Sunday, March 15, 2015

The Entire New Testament Makes Sense With This ONE Assumption ...

That the memorial 'Ten Commandment' plaques that were in the synagogues at the beginning of the Common Era contained the 'short form' known to Philo of Alexandria.


This is the answer to everything - and is inevitably missed in any discussion of those, mentioned in the early rabbinic literature - who said 'only the Ten Utterances came from heaven' - in other words the Pentateuch was of subordinate authority.

We still have memorials in the synagogues with the 'short form' commandments.  Why does it matter:
  1. making the Pentateuch 'less than holy' is significant in itself.  The position could be described as 'antinomian' in the strictest sense - but importantly 'antinomian' without being necessary anti-Jewish or anti-Yahwehist or anti-Israelite.  
  2. it finally explains why Jesus was healing on the Sabbath and doing all sorts of other 'offensive' things on the Sabbath 
Just think about it.  Healing on the Sabbath can be argued to be contradicting the ordinance as preserved in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
This is all very clear cut - or so it would seem.  You can't do anything on the Sabbath that would constitute work.  But let's be honest with ourselves - the original 'utterance' (one of ten) wasn't not this long.  There is no way that this was all squeezed into a space on the tablet carried (or alleged to be carried) by Moses.  The original 'short' utterance was simply 'guard the Sabbath' so the clash in the gospel is clearly 'the true commandment' from heaven displayed in the synagogues and the 'false' retread written down in the Pentateuch.

The same applies for the original utterance 'do not lust' versus “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor" as is evidenced from Clement of Alexandria's treatment (and Philo before him). In Clement's commentary it is absolutely clear that Jesus uses 'do not lust' to justify asceticism.

But once again the evidence is clear - echoed in Paul's statement to the same effect - Christianity developed from a pre-existent understanding that the Pentateuch came from man and what was given by God - the ten utterances - were preserved in the gathering places of Hebrews but not in the written page of that text.


Email stephan.h.huller@gmail.com with comments or questions.


 
Stephan Huller's Observations by Stephan Huller
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