"The Commandment Mystery"
Here's why I need Bible study. It appears that there are two versions of the Ten Commandments, and each is just a little different from the other. This further complicates the issue of their display of the laws in public buildings. Consider this from Newsweek at MSNBC.com (links added):
"Most public displays of the Ten Commandments ... are based on Exodus 20, verses 2-14, where God speaks directly to the Israelites. But if you grew up as I did, studying the Bible in its original Hebrew, you know that there's a second, equally valid version in Deuteronomy 5:6-18. And the two versions differ. In Exodus, God says to remember the Sabbath because he created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. In Deuteronomy, Moses recounts that God told the Israelites to observe the Sabbath because the Lord liberated them from Egyptian bondage. So which is it? The traditional Jewish answer is that God uttered both versions simultaneously, but fallible human ears heard it two separate ways. So how can you post one version or the other and declare it the Ineffable Word of God? You can't."Of course, this ignores the historic perspective that I favor. Display of the Ten Commandments doesn't establish a religion - one of several tests of the 1st Amendment (see below) test on several grounds. Rather it promotes a better understanding of the foundations of government through an examination of it's historical basis.
"So rather than fighting about the Ten Commandments, perhaps we should turn to Micah 6:8. The Lord, says the prophet, requires us 'only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.' To which all of us can say, amen."
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
