The Ten Commandments

Every Christian on the planet can tell you how to recognise the Ten Commandments:

(1) They are laws given to Moses by God.
(2) They are written on tablets of stone.
(3) They are called “The Ten Commandments”.

Let’s see if we can find them…


There is a list of rules in Exodus 20:3-17

Thou shalt have no other gods before me
No graven images
Don’t take god’s name in vain
Remember the Sabbath
Honor your father and your mother
Do not kill
Do not commit adultery
Do not steal
Do not bear false witness
Do not covet your neighbour’s possessions

Nearly all Protestant Christians* say that these are "The Ten Commandments" but they fit only one of the criteria: They were given to Moses by God, but they were not written in stone, and they are not called the Ten Commandments - so we'll have to keep looking.

As it happens, it is not until Exodus 24:12 that we find a set of rules written on tablets of stone.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me in the mount, and be there, and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments, which I have written.

According to the bible, Moses was up on the mountain for so long that the Israelites got sick of waiting for him, and they started worshipping a golden calf (Exodus 32:1-4) but finally, after forty days and forty nights:

Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. (Exodus 32:15)

So that’s the first two criteria filled: The laws were given to Moses by God (1) and they were written on tablets of stone (2) but they are still not called “The Ten Commandments”. And nobody knew what the rules were anyway, because as soon as Moses saw the Israelites worshipping the golden calf, he:

“cast the tables out of his hands and brake them.” (Exodus 32:19)

It's pretty certain, though, that "thou shalt not kill" was not on the list because Moses now set about murdering all of his opponents! He called on the Levites to kill everyone who had worshipped the calf - and the Levites spent the rest of the day, merrily slaughtering all of their friends and relations.

"and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men." (Exodus 32:25-29)

Then, in Exodus chapter 34, God decides to make another set of stone tablets to replace the ones that Moses had smashed earlier:

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 on the first tables, which thou brakest. (Exodus 34:1)

And the words he wrote are recorded in Exodus 34:14-26: 

Thou shalt worship no other god
Thou shalt make thee no molten gods
The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep.
The firstborn ox and sheep belong to God.
On the seventh day thou shalt rest
Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks
Thrice in a year shall all your men children appear before the Lord
Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.
The first of the first fruits belong to God
Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

Also, for the first time in the bible, we are told that these are, indeed, the ten commandments - the words written on the tablets of stone are described as:

...the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. (Exodus 34:28)

So we have:

    Laws given to Moses by God (criterion 1)
    Those laws are written on tablets of stone (criterion 2)
    And they are called The Ten Commandments (criterion 3)


Our search is over. We have found the ten commandments hidden away in Exodus 34:14-28 where most Christians have never seen them !

-----

The apologists say the laws in Exodus 34 are "ritual" laws, while the "ethical" laws in Exodus 20 are the real ten commandments. They go on and on about it, but when it comes down to the bottom-line, the situation is perfectly clear: The rules in Exodus 34 are, indeed, the Ten Commandments - the bible says so!

 * Catholics and Lutherans take their Ten Commandments from Deuteronomy chapter five.