Jesus called this the 'new'
commandment. And we can ask, 'What is so new about this
commandment?' Was it not already in the Old Testament that we should love our neighbor as ourselves?
Coveting our neighbor's wife and goods were far from the mind of the very young but adulthood would show just why the
Commandments are there.
"In order that they may understand and appreciate the basic principles of the American system of government, the people of the United States of America and of the State of Arkansas need to identify the Ten
Commandments, one of many sources, as influencing the development of what has become modern law," intoned legislation authorizing placement of a Ten
Commandments monument at the state Capitol in Little Rock.
This is matter of the Second
Commandment, and it is sometimes violated by using Christ's name as a cloak for ecclesiastical power pleasure hunting politics selfish money-making.
So much is debated about the Bible that you'd hope when it comes to the Ten
Commandments, at least, you're on solid ground.
Concerning the affirmations of the first tablet, which concern primarily our relationship to God, the mitzvot bein adam la-Makom [religious obligations to God], the same method of interpretation can be applied, though the Fifth
Commandment (honor your father and mother) may also belong to the ethical
commandments of the second tablet.
One does not usually have to wait long in an after-church or talk-radio discussion of natural law to hear the familiar shibboleth that "The Ten
Commandments are the foundation of American Law." (1) This statement serves many functions: It ties together Jewish and Christian morality, affirms a role for those faiths within the secular world of law, and roots the argument for natural law in the reports of an ancient event that is hard to dispute, because those who believe in those events do so as an article of faith.
Maundy Thursday is named after the Latin word for
commandment, "mandatum", in today's Bible text.
The helplessness of the Western world in the face of death is apparent in the contributions under the
commandment "Thou shalt not kill"--lurid photographs by Taryn Simon (of a woman whose leg was lost in a suicide attempt) and Adam McEwen (a notorious image of the dead Mussolini, but upside down).
Eugene had its cross atop Skinner Butte, and Alabama had its 2 1/2 -ton granite slab inscribed with the Ten
Commandments in the lobby of the state supreme court building.
*
Commandment III: Do not discharge a patient from your care without the best possible treatment you can give, and always follow up with the patient, "You can't abandon the patient," Dr.
Since Genesis is not counted, Exodus narrates the double violation of
commandment one (no other gods) and
commandment two (no idols) in the single story of Israel's worship of the golden calf (Exodus 32).
