Was God wrong with 'The 10 Commandments'?

Question

I was listening to George Carlin's rant about the 10 commandments. Funny-ness aside, I think he has a point.

Suggesting that 'thou shall not commit adultery' and 'thou shall not covet thy neighbour's wife' could both be combined into just one for example, into:

'Thou shall always be faithful'

That most definitely works. It puts across the exact same message and implications, but with fewer words so it's easier to remember and follow.

How can a mere man, like George Carlin, come up with a more efficient way of doing things then God? Surely God would have realised he could have cut them down himself (knowing everything).

Answer 1

You're right, God's version is rather pessimistic whereas George Carlin's version is concise and positive (ie. shall vs. shall not).

Well, outside of the bible, which was interpreted by man, we have no proof that God gave us the Ten Commandments. It's not that I don't believe he did or he didn't, it's just that even if he did, man still interpreted it. It wouldn't be the first time humans misinterpreted something from history!

Answer 2

A look at the exact wording of the commandments shows their differences better.

Exodus 20:14 (7th commandment) "You shall not commit adultery."

Exodus 20:17 (10th commandment) "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

So you can see that the 7th is talking about what we *do*, while the 10th is talking about what we *want* to do. This is so we can't say "well, I didn't commit adultury, I only wanted to!"

More details can be found in Matthew Henry's "Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible."
...on the seventh commandment:
"The seventh commandment concerns our own and our neighbour’s chastity: Thou shalt not commit adultery, v. 14. This is put before the sixth by our Saviour (Mk. 10:19): Do not commit adultery, do not kill; for our chastity should be as dear to us as our lives, and we should be as much afraid of that which defiles the body as of that which destroys it. This commandment forbids all acts of uncleanness, with all those fleshly lusts which produce those acts and war against the soul, and all those practices which cherish and excite those fleshly lusts, as looking, in order to lust, which, Christ tells us, is forbidden."

...on the tenth commandment:
"The tenth commandment strikes at the root: Thou shalt not covet, v. 17. The foregoing commands implicitly forbid all desire of doing that which will be an injury to our neighbour; this forbids all inordinate desire of having that which will be a gratification to ourselves. "O that such a man’s house were mine! Such a man’s wife mine! Such a man’s estate mine!’’ This is certainly the language of discontent at our own lot, and envy at our neighbour’s; and these are the sins principally forbidden here."

Answer 3

Yes, the 10 commandments could be streamlined. Especially when you read on and find out that there are about a hundred little commandments after the big ten. These are also supposed to be from God and they are mostly a rehash of the laws of Hammurabi mixed with some dietary laws. When I found this out was when I started to seriously question who wrote this stuff.

Answer 4

Adultery and coveting are two different things, so I think God was right on the money. I think it is pretty easy to remember and follow.....but George Carlin is pretty funny.

Answer 5

Have you ever thought that there is a reason that there are 2 commandments about coveting? It leads to most of the others, as in David's case...he was idol, saw bathsheeba, coveted her, commited adultery, then lied (false testimony) and murdered Uriah to cover up his other sins...and over all..broke the 1st by not keeping God first in his life..God does everything for a reason, and the 10 commandments are there to keep us out of trouble, they light our path so we do not get hurt.

Answer 6

Coveting and committing aren't the same thing. One is thought(lusting in your heart - like Jimmy Carter did), the other is action(like Bill Clinton did). Perhaps God meant that we should neither covet in our minds nor commit with our bodies. Maintaining faithfulness does allow us to covet in our hearts! Don't do either, the 10 Commandments say.

Answer 7

I loved Carlin's theory on God being subject to natural laws and therefore having to send angels to do things--George Carlin is a genius!

Answer 8

Remember one thing, does anyone really know what God told Moses?
Chances are the translations were changed. And the Catholic church manipulates everything to suit themselves.
In the Book Conversations with God, Neil Donald Walsh called them the 10 commitments. Read his version; I believe you'll find them to be a better version.

Answer 9

Actually the verse reads:
Exo 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house - wife, etc. - Covet signifies to desire or long after, in order to enjoy as a property the person or thing coveted. He breaks this command who by any means endeavors to deprive a man of his house or farm by taking them over his head, as it is expressed in some countries; who lusts after his neighbor’s wife, and endeavors to ingratiate himself into her affections, and to lessen her husband in her esteem; and who endeavors to possess himself of the servants, cattle, etc., of another in any clandestine or unjustifiable manner.
This is a most excellent moral precept, the observance of which will prevent all public crimes; for he who feels the force of the law that prohibits the inordinate desire of any thing that is the property of another, can never make a breach in the peace of society by an act of wrong to any of even its feeblest members.

As you can see, there is a distinction between the two commandments. The one above is more about the crime of identity theft through the assault on another's holdings.

Carlin is mistaken in his hermeneutics. Like many, he takes one or two verses and attempts to form an entire theology around them without carefully examining the entire biblical messages and contexts to synthesize a correct interpretation.

Answer 10

The ten condiments are just a poor ripoff of the Code of Hammurabi which predated the buybull myth by thousands of years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

On top of that, the myth of how humans obtained the Code of Hammurabi was also ripped off by the godbots. "Hammurabi went into the hills, and Marduk shone light down, burning the code into stone, which Hammurabi gave to the people as law...."


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