4 Comments

1. Pennie Cranham on 02/11/2015 at 8:47 AM

   Hi Grant,
   I wanted to run an idea by you! It is something I ‘maybe’ saw a few years ago and since then have seen the same number pattern!!!! I hear you take the view that the commandments correspond to each other in two’s, its a historical view it seems.

   However I am wondering whether there are 9 commandments plus a 10th which is the Schma that overarches and joins them all together…a bit like the 9 plagues with the 10th doing the same

   You see, to me, what is accepted as the first commandment is a statement not a command, a statement that introduces us to who God is and what He has done.

   I am then thinking that just like the plagues there are three lots of three.

   1. No faces upon God’s face….and then goes on to describe the details of No carved images
   2. Not lifiting up God’s face to emptiness
   3. Keep the Shabbat Holy because God is Holy and its the first thing He called Holy

   4. Honour your father and mother
   5 You shall not murder
   6. You shall not commit adultery

   7.You shall not steal
   8 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour
   9.You shall not covet

   10. Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength

   The trio’s to me seem to gel much more comfortably together than the duo’s
   What do you think?
   pennie

   Reply
   • L. Grant Luton on 02/27/2015 at 4:32 PM

     Dear Pennie, There is just one problem with your theory about there being just nine commandments — the Torah itself tells us that there are ten. The passages are Exodus 34:28, Deut.4:13 & 10:4. These passage make it clear that these 10 were spoken “on the mountain” and written on the “two tablets” thus not allowing for the Shema to be the tenth commandment.

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2. Pennie Cranham on 03/03/2015 at 9:53 AM

   Hi Grant,
   I didnt quite see it as a theory but rather asking the question within maybe seeing the hidden. I can still only see the ‘first’ as a declaration when I believe the rest begin with the word ‘Not’?…I just struggle with how the first is a command/instruction ‘word’……..Anyway, you know where I am coming from on this and truly not wanting to make anything fit a theory…..I simply wondered if there was a pattern there that might be interesting to explore…..P

   Reply
   • L. Grant Luton on 03/06/2015 at 12:26 PM

     Pennie, You are correct that the first of the ten is not a commandment. But then, the Bible never refers to these as “the ten commandments”. In the Hebrew they are always referred to as the Deseret devarim, the “ten words”. Through the centuries they rabbis have aligned these ten statements with the ten utterances through which God created the world in Genesis 1. There the words “and God said…” (voyager Elohim) appear nine times, but they imply that this phrase should also appear in verse one thus bringing the count to ten. Again (if the rabbis are right), the first use is hidden. Interesting thought!

     Shalom,
     Grant

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