Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [58]
This is one commandment that Jesus openly disobeyed. He and his disciples were accused by the priests and rabbis of Jerusalem of violating the commandment by “laboring” on the Sabbath. Jesus responded to his Sabbath-day critics in two ways. First, he said the things he was doing on the Sabbath, such as healing the sick, were too important to put off. And Jesus also professed a belief that internal holiness, an inner sense of spirituality, was more important than the “show-off” piety, typified by the Sabbath templegoers who outwardly kept God’s commandments but then behaved badly the rest of the week.
While it is clear that the Sabbath “ain’t what it used to be,” it might be worth reexamining its value. In a society that has increasingly placed work above all else—either in the form of multiple jobs to make ends meet or bringing home the laptop to crunch some numbers—it might be a good thing for people to respect the significance of creating “holy” time. Whether people use it to go back to traditional religious observations, or to quietly meditate, or simply to spend more time together as families, most of us would do well to “consecrate” some time not just for “resting” but for reflection, contemplation, and good works.
5. “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
This is the commandment every parent loves. They use it to tell their kids what to do all the time. American politicians adhere to it as well. Old people vote more than young people, so they have become a potent political force and their wishes are “honored.”
Again, it is a commandment that demands an examination of its historical context. In a semi-nomadic desert culture, the elderly were often more of a burden than a blessing. This commandment was aimed at protecting the elderly and sick from being abandoned to the elements once they were no longer productive members of the tribe. It was easy to drop Grandpa off by the side of the camel path instead of dragging him around every time you packed up the tents.
Christians need to double-check this one against Jesus’ words because, on several occasions, he said and did things that seemed to flout the fifth commandment. He spoke of his own mother and other family members in what seem to be disparaging terms. “No one can come to me without hating his own father, mother, sister, brother.” (Luke 14:26). Hardly sounds like “honor,” though Jesus was clearly saying that membership in his spiritual “family”was stronger than ties of blood.
Many people doubt that such a commandment demands unqualified acceptance. Does the physically or emotionally abused child have to “honor” an abusive parent? Sadly, an observer of the modern world might conclude that, in an era of increasingly commonplace physical and sexual abuse of children, perhaps a better commandment would be “Honor thy children.”
6. “Thou shalt not kill.”
Oops. This is another critical King James Version mistranslation of the original Hebrew. The correct reading is “You shall not murder” (NRSV, JPS, and others). As the rest of the Hebrew scriptures clearly indicate, God had no problem with certain forms of killing: the death penalty was invoked for a wide variety of offenses, including house burglary, striking one’s parents, adultery, bestiality, and homosexuality. God also gave very unambiguous directions that Israel’s enemies were to be killed in the conquest of Canaan and in the later battles with the Philistines. God not only sanctioned killing Israel’s enemies but often acted as an accomplice.
So killing for some moral purpose—killing a killer to prevent a death, or killing a Hitler—is viewed as acceptable. Of course, that opens up a nasty can of worms: Who decides what is “moral” killing? Before the the American Civil War, abolitionist John Brown felt that killing was justified