The ten commandments

[Annna]

1. god at the centre of my life: OK not too difficult
2. no other gods: got it
3. do not misuse his name: hard to break a bad habit but doable.
4. keep the sabbath holy: Hmm, some of it
5. respect and honour my parents: not a problem.
6. Not kill or want to: ok with that
7. No adultary (ok) not even lust (tricky).
8. Not steal anything: Not even a pen! harder than you think
9. Never ever lie: Soooo difficult
10. Crave what is not yours..... ditto

What do others think, does anyone manage to live like this? What are todays 10 or can they never change?

[JockSporran]

Buddhists have only 5 commandments (or precepts, as they are called):

Don't kill
Don't screw around
Don't steal
Don't tell lies
Don't abuse alcohol or drugs

Much simpler, though even these are not always easy to obey.

[jno]

it's not never lie so much as don't slander people, which is reasonably doable.

Incidentally, I learnt no other gods as the first commandment, not making idols as the second. 'I am the lord' was just preamble. This is the usual Protestant reading, I think.

[JockSporran]

Wizard - come on, don't do this to us. Tell us where to check it out! This sounds amazing!

[naomi24]

Wiz, are you talking about Deuteronomy?

[Annna]

Hello Wizard. I see what you mean. Very confusing. The Ex34 Commandments seem very Jewish and explain a lot of their rituals.

Are the 10 we are taught as relevant today as they were before? Do we need to update them, after all a lot of what was written, has been updated (reinterpreted) to be more pertinent to todays society? These really do seem too rigid, hard and undoable.... are we doomed to fail?

[naomi24]

Thanks for that Wiz. I was thinking Deuteronomy, but in retrospect, the bit I was thinking of is more about punishment than law.

Annna, some of the Ten Commandments are relevant to civilised society not only today, but in any age - but by no means all.

[naomi24]

Deuteronomy 5 basically repeats the Ten Commandments, 6 explains them a bit more, but I was originally thinking of 21/22. And then there are all the curses in 27.