking about the stone tablets that god supposedly actually wrote on. Says NOTHING about honoring your father and mother. Why is it atheists know more about the bible than Christians?
  
  Where are you reading from?
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  stillin

  Well, I don't have any stone tablets, but if I'm correct, the 5th commandment says to honor your father and mother. Again, what is the point?

  Also, the things that we DON'T do are a guideline to better relationships with each other. NOT stealing from each other, or killing, or lusting after each other's mates. All in all, not a bad set of ideas.
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  jws

  Paraphrasing. And it's kind of unclear exactly what the numbering is, but from what I gather:

  1. Do not worship any other god.

  2. Don't make a treaty with those who live in a land (and other dealings with nations) - OK, this *might* be kind of about your neighbor.

  3. Do not make any idols

  4. Celebrate the festival of unleavened bread.

  5. The first offspring of every womb belongs to me.

  6. Observe the Sabbath.

  7. Celebrate the festival of Weeks and the festival of Ingathering.

  8. Do not offer a blood sacrifice with anything containing yeast.

  9. Bring the best firstfruits of your soil to the house of the lord.

  10. Do not boil a goat in it's mother's milk.

  Where is there anything about honoring your parents?
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  stillin

  WI don't know how to answer that. These Commandments don't match up with my Ten Commandments. Exodus 20, whichever bible you prefer.
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  jws

  Exodus 34 clearly says god is carving new stone tablets to replace the ones Moses broke and THOSE are the 10 commandments.
  
  So these are actually, if the story is true, words so important they had to be carved by god himself. But it's all about how to worship. Nothing practical like don't kill each other, love your neighbor, honor your parents, anything like that. God felt they had to be written down. Imagine that. How sacred and awesome that would be. An artifact from god himself. His own rules, but nothing practical. Not even things like washing your hands to help prevent the spread of germs and disease. It's mostly me, me, me.
• 

  jws

  And that's the problem with most Christians. They want to put up these monuments with these statues of stone tablets, but they don't even know what the stone tablets said. All of these Christians would find the TRUE stone tablets a little too Jewish for their taste.
  
  Most Christians think of some other spoken commandments in Exodus 20. But where does it say those were the 10 commandments? It doesn't unless you're looking at some page annotations at the top added by the publisher in modern times. It calls the commandments in Exodus 34 the 10 commandments.