Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [57]
The society that developed in ancient Israel is notable for its very highly defined sense of legality. Just as other ancient Near East cultures were beginning to develop law codes to order society, the Israelites held to a highly rigid code, given to them by God, that regulated religious, personal, social, and commercial conduct. These cultures were all trying to move from primitive justice codes to a well-ordered society in which the law, not simply the king’s will, was obeyed. With that in mind, the belief that testimony given in a “court” was sacred was an enormous step forward for establishing the supremacy of “law and order.”
Another interpretation is that the verse relates not just to words but also to actions taken in God’s name, reflected in certain translations of the Hebrew that read “You shall not carry the name of the Lord.” This commandment, as Rabbi Joseph Telushkin comments, is also aimed at those who commit sins in “the name of God.” Telushkin writes: “If they ‘carry’ God’s name in promotion of a cause that is evil (e.g., the medieval crusaders who murdered innocent people in the name of God, or members of racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan that claim what they do is God’s will), then they violate the Third Commandment.” (Biblical Literacy, pp. 426-427)
4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
First of all, note it does not say the Lord “hallowed it for NFL football.” Does watching six to eight hours of sports on Sunday count as keeping the Sabbath holy? “Sabbath” is derived from an ancient Hebrew word that meant “coming or bringing to an end” that evolved into the word shabat, “rested.” The idea of Sabbath has changed immensely in the modern world. Anyone who likes shopping in the mall on Sunday may have forgotten the days when many businesses were not permitted to open on Sunday. There was a time not so long ago in America when local “blue laws” kept stores shuttered on Sunday in an attempt to legislate compliance with the God-ordained Sabbath—the Christian Sabbath, that is. The Jewish Sabbath, commencing on Friday at sunset through Saturday, was never the Sabbath honored in Christian-dominated America.
For the most part, these old laws legislating Sabbath morality have gone the way of many other social dinosaurs, but there are still vestiges of Sabbath blue laws in America. In New York City—long famed as “Sin City”—you still cannot buy a bottle of wine or vodka from a liquor store on Sunday, even though you can buy beer in a grocery store after noon and order a drink in a restaurant. Go figure.
Of course, Christians have no monopoly on circumventing Sabbath holiness rules. Many observant Jews have long found ways to get around the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. Before the days of modern electrical timers that could turn televisions and other appliances on or off, Jews commonly employed Christians—“Sabbath goys”—to perform certain predetermined services, such as turning on their lights. This might seem a rather lighthearted issue. But in Israel, there is a serious contemporary conflict over doing business on the Jewish Sabbath. Politically powerful Orthodox Jews respect the Sabbath Commandment, and the Israeli government respects that view. This is not a new argument. When the Maccabbees of Israel rebelled against their Syrian rulers in 166-164 BCE, some of the most faithful Jews refused to fight on the Sabbath, preferring death to desecrating the holy day. While not as ultimate a sacrifice, sports fans and moviegoers may recall the Olympian who