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Which Ten Commandments? (Acrobat File -- print out and distribute widely)
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Home to Positive Atheism
Reference: The Ten Commandments full-length book by Joseph Lewis (644 pages)
Response: The Hebrew Ten Commandments letter from Rabbi Carvin Z. Putzopf
Perspective: 'The Ten Commandments' by Mark Twain
Perspective: 'Decalogue' Entry in The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (frames)
Perspective: Phony James Madison Quotation Regarding the Ten Commandments (frames)
Perspective: Prayer and Arrogance in Alabama (Judge Roy Moore, et al)
Perspective: When State Administers Faith Cliff Walker's March, 2000, Column
Perspective: Hang 'Em All -- Completely! by Frank Zindler, American Atheists (off site)
Perspective: A Not-So-Modest Proposal: Post The Commandments, Spare Not The Rod! by Conrad Goeringer, American Atheists (off site)

One of the best-kept secrets in the discussions on the Ten Commandments concerns the fact that (according to the story) Moses smashed the first set of tables in a fit of anger, because the Israelites chose to worship the golden calf. (That this would happen or would be told casts doubt on the whole Exodus tale, but we will not cover that here.)

As the tale goes, Moses smashed the tables of stone, and God said he'd make a new set of tables containing "the words that were on the first" (Exodus 34:1). However, as we see on the second page, the second Ten Commandments in no way resemble the first set. To popularize this knowledge is to knock the wind out of this entire move to place "The" Ten Commandments in our schools.

Positive Atheism encourages readers to print out and distribute the PDF file of the two center pages of our July, 1999, issue, and distribute it far and wide. (If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, you can download it for free. If you don't use Acrobat, the contents are reproduced in HTML 2.0 below.) Although we know that the main premise of theism is flawed, many Americans haven't thought much on these things. Thus, to show biblical discrepancies can, with many people, go further than any discussion of the main premises of theism.

A discrepancy not mentioned is that between the original Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 and the recap listed in Deuteronomy 5. Exodus 20 requires keeping the Sabbath because "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." But in Deuteronomy, Jews must "remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath [sic] day." Nothing is said about God resting after the six days it took to create the universe.

Which Ten Commandments?

Protestant	Catholic	Hebrew
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.	1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.	1. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.	2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.	2. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.	3. Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day.	3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.	4. Honour thy Father and thy Mother.	4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath in honour of the Lord thy God; on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.	5. Thou shalt not kill.	5. Honour thy father and thy mother; in order that thy days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.	6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.	6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.	7. Thou shalt not steal.	7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.	8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.	8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.	9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.	9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.	10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.	10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
King James Bible, issued by the American Bible Society.	Catholic Catechism by Peter Cardinal Gasparri, "published with Ecclesiastical approval" and bearing the imprimatur of Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop, New York. P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1932.	Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 1922.

Which Ten Commandments?

First Tables of Stone (Exodus 20) ("which Moses didst break")		Second Tables of Stone (Exodus 34) ("the words that were on the first")
1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.		1. Thou shalt worship no other god (For the Lord is a jealous god).
2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.		2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.		3. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep in the month when the ear is on the corn.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.		4. All the first-born are mine.
5. Honour your father and your mother.		5. Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh thou shalt rest.
6. You shall not kill.		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. You shall not commit adultery.		7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.
8. You shall not steal.		8. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.		9. The first of the first fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God.
10. You shall not covet.		10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.
Adapted from Microsoft Bookshelf 98		K. Budde, History of Ancient Hebrew Literature

Ten Punishments
(Let's post these in the schoolroom!)

1. Exodus 22:20: He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.

2. Leviticus 24:16: And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death.

3. Exodus 31:15: Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

4. Exodus 21:15: He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

5. Exodus 21:17: He that curseth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

6. Exodus 22:19: Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.

7. Leviticus 20:13: If a man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death.

8. Leviticus 20:10: And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

9. Mark 16:16: He that believeth not, shall be damned.

10. Malachi 2:1-4: And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, ... behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces.

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Ten Punishments was compiled by the late Jyoti Shankar, Positive Atheism's First Senior Partner, publisher of Bubbles Online Magazine.

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