What is the history of the 10 Commandments?

According to Jewish scripture, Abraham climbed up Mount Sinai, where he was given the Ten Commandments that were etched in stone from God Himself. These were the laws of which civilization was built on.

They were drawn from the 613 Commandments and from the Law. The number 10 has been a holy number for a long, long time and the Bible is full of Gematria. The Number one also represents God, the number 3 represents completeness, the number 6 represents imperfect man, the number 7 represents Heavenly perfection, the number 12 represents completeness, the number 40 represents trials and tribulations leading to holiness and sometimes you get two different numbers combined, like 120 (3x40) or 144,000 (12x12) or 666 (3x6).

The 10 Commandments have actually had their meaning become fluid overtime, much the same way words in English change, like "cool" means a number of things, 1) cold 2) neat 3) interesting, etc. The 10 Commandments we know are this way. Take the one, "Thou Shalt not take the name of the Lord God in vain." When this was written it mean you could not swear by God. You couldn't say, "as God as my witness, I'm telling the truth." Who were you to call on the Supreme Creator to stand up for you? Then in the 1800's when people had more free time to think and be offended, they took them to mean "words of curse" or curse words. So, today we think of god d*mn, etc. No, the words F*ck, sh*t, and those words were once acceptable and said by peasants and Ladies. However, after the 1800's they became taboo. So, we see a change in the meaning of that Commandment. The Commandment "Thou Shalt not Kill" has had its meaning change also since it was first written. The word in the Command that is "Kill" is not Kill in Hebrew the language it was written in, the Commandment SHOULD READ in English, "THOU SHALT NOT MURDER" not Kill. The Bible has NOTHING against Killing, it does however go into great detail about what should be done to those who murder. See the difference? God has no problem (sadly) with killing to protect your family, your community or your Nation. The Bible not only tells you who you can legitimately kill, but HOW you should go about killing them and how they can make "amends" if they seek forgiveness, i.e., what is the payment for the live(s) they took?

There's a great documentary on either TLC, the Discovery Channel or Nat Geo that explains it in great detail.

Depending on what book your reading they came from God, now this is the only piece of literature ever written by the divine being and was burnt into stone no less, funny how no one can produce it!!!

The 10 commandments surely are a collaborated work setting out some basic rules for the time (some of which still apply) for a multi tribe community to live by and stop disputes rising that would splinter the group. Certainly not killing each other, or stealing from each other was good idea, taking no false god or worshipping a false idol is of course bias towards the beliefs of those who wrote it although God didn't actually say which one was true only "me",

Other stuff in them seems to be about honouring the elders, not nipping off with the neighbours wife and keeping up with the Jones (or whatever the common name was at the time).

Now if we are to believe that "God" did in fact write this and hand it, so to speak, for safe keeping to man, you might have thought he'd be a bit more expansive, given a few more details, say what's what etc, was it intentionally vague or was it written by a group of people up a hill to be so. It's also open to interpretation, again I suspect intentionally so, so that people can say "oh God meant this or God meant that" as are most of the holy Scriptures of any religion interpreted by power hungry and narrow minded men who change the meaning to suit their purpose

God must also have been on the side of the working man too as he gave them a day off, but even that day, the Sabbath can't be agreed on, he could have said " and everyone should get Saturday or Sunday" or whatever day off, but no he said "Sabbath" and arguments ensue.

So what has man done with these commandments, why put a caveat or two on of course

Thou shalt not kill, "unless it's people we don't like or don't agree with our version of God or a Government or religious leader tells you to, then that's fine then"

Thou shalt not steal "unless it's approved by state and it's a country or land, oil or anything useful"

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, Unless these are religious and you pay for them, crucifixes as one example (mmm seems to conflict with the original meaning)

Thou shalt have no other gods before me, "actually taken literally that had already happened and if meant as "Me" being the top one and you agree with that then it's ok to have others???"

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, "but does tell us the name, so we have killed each other guessing it ever since"

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy, "vague and doesn't tell us what keeping it holy actually means, he could have meant have a party to celibate it, who said we should all go and prey, God didn't just keep it holy???"

Honour thy father and thy mother, "get the feeling this was thrown in as the writers were having issues with their kids and as elders wanted some way to control them".

Thou shalt not commit adultery, "yeah we've stuck to that one, but even this has later get out clauses, unless the wife cant bear children, has spots, is ugly (funny how men can get out and women can't, get the feeling men wrote most of the religious stuff then) etc lol"

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. "unless you think your neighbour is believing something you don't agree with, then of course you will swear he's a heretic and burn him/her, because you and your religion is of sourse always right and others are always wrong, God said so (the fact he said the same to the other side doesn't seem to matter)"

Thou shalt not covet, "Oh and then he through in a know your place, don't better yourself don't want what other people have that's better than you have"

So you decide who wrote them, you decide if divinity played any part or was it a set of rules created to control the populous written by people who didn't have the finesse or wit to make them clear and precise, who wanted to maintain there status in society and have power of life and death over others, for that is what they have been used for.

It's an Oscar wining movie from 1956. It came from Paramount Pictures. They were read by Charlton Heston, because it was in the script.

Interesting that, though you used "like", you put a comma after it. A decorated redundancy.