Intent of the Ten commandments
Jews and especially fundamentalist Christians hail the Ten Commandments as the greatest set of universal laws ever conceived for mankind to live in peace and brotherhood. They couldn't be further from the truth, as this report will demonstrate. As an example, I found a website which has this as its preamble.
We the sensible, righteous and God fearing citizens of the united states, in order to perform our divinely established responsibilities of honoring the one and only true GOD and make righteous and just laws that work for the good of our fellow man, insure the proper punishment of all true criminal heathens who deny God, insure the reward of the righteous who honor God, and secure the blessings of righteous liberty unto ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the TEN COMMANDMENTS as the supreme law of the land and the Constitution of the United Sates of America.
Its bigotry towards heathens and homosexuals is truly stunning; these people have a dictatorial mentality. I don't know how many people there are like this, but they make it clear that they oppose the First Amendment's separation of church and state. My gratitude goes to the Bill of Rights' Founders for their good sense to keep the United States free of religious persecution.
Just a scan of the Ten Commandments shows that only four of them have to do with immoral actions. The rest mandate mind control.
1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make any graven images or any likeness of anything in
heaven.
3. You shall not take the name of God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness.
10. You shall not covet.
Tribal war
Far from being articles of peace or a universal code of morals, the Ten Commandments and the law were articles war. They were intended to unify the Israelites under a code of thought and behavior. As a quid pro quo, if the Israelites obeyed the law, Yahweh would guarantee them the land he promised when they fought for it.
The Israelites have seen his power. If they keep Yahweh's covenant, they shall be his possession and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
3Thus you shall say to the
house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel:
4You have seen what I did
to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to
myself.
5Now therefore, if you
will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession
among all peoples; for all the earth is mine,
6and you shall be to me
a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which
you shall speak to the children of Israel." (Ex. 19:3-5)
Yahweh will destroy these nations so the Israelites can dispossess them. In return, the Israelites shall do according to all the commandments.
3
4 5 6 (Deut. 31:4-6)When the Israelites pass over the Jordon to take possession and live in it, they are to be careful to do all the statutes and ordinances.
31
32 (Deut. 11:31-32)If the Ten Commandments were truly a code of conduct meant to ensure peaceful behavior, then it is only reasonable that the man Yahweh designated to promulgate his laws be a man of peace. Far from it, he was a man of war, a brutal murderer. His crimes against humanity have been catalogued in Moses the Jewish Hitler and Moses' Articles of War.
The Golden Calf incident gives a taste for what Moses was like. When he came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments and saw the Israelites dancing around a golden calf, he went into such a rage that he broke the two tablets. Then he had the calf ground into powder and made the Israelites drink a concoction mixed with the powder.
19
20 (Ex. 32:19-20)Next, he ordered his Levite priests, as the price of ordaining themselves to serve God, to kill their brothers, friends and neighbors. Three thousand died that day.
27
28 (Ex. 32:27-28)If that wasn't enough, God sent a plague upon the whole tribe. His high priest Aaron, who made the calf, went untouched.
35
(Ex. 32:36)His successor, Joshua carried on the Mosaic tradition of murderous rampage.
The Israelites slaughtered 12,000 men and women of Ai. Joshua burned their King Ai and hanged his body on a tree until evening.
24
25 26 27 28 29To commemorate their victory, Joshua built an altar to the God of Israel and placed a copy of the Law of Moses written on stone.
30
311 32 (Josh. 8:30-32)For more on Joshua's murder spree see Joshua the Conqueror.
Final analyses
As this report clearly indicates, Yahweh was not a God of mankind; he was a tribal war god. The Ten Commandments were not intended to apply to all mankind. They were intended to unify the Israelites against outsiders who because of their differences were regarded as enemies. We have good reason to be grateful that the Ten Commandments are not embedded in the U.S. Constitution.
End