Yaweh was one of the sons of El in Caananite religion, which has the same Noah myth, and the religion/people is based on one of his son’s decendants. El was accepted by Greeks as the same god as Zeus. Many other Caananite polytheistic gods had Greek equivalents.
When Moses wrote the tablets, he was basically doing a religious coup to claim the Hebrew/Israelite “subgod” was the primary god. Denouncing Idolatry, and “thou shalt not covet” was also a rebelion against the main/historical Phoenecian/Caananite religion to when Israelites war against Phoenecians “do not covet their idols, destroy them”.
The historical context here is really interesting, but this line is a head scratcher. A) god didn’t write the tablets, Moses did it himself, B) tacit support for historicity of Moses. It’s like not the religious viewpoint, but not the secular one either. Though I may be splitting hairs about a nonessential clause here.
In the Bible story God made the first set, but they were destroyed by Moses in a meltdown. Moses had to carve the rewritten replacements which are the ones that get written down.
Regardless of whether someone thinks Moses is historical, the story itself is a coup of sorts.
Unrelated, but has anyone else noticed the ten commandments read like a bad AI prompt?
religion is capable of inventing a god that doesn’t exist.
Israelites needed a propaganda boost to rebel against Phoenecians, and offshoot religion helps.
Elders that went up to the mountaintop with Moses can unanimously be on board with Hasbara to fuel war against Phoenicians. Ends justify the lie.
Yaweh becomes supreme god, and Phoenicians deserve death for failing to accept all commandments. Including/especially the very weird idolatry one, that gods would typically accept as narcissistic reverence. Thou shalt kill all heretics.
Yaweh was one of the sons of El in Caananite religion, which has the same Noah myth, and the religion/people is based on one of his son’s decendants. El was accepted by Greeks as the same god as Zeus. Many other Caananite polytheistic gods had Greek equivalents.
When Moses wrote the tablets, he was basically doing a religious coup to claim the Hebrew/Israelite “subgod” was the primary god. Denouncing Idolatry, and “thou shalt not covet” was also a rebelion against the main/historical Phoenecian/Caananite religion to when Israelites war against Phoenecians “do not covet their idols, destroy them”.
“when Moses wrote the tablets”
The historical context here is really interesting, but this line is a head scratcher. A) god didn’t write the tablets, Moses did it himself, B) tacit support for historicity of Moses. It’s like not the religious viewpoint, but not the secular one either. Though I may be splitting hairs about a nonessential clause here.
In the Bible story God made the first set, but they were destroyed by Moses in a meltdown. Moses had to carve the rewritten replacements which are the ones that get written down.
Regardless of whether someone thinks Moses is historical, the story itself is a coup of sorts.
Unrelated, but has anyone else noticed the ten commandments read like a bad AI prompt?
Ah yeah forgot that part. Been awhile since Sunday school.