I'm looking for some help here. I've been reading my King James version and I'm confused.

Exodus 20:2-17 lists the commandments that are accepted today, but Moses is repeating to the people what god told him. They are not written down.

Some time later, Moses goes back to God and gets the stone tablets. Exodus 31:18. But, when he came down, the people were busy building a golden calf (I know the feeling, turn your back for one minute) and he smashed the tablets... Exodus 31:19. The word commandment hasn't been mentioned to this point. In the first instance, these were words that god "spake". In the second, the words are called "testimony".

Moses goes back a third time and when he returns with the new tablets, the term "10 commandments" is finally mentioned. Exodus 34:28. This time, though, we have a different set of commandments.

They are (Exodus 34: 13-28):

Thou shall worship no other god.
Thou shall make thee no molten gods.
The feast of unleavened bread shall be kept.
Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh, thou shalt rest.
Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
Thrice in a year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God.
Thy shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.
Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of passover be left unto the morning.
The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt being unto the house of the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

Appears we are missing out on a number of feasts.

My wife has a friend in Texas with whom she lost contact for a number of years. They got together by phone a few weeks back and the friend said she was getting back to her "jewish roots"... meaning she had joined a church that observed the above commandments, not the others. I went back and reread the sections I mentioned with the result I raise.

What did I miss?

Many christians practice earlier Hewbrew traditions, We have to remember Jesus and his followers and Paul were all worshiping in the temple,

But no, Exodus 34:13 was not written on stone by God, there were a covenant for the people, a promise ( God did several of those in the Old Testement) It was like a contract, where God would do this or that, and the people were to do this or that.

The difference is with Exodus 32 was that God himself wrote the tablets.
And it was those broken pieces carried in the ark because they were the law of God,

But there are many feasts, but then the New testement also did away with the worship of many holy days, a new covenant was made with the people.

The feasts were not part of the "10 Commandments" but deserve serious study. They were apparently both celebrations of past occurrences and prophecy of coming events. The Passover pointed back to deliverance from Egypt, and forward to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, deliverance from sin. The feast of first-fruits pointed to the resurretion of Jesus Christ, and the feast of Pentecost pointed to the birth of the Church. The fulfillment of these first three feasts each occurred on the day of the type. The final four feasts are of interest when viewed as prophecy of events still future to us. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

Exodus 34:1 The lord Said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones," and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke... "

We get the commandments I mentioned and then Exodus 34:27-28 Then the Lord said to Moses "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tables the words of the covenant - the Ten Commandments.

According to this, the covenant is the 10 commandments.

And no, God didn't physically write it, but it appears that was his intent. He wrote it through Moses.

Deuteronomy
10 1At that time Jehovah said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. 3So I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in my hand. 4And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Jehovah spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Jehovah gave them unto me.

From this it appears God did physically write it through the "Finger of God." Although I do not see that it really matters.

Good. God says to put them in the chest. That explains who did the writing, but it doesn't explain how the commandments got switched. Someone must have an explanation for this. Did the Christian church just decide they liked the others better? It seems pretty clear from Exodus 34 which God wanted.

I wonder what the Jewish position is?

In Matthew 22, Jesus addresses the issue of the commandments that the Jewish leaders posed to Him. Here is His answer:

The Scribes: Which Is the First Commandment of All?

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “ 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'[d] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'[e] 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Love god, love your neighbor. Excellent tenets to live by no matter what philosophy one follows. But, which are the real 10 commandments? Am I missing out on some feasts? Could I have been coveting all these years?

BTW, I used to worry about coveting. When I was a kid, I was told it was "wanting" something too much. When I did a little research, I found it means "wanting exclusively." I want it and I don't want anyone else to have it. That's a much easier standard and it fits with loving your neighbor... I want good things for me and I want good things for my neighbor.

We Jews invite you to post this question under the Judaism subject area here, where you'll get a genuine Jewish perspective on the answer to this question.

What is it that makes you believe the commandments were switched?

What is it that makes you believe the commandments were switched?

It appears to me that what we today call the 10 commandments are the things that Moses related verbally to the people after his first visit to the mountain. The commandments written in stone are the ones in my initial post. The end of Exodus 34 calls them the 10 commandments and the covenant.

Also, Moses listed several other laws (or guidelines) in the chapter following the original verbal list. They don't receive much attention.

The short answer is that when folks today talk about the 10 commandments, they really don't know what they are talking about.

God gave the Ten Commandments and the law of Moses to the Israelites to prepare the way for the coming of Christ and His new covenant.

Galatians 3:23-25
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

The old law was to bring the Jews to Christ. Jesus brought the new covenant that we must live by and obey. The New Testament.

We don't live by the Ten Commandments or the law of Moses today. We live under Christ's "perfect law of liberty."

The New Testament repeats nine of the ten commandments. The only commandment not repeated is the fourth commandment--"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

The following scripture is too long to print here, but you can read God's words about the old laws and the new laws established by Christ, when He was nailed to the cross.
Colossians chapters 2, 3 and 4.

I agree DM, well stated; I would just like to clarify if it's possible:

God revealed his moral character and stated what he expected his people to do through what is called the Law. This Law was distilled into 10 Commandments, which God inscribed on two stone tablets. People were told of this in Hebrews 8:6-12; 10:1-18 The New Covenant. Heb. 8:6-9 - This passage is from Jeremiah, an Old Testament prophet who lived some 600 years before Jesus. 8:10 -When the Messiah comes, God will “write” his laws upon the minds and hearts of his people. This refers to power to follow God that his people under the OC did not have.

DM, I don't have an issue with anything you wrote. You are pointing out the main difference between Jews and Christians today. The Jews believe they must follow the law established during Old Testament times. Christians believe the coming of Jesus established different requirements.

What I am saying is that that according to Exodus 34, the laws called the 10 commandments written in stone were the laws dealing more with feast observance... the ones I listed in the original post. These laws are called the 10 commandments in the bible. What we call the 10 commandments today... no murder, no stealing, no coveting, etc. are something different... are not what Exodus 34 calls the 10 commandments... the ones written on the tablets and carried in the ark.

What we call the 10 commandments today were verbally given by Moses, not written in stone. If you look at the parallel post on the Jewish link, someone addressed that issue. They said something that I haven't found in the Christian bible about God beginning to speak them, but the people were frightened and wanted to just hear them from Moses. Moses got them from God and recited them to the people. Later, in Exodus 34, some new commandments are listed and it says they are the ones written in stone (or actually it later says that in Deuteronomy as Dark Crow points out) and called the covenant and the 10 commandments.

A big deal is made in the Christian religion about abiding by the no lie, no steal commandments. Every child raised Christian gets those drummed into them. They are carved in stone and placed on courthouse lawns all over the US. They are written on the side of mountains in North Georgia, but they are not the ones called by the bible the 10 commandments.

Rodandy

We do not have the originals to examine but we do have Gods word that they are the same…we are free to accept that or not. But the important thing in all this is that Christians, under the New Covenant, are no longer bound by the Law, so in that sense it is unimportant what was written on them or what the churches of Christendom say.

D_c
Very well said.

rodandy
Do not lie or do not commit murder, it doesn't matter. A sin is a sin, and when any of the commandments were broken, a sin had been committed.

Same as today. When Jesus instructed us on right and wrong and we do what we want to do, not what is His will. We have sinned.

But we can certainly have our sins washed away.

Bearing in mind the ten commandments were not all there is, its just the ten basic ones...

God Bless'

Adam

It is important that we distinguish between statutes, ordinances , and commandments. These are all parts of the order of law and custom.

KJV- Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

KJV- Deuteronomy 4:13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, [even] ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

KJV Deuteronomy 4:14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

KJV-Deuteronomy 4:40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong [thy] days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.

KJV Deuteronomy 10:1 At that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood.

KJV Dueteronomy 10:4 And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me.

KJV Dueteronomy 10:5 And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me.

KJV Dueteronomy 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?