merc , 11 days ago

The 10 commandments are pretty funny, even if you ignore all the differences from the different factions.

Like, there’s a commandment against bearing false witness, which is sometimes interpreted as not lying. But, it pretty specifically isn’t against lying in the original text. The modern translation of the text is more or less: “Do not testify falsely against your neighbor”. So, it’s a specific kind of lying: giving evidence as a witness in a criminal setting. So, you’re ok to lie, just not in court. Also, you’re ok to lie as long as it isn’t concerning your neighbour. What’s a neighbour? Depends. The original jewish interpretation is that it’s a member of the same religious community. Jesus tried to expand that to say everyone was your neighbour. But, arguably the original interpretation says it’s OK to give false testimony against non-jews.

Then there’s the obsession over your neighbour’s wife and stuff. The catholic version of the 10 commandments actually devotes 2 whole commandments to it. But, what’s weird is that stealing and adultery have already been covered. This (or these) commandments are about coveting. In other words, they’re trying to control not your actions but your feelings.

IMO, one of the funniest ones is “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”. It’s pretty vague, what does it mean to “remember” it? You’d think that the absolute bare minimum would be to remember which day of the week it is. But, if that’s the case, why would the jewish and christian sabbath days be different? I guess they forgot.