Ritual Decalogue

[the-3rd-parent]

I asked this on ask the apologist, but I thought I’d ask it here as well.

My Dad just came across Ex 34, which is also known as the Ritual Decalogue. Atheists use this as an argument about the unreliability of scripture since it is argued that these are the older form of the ten commandments and that the ones we are familiar with come from another source.

What do you guys know about this?

Thanks,

Angela

 

[Nita]

I don’t understand the problem. Altho it’s not as clear in Exodus as in Deuteronomy that it’s the 10 Commandments that are on the tablets of stone, nevertheless, Exodus doesn’t say that something else was written on the tablets.

Am I understanding your OP correctly - your father thinks it’s the words in Ex. 34:11-26 that were on the older stone tablets? If so, please examine the text carefully. God does tell Moses to “write these words…” - but they would have been written on something other than the two stone tablets that were to replace the ones Moses broke - for those replacement tablets were written by God and not Moses.

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.”

We know from Deut. 5:1-22 what those words were.

Deut. 5:22 “These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly (cf Ex 20:1-20) … And he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me.”

Hope this helps.

Nita

 

[the-3rd-parent]

The issue is this. After Exodus 34:1, there is a listing of ten commandments which are different from the ones we are traditional taught. They are actually ten in number, whereas the ten commandments we live in aren’t exactly ten and thus the division between them causes issues how they should be numbered. Thus the atheist argument is that these are the actual ten commandments, and that somehow in time we came to believe that these other 9 or 11 commandments which we divide into ten are the ten commandments that were written on both stones.

Its not really bothering our faith, but we were looking for an explanation of this text.

 

[jmcrae]

The issue is this. After Exodus 34:1, there is a listing of ten commandments which are different from the ones we are traditional taught.

I can only find two. The first is the prohibition against idols, which he then goes on into detail, describing how to avoid idol worship within the community. Secondly, he talks about the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy, and describes what He means by a Sabbath, showing several examples.

He also gives many promises, but it seems to be “understood” that the rest of the original Commandments are also included.

I’m not sure how you get ten from that particular passage, unless you count each example of how to follow the commandment as a separate commandment in and of itself - but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense - and I end up with more than ten, even in that case.