Problems with the 10 commandments

[isacatholic]

I saw on a website that said that Moses smashed the first ten commandments when he realized that the jews were worshipping another god and that God instructed him to write down on the second stone words containing “the words that were on the first” (Exodus 34:1). However the second Ten Commandments in no way resemble the first set.

econd Tables of Stone (Exodus 34)
(“the words that were on the first”)

1. Thou shalt worship no other god (For the Lord is a jealous god).
2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep in the month when the ear is on the corn.
4. All the first-born are mine.
5. Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh thou shalt rest.
6. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.
8. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning
9. The first of the first fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God.
10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.

Ive always thought these were just more commandments but Ive also heard the story of the smashing of the commandments. Did they really consider these to be a copy of the first ten commandments?

 

[wardrandolph]

I think the 10 Commandments of chapter 20 are laws dealing with personal relationships that our Lord explained is fullfilled in two:1:Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.#2.Love thy neighbor as thyself.The laws in ch.34 are religious laws for the Jews.Our lord Jesus gave a new commandment,that is to Love oneanother as I(Jesus)have loved you.This is sacrificial love.

 

[Nita]

I saw on a website that said that Moses smashed the first ten commandments when he realized that the jews were worshipping another god and that God instructed him to write down on the second stone words containing “the words that were on the first” (Exodus 34:1). However the second Ten Commandments in no way resemble the first set.

econd Tables of Stone (Exodus 34)
(“the words that were on the first”)

1. Thou shalt worship no other god (For the Lord is a jealous god).
2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep in the month when the ear is on the corn.
4. All the first-born are mine.
5. Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh thou shalt rest.
6. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.
8. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning
9. The first of the first fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God.
10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.

Ive always thought these were just more commandments but Ive also heard the story of the smashing of the commandments. Did they really consider these to be a copy of the first ten commandments?

The commands you list in your post, were additional commands written by Moses per God’s instruction (Ex 34:27 And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words; …”). The Ten Commandments on the stone tablets were written by God -

both the first time:
Ex. 31:18 And He gave to Moses, … the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. (See also Deut 5:22 below)

and the second time:
*Ex. 34:1 The LORD said to Moses, "Cut two tables of stone like the first; and *I ** will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which you broke."
Deut 10:1-2 "At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Hew two tables of stone… And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ "

Note especially that Scripture informs us the second set of stone tablets had the same words inscribed on them as the first set.

We know which words were inscribed on the tables from the Deuteronomy 5:22 passage, which comes right after the listing of the Ten Commandments:
Deut 5:22"These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me."

I found it interesting that God first gave the commandments orally to all the people. (Ex 20:1-17), but they became frightened by all the thunder and lightning and asked Moses to act as intermediary. (Ex 20:18-19 …the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.”

 

[NHInsider]

Just for clarity, Jesus “new” commandment was “Love one another” was in itself a re-statement of Leviticus 19:18 as the commandment he defined as the greatest was a restatement of Deut. 6:5. Jesus said He came to fulfill the law.

There are numerous variations of the ten commandments throughout the Pentateuch – (obviously the Israelites, like the rest of us, needed to be reminded!). There are also expansions, applications, if you will, of the commandments to the life experiences of the Israelites.

We can’t know precisely which words were inscribed on the tablets because we don’t have the tablets to examine. We have written copies of earlier copies of what had been passed down orally about what had been written on the tablets. This need not threaten our faith because our faith is not in the words on the stone, our faith is in the Living Word who came down from heaven.

 

[Nita]

We can’t know precisely which words were inscribed on the tablets because we don’t have the tablets to examine. We have written copies of earlier copies of what had been passed down orally about what had been written on the tablets. This need not threaten our faith because our faith is not in the words on the stone, our faith is in the Living Word who came down from heaven.

If you read Deut 5: 1-22, it tells you the words that were inscribed on the tablets.