Where are the tablets of the ten commandments?

[marco]

Careless Moses broke the stone tablets God had inscribed, as one does. Luckily God wasn't too upset and offered to re-write his message provided Moses cut out two stone blocks. Moses says he went up the mountain to see God, as one does, and God duly wrote the commandments out again.


Archaeologists haven't found the divinely inscribed broken first set nor the cave in which the second set are hidden. One would have expected the Inspiring Spirit to have led them to this important divine instruction, but no. Here is Moses telling it as it was:

" At that time the Lord said to me, “Hew two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.� So I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tables of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tables in my hand. And he wrote on the tables, as at the first writing, the ten commandments "



1. Is this a credible story? Are there details that suggest fiction?


2. Given the tale is true, why has God not disclosed the hiding place of the second set of important instructions?

3. Why did Jesus not give us the information?

[Tired of the Nonsense]

Exodus 33:
[21] And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
[22] And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
[23] And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

"Strains the lightest intelligence," you say! You make a mockery of the word "intelligence," sir.

Yes, this is on a much lower intellectual level than, say, Arachne being changed into a spider. In Greek mythology Zeus couldn't be seen by humans, not even his back parts, though in multiple disguises he did more than present himself. Poor Semele insisted on seeing the real Zeus and wasn't as fortunate as Moses.

It was not my intention to mock the concept of intelligence; rather to highlight the traumas to which it is exposed in the pages of the OT. Anyway, we were searching for the missing tablets but the way the conversation is going would suggest that the tablets are fictional, and therefore not to be found. I appreciate that you didn't have to express an opinion to illustrate fiction; it sufficed only to quote from the inspired source. Amazing.

People use to believe in very unrealistic things. Things we know now simply are not true. Ancient people can be excused for being ignorant. We are all born ignorant. But, given the advancements in knowledge that have occurred over the centuries, and modern advancements in disseminating that knowledge, like the internet, what we are observing now is not just the division of the knowledgeable from the unknowledgeable so much as it is the separating out of those with the ability to perform higher thought processes, from those who simply have no such capability. This might almost represent evolution in action. As we move from a world where physical labor is less and less required, and technological comprehension is more and more a necessity, we are dividing the population into those that have the intellectual capacity, and those who do not. Ultimately, those who do not have the intellectual capacity will fall further and further behind with few choices but a life of poverty or a life of crime. The prisons are already bulging. The time is approaching where wearing religious paraphernalia of any kind will be taken as an open indication of one's intellectual capacity. The problem is of course, those are the very people who do not have the ability to figure that out.

[bjs]

Well we found the Rosetta stone and because it was written in three languages, we got to know hieroglyphs. God of course wasn't involved.

We already have a strong understanding of ancient Hebrew. The tablet of the 10 Commandments would not serve as a Rosetta stone in this case.

If they appeared in my room tonight, just as I was about to retire, that would ensure that one agnostic at least would speedily cross the divide of faith. No doubt about that!

I thought we were talking about the literal stone tablets. Have you actually had in mind incorporeal visions that can appear in you room?

However, if the stones had writing on them that could well have been done by somebody called Moses - in other words, if God made no distinguishing feature between his word and that of an ordinary man, I would dismiss them.

Then it would seem that we are in full agreement on this issue. Were the actual tablets ever found you would dismiss them, as I think many people would.

[ttruscott]

2. Given the tale is true, why has God not disclosed the hiding place of the second set of important instructions?

Did having the tablets and the ark keep the Israelites on the true path with YHWH? Not a single bit...over and over they failed HIM.

This is the lesson we are to learn - religious relics have no power over sin to bring sinners back to GOD...unless HE is imparting that power by HIS grace.

Why keep them around if they are useless?

[marco]

Well we found the Rosetta stone and because it was written in three languages, we got to know hieroglyphs. God of course wasn't involved.

We already have a strong understanding of ancient Hebrew. The tablet of the 10 Commandments would not serve as a Rosetta stone in this case.

The idea wasn't for us to learn about an ancient language from God's writing but to have a key to heaven from God's tablets just as the Rosetta Stone supplied a key to ancient Egypt.

I thought we were talking about the literal stone tablets. Have you actually had in mind incorporeal visions that can appear in you room?

I think all visions are incorporeal and they invariably occupy minds.

Then it would seem that we are in full agreement on this issue. Were the actual tablets ever found you would dismiss them, as I think many people would.

Not so - there would be global rejoicing were the ACTUAL tablets found. You seem to be rather doubtful about God's ability to make himself recognisable through his handiwork. However, if they appeared just as bits of stone with scratches of human writing on them, we might be twice disappointed in God.

[bjs]

However, if they appeared just as bits of stone with scratches of human writing on them, we might be twice disappointed in God.

No one would be disappointed.

Christians, who actually believe in God, would not be disappointed with a genuine artifact.

Atheists, who describe a fanciful straw man version of God, never believed in God to begin with and would have no reason to be disappointed.


Watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The cup you seem to be looking for might well qualify as “choosing poorly.�

[marco]

No one would be disappointed.

Christians, who actually believe in God, would not be disappointed with a genuine artifact.

Sadly, this homogeneous group you call Christians no more exists than the God of the Old Testament. They believe a miscellany of things and through the centuries have killed each other for a comma.

If, as I said, the ACTUAL tablets were found, their actuality, not the dubious nature of their creation, would win those worthy of being won.

Atheists, who describe a fanciful straw man version of God, never believed in God to begin with and would have no reason to be disappointed.

Well some did believe, and ceased to; and many if not most do not create a strawman; they examine the jealous God created for them in the Bible. I'm not sure that it would be a blessing if such a being existed, so perhaps doubt is the best position. We can accept there were no tablets, at least none inscribed by God unless God allows the stones to be found and admits authorship.


The debate we're having is exactly the same as the debates people have about seeing and not seeing God. One of the very few pieces that offer us anything physical to do with God is "lost". We've managed to preserve objects of minor importance and yet, somehow, we mispaced God's tablets. Is that likely?