Who is Satan? Is he a fallen angel, and does he rule over Hell where he tortures the sinners forever?

February 14, 2023May 10, 2020 by Unfakely

Who is Satan? Is he a fallen angel, and does he rule over Hell where he tortures the sinners forever?

Satan, or the Devil, has been many things over the centuries. And his part in the big events has changed drastically. If you are Christian or not, and if you have your own doctrine that tells you who Satan is, it’s still not necessarily true that he always was just that… The Devil has grown and matured.

Disclaimer

As always, discussing the Bible, or any other religious text is a delicate matter. My conclusions are based on facts that are as correct as I can find them. These facts, when it comes to the Bible, very often boil down to believing or not believing that the Bible actually is the unchangeable word of God. And if the Christian beliefs originate from a divine power.

I look at it from a historical, and anthropological point of view… Not from a religious standpoint.

Satan in the old testament

In the old testament, the Devil is a very different character compared to the one we know from modern films, books, and comics. The old texts don’t really describe God as anything that could ever have an opponent. God is the creator of everything and his power reaches every corner of the world, as to every part of the universe.

God in the historical books, is someone who supervises and watches over the Israelites. His main problem is the disobedience of his people. The Israelites constantly walk away from his path. They worship other Gods, they disobey God’s commandments, and they sin in many other ways. God also has a very near relationship with his children. He talks to them, he guides them, and he’s very present in their everyday life.

A local God for a Local tribe…

In 2 Kings, 24, the Assyrian King, after having put the Hebrews in captivity, brought men from Babylon, Cithah, Ava, and other places, to repopulate Samaria. There, they were cursed with Lions by the Lord because they didn’t know how to worship him, they couldn’t figure out how… When to burn the sacrifice and how to perform all the other rites. So the King sent an Israelite priest to teach them the traditions of sacrifice and religious life.

It’s obvious that, although almighty and the creator of everything, God was very local. He served one group of people, he was the God of the Israelites. But he also served anyone else who happened to live in Israel and who performed the right rituals.

Gods from other communities, like Baal, and Moloch, were a much bigger threat to God than the Devil, who anyway was under God’s command.

Where the Devil is mentioned in the Old Testament

Satan, the Hebrew word is shtn or shaitan, is mentioned a few times in the Old Testament. The meaning could be, someone who is distant – gone astray, away from the teachings of God.

1 Chronicles 21, 1
Zechariah 3, 1–2

Then we have a few places where other creatures with other names have been attributed to the Devil figure.

Isaiah 14, 12 Here, the word הֵ ילֵ ל (eill) is translated into Lucifer in the Latin Bible. It refers to the King of Babylon, the shining one, as he claimed to be divine. The morning star – Lucifer, light-bearer in Latin. light – lucius. The shining one originally refers to the Canaanite god Athtar.

Ezekiel 28:13-14 This is a lament over the King of Tyrus. Some Christian scholars suggest that it could be a metaphor for the devil.

But the most famous parts of the Devil in the Bible are a bit earlier in the sequence of the books in the Bible.

The book of Job.

the devil in diguise — Courtesy of Rusty Clark

This is the only place where Satan is one of the main characters. The word is הַ שָּׂ טָ ן (e·shtn), often translated to the accuser, the adversary. He is still one of God’s creations and does only what God wants him to do. The same word is used many times in the Old Testament with the meaning of adversary without referring to the Devil.

Genesis, where the snake often is interpreted as the Devil. The snake is trying to corrupt the humans, and he could have had his own motifs to do so.

All these are interpretations, and it’s very easy to read the whole Hebrew Bible without encountering the Devil once.

Persian influence.

After the Babylonian captivity, the Persian King Cyrus the Great allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. The centuries that followed meant Persian domination as the Achaemenid Empire should turn out to become the greatest empire that ever existed on the face of the earth. The Jews mostly had a good relationship with the Persians and the Hebrew religion opened up to influences from their big brother.

The Persians were Zoroastrians. And in Zoroastrianism dualistic cosmology is fundamental. Their world is a constant struggle between good and evil.

This idea got a foothold in Hebraism and the idea of a dark force, an evil god, started to grow. God should have an enemy, a real adversity.

Satan in the new testament

So, in the New Testament, the Devil is much more present and much more of a unique Deity. Jesus casts out demons quite often, and Judah is possessed by Satan himself before his final betrayal. As the New Testament is written in Greek, we have terminology that is closer to English. διάβολος – Diabolos as well as Σατανᾶς – Satanas.

The Devil takes an active role in disturbing the power of God and spreading evil. He tents Jesus in the desert for 40 days before he is finally sent away.

Other examples of the Devil in the new testament:

John 8, 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees and accuses them of doing evil.

Matthew 16, 23. Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Here, Peter is trying to stop Jesus from going into Jerusalem and getting himself killed. So Jesus says, it’s not you but the Devil inside you, who says these words.

Is he called Satan, the Devil, or what?

Satan or the satan (the accuser) is used between 30 and 40 times, more or less the same amount of times as the Greek word Diabolos. Probably the authors wanted to connect to the old books by using the Hebrew noun. Though it’s not always easy to follow all the nominations of the one, or the ones opposing God. They seem many. Beelzebub is another of his names. This one is linked to the Canaanite god, Baal.

In Revelation 20, 2 the author writes, And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years… He uses many attributes to be absolutely certain that nobody could mistake who we are talking about.

Satan in the very last book of the Bible – Revelation.

The last book in the Bible, Revelation, is one of the most difficult texts in the whole scripture. John has a vision and it comes directly from Jesus Christ, and he writes it down exactly as he sees it. If you ever think that the Bible is boring, try Revelation… It’s very entertaining.

Anyway, the vision is that there will be a great war between good and evil, with the evil manifested in all kinds of monsters, dragons, and beasts. Satan fights the angels with his own army of demons. He wins, then he loses, and he’s freed again, but in the end, he’s thrown into the lake of fire. Here’s a Devil that we do not see anywhere else in the Bible. One with soldiers, allies, and friends and they are capable of actually threatening God.

pan — The God, Pan in a mosaic from 3rd century, Patras, Greece.
Courtesy of Dimitris Kamaras

Revelation is loosely based on the Book of Enoch, a Hebrew, non-canonical scripture. In the book of Enoch, there are descriptions of fallen angels, demons, and giants, as well as their origins.

The Zoroastrians too had an idea of a great war at the end of times between good and evil.

Satan in the Christian world after the fall of the Roman Empire.

So much for the Bible, but what happened after Christianity had become state religion in Rome in 380 A.D?

The Devil lived on but since God continued to be very powerful, the Devil still had to be his servant. He got a few attributes, like becoming the guardian of Hell. In Revelation, the Devil is cast into the lake of fire, Hell. But later on, he became the guardian, the ruler of Hell. We have Greek mythology to thank for that. Hades is a God who rules the underworld, and he has a pitchfork. The Devil got a trident, like Poseidon. More from Greek mythology is the close relationship with nature, animals, and sexuality. The flute-playing Greek god Pan is a sex-maniac, has horns, fur, and goat hooves.

But it’s difficult to decide from where all these details really emerge. There were lots of pagan gods and lots of vivid imagination among artists and simple people to invent impressive Devils. And we still have to wait until the 14th century to have a Devil as we know him

today.

Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.

In the first centuries, we still don’t really recognize him at all. In the Basilica in Ravenna in northern Italy, there’s an interesting mosaic. It’s Jesus that divides the good from the bad, the sheep from the goats, as told in Mathew 25, 32. The mosaic is from the 6th century and to his help Christ has two angels. The good angel, who is red, and the fallen angel, the Devil, who is light blue. We would imagine it contrary. The striking fact though, is that the two angels are portrayed as equal, and both are angels of God. Satan is a bureaucrat who is doing God’s dirty work.

Dante’s Inferno

As more time distanced the European church from its origins in Palestine, it became clear that the Devil was an unexploited power. He slowly became more evil, more seductive, and more powerful.

The Winchester Psalter from the mid-1100 has an image where demons torture the sinners behind a door that is closed by an angel. The Devil is Pan-like with body hair, horns, and claws.

In the Baptistery at the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florens, we find a Devil who is much more monstrous and sinister. He has horns, snakes coming out of his ears, and he tews and eats the condemned. The mosaic was created by Coppo di Marcovaldo in the mid-13th century.

The Florentine poet Dante Alighieri wrote La Divina Commedia in the first years of 1300 possibly inspired by Apocalyptic literature such as the Apocalypse of Peter. In it the author describes Hell, and it is obvious that apart from scriptures, he was also inspired by the mosaic in the Basilica. His description includes a Devil that eats his victims. He is also in a lake of ice, instead of the usual, hot and flaming place

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The middle ages were a turbulent time. Many new threats had occurred, as Europe had become much more connected, and of course, more divided. The crusades had started. In the 14th century, the Plague arrived, and later on, there was the whole protestant movement to fight. The catholic church needed an ally, and the Devil fitted perfectly into that context. He became the Boogeyman for scaring peasants and burgers.

He also explains all the evil in the world, a continuous problem for all monotheistic religions. In the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, bad things normally happen because we are disobedient to God’s law. With the Devil around, he takes the blame. It’s still important to not let him in though, to not be tented, or persuaded by him. If disasters rise, it’s still because people don’t do right towards God. When the Plague hit the cities in Europe, the only cure they had, was to pray, seek absolution, and build new churches.

Satan is slowly transformed from an Angel or a Dragon, into a deceptive sexually deprived character. A Pan-type demon. And of course, those who were deceived were mostly women…

The Inquisition

During the time of the various Inquisitions, tens of thousands of witches were executed in Europe. Most of them women. Jews, foreigners in general, political or religious opponents, anybody could be burnt without a fair trial. It was mostly people from lower social classes but nobody was safe.

In the 12th century, Henry IV, King of the Holy Roman Empire persuaded his bishops to excommunicate the Pope. The Pope, in turn, excommunicated the King.

King James I and VI of England, Ireland, and Scotland, took his commitment so far as to engage in a full-scale war against Witchcraft. 2.500, mostly women, were accused and burnt.

When Martin Luther nailed his thesis on the door of the church in Wittenberg, he was declared by the Pope, to be working for the Devil. Luther and his followers answered by declaring that the Pope and the whole catholic church were working for the Devil.

Satan had a lot of followers back then.

Satan in modern times

The picture of the Devil from the middle ages has more or less lived on till modern times. The reddish big guy with horns, goat feet, a tail, fur, and a trident, is familiar to all of us. As is his deceptiveness. Al Pacino in Devil’s Advocate is a nice, well-dressed, smooth-talking gentleman. Jack Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick is a sexually tireless and handsome lover. The idea of evil behind every smiling face is the same as the reason why any beautiful, young girl willing to help a neighbor in need could get burnt as a witch back in 1300.

It is our fear of being deceived.

Conclusion

The Devil is a universal threat to God’s divine plan. He is an evil, persuasive, deceitful, misleading bloke who does everything in his power to corrupt us all. He is the boss over all the demons, and he is the ruler of the underworld, hell.

But he wasn’t born that way. He got all these characteristics only in the last 6-700 years of existence. Before that, he was more of a bureaucrat in God’s great universe… The one dealing with sinners and their punishment.

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Yes, The Devil is the evil force opposing God. But he wasn’t born that way. We, the humans, wanted him like that, and he just complied with it.

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Was King David, son of Jesse, gay? And was Jonathan, son of Saul, his lover?

October 5, 2022April 26, 2020 by Unfakely

Was King David, son of Jesse, gay? And was Jonathan, son of Saul, his lover?

yes or no?

Disclaimer

As always, discussing the Bible, or any other religious text is a delicate matter. My conclusions are based on facts that are as correct as I can find them. These facts when it comes to the Bible very often boil down to believing or not believing that it’s actually the unchangeable word of God. I look at it from a historical, and anthropological point of view… Not from a religious standpoint.

Who was King David?

In the Bible King David was the youngest son of Jesse and became King of the Jews after the death of Saul. He was picked by the prophet Samuel, who sent by God, traveled to Bethlehem. There he inspected all of Jesse’s sons only to ask if there wasn’t yet another. So, they called the youngest, not more than a boy, And Samuel declared that this youngster shall be the King of Israel.

Then there is the story about how David kills the giant, Goliath with a sling and a stone. After that, he suffers the jealousy of Saul, who tries to kill him for quite some time before he himself dies by the hand of the Philistines. Actually, he kills himself at the end of the battle as a result of the defeat.

David and Jonathan

Jonathan is the son of Saul, the first King of Israel. Jonathan is a very close friend of David’s and he defends him and helps him when his father, in his jealousy, tries to find David and kill him. And it is in this context that the supposedly homosexual relationship between David and Jonathan appears.

The friendship/love between David and Jonathan is described in

1 Samuel 18, 1-4
1 Samuel 19, 1-7
1 Samuel 20
1 Samuel 23, 16-18
2 Samuel 1, 17-27

Of these, the most interesting is the passage in 2 Samuel. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

And the 1 Samuel 18, 4. And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.

David and Jonathan, were they really homosexual?

The friendship of David and Jonathan is problematic for Christians, as well as for Hebrews, to say the least. It’s none other than King David, one of the most important figures in the whole Bible, and the forefather of Jesus Christ. And he turns out to be gay…?

Some modern scholars claim that the mentioning of the covenant, and the thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women, makes it passionate love rather than just friendship. Covenant meaning marriage.

On the negative side are the facts that David had many wives and many children. God is punishing him for his adultery affair with Bathsheba, but God doesn’t say anything about Jonathan.

Text analysis

The Hebrew word used when describing the love between David and Jonathan is aheb. Aheb means love, but all kinds of love… passionate love as well as friendship. In the original Latin Bible Vulgata, the word used is Diligĕre. This also indicates all kinds of love, brotherly, fatherly, as well as erotic love. Diligĕre is used when Jesus talks about love for your neighbor, love for God, and love for his disciples.

Both words are used many times in the Bible indicating both passionate and non-passionate love. For example, when Abraham is told by the Lord that he must sacrifice his beloved son, the word aheb is used. So this doesn’t get us anywhere.

What the Old Testament says about homosexuality.

There are a few verses commenting on this:

Leviticus 18, 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Leviticus 20, 13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

There is also the story about Sodom and Gomorrah where two angels visit Lot and all the men in the city of Sodom shows up to rape them.

Keep in mind that many other things in the Bible are abominations.

Eating with an Egyptian.
Eating shrimps or pork.
For a woman to wear men’s clothes or for a man to wear women’s clothes,
To wear linen and wool together….

We can’t say for sure what the general idea was back then. Though, It’s beyond doubt that both Christians and Jews during the centuries that followed, all the way until the last decades have treated homosexuality with resistance, disgust, and even violence.

The scholars’ opinion – David and Jonathan as friends

The mainstream view among scholars has been that this is an excellent example of platonic love between two men. Close friends who love each other for no gain or winning’s sake. But again, most scholars are believers, Christians, or Jews.

Being close and expressing it, isn’t something that automatically would imply a sexual relationship in the ancient Levant culture. North Americans and Europeans sometimes have a hard time understanding how people (men) can be very close, even touching each other without that having any sexual implement whatsoever. But in many parts of the world, men can be close without being gay.

Abraham Rihbany, a Bible scholar of Lebanese origin writes about this in his book The Syrian Christ: Easterners can use “terms of unbounded intimacy and unrestrained affection” to one another: “my soul,” “my eyes,” “my heart”. with no homosexual intent.

Israel Weisfeld calls the love between David and Jonathan the “classic description of genuine unselfish love”

Jerry M. Landay (1998): “The friendship of Jonathan and David was the embodiment of the sheer love of man for man, an intimacy based on shared experiences and danger.”

The scholars’ opinion – David and Jonathan as lovers

Tom Horner wrote his book Jonathan Loved David, in 1978. In it, he argued for a homosexual relationship and motivated it as following a path of close friendship/love relationships between men in ancient literature. “The love of Jonathan does not have to be nailed to the mast of a late capitalist liberation front whose members, after centuries of sinister suppression of homosexuals, wish to designate homosexual love the highest form of humanity. It would be even less sound to assure us in suspiciously strong tones that Jonathan and David were most definitely not gay.”

Danna Fewell and David Gunn wrote the book In Gender, Power, and Promise, in 1993. “Until recently, most writing on the Jonathan and David story has come out of a strongly homophobic tradition” … “On the contrary, far from stretching probability, a homosexual reading … finds many anchor points in the text.” for example Jonathan’s covenant of love made with David (1 Sam 18:1-4), Saul’s sexual insult hurled at Jonathan (20:30-31), and David’s lament for his lost beloved (2 Sam 1:26).

So, why is the story even there?

Before we decide if it’s true or not, let’s look into what it all means. Why is this so important?

The Book of Ruth and the Book of Samuel tell the story of David, how he was chosen to be King and his ancestry. To both Jews and Christians, this is of extreme importance. Jesus is of the house of David, and the Gospels go through lengthy measures to put him at Bethlehem, the city of David.

But David isn’t the legitimate King, because he is not the son of Saul. If you keep this in mind, the story about Jonathan becomes logical. Saul is described as jealous, unbalanced, vindictive, and not following God’s commands. We can easily agree to David being a much better King than Saul. But he’s still not legitimate.

The story isn’t about love. it’s about the legitimacy of David as King

So, the story about Jonathan describes how the legitimate heir to the throne practically gives away his right in favor of David. The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. and Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth, are verses that confirm this. The covenant would be a pact to pass the crown to David. As would the following verse, And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.

It’s not David who strips himself, but it is Jonathan.

There are other analogic verses in the Bible e.g.Numbers 20, 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

The long story about David, Jonathan, and Saul is supposed to legitimize the Kingdom of David.

The authenticity of the old testament.

the oldest hebrew bilble — The Aleppo Codex

The Old Testament is very old. But unfortunately, we don’t have the original, and we’re not even close. The oldest complete Hebrew Bible is from around the year 1000 A.D and it’s called the Leningrad Codex. Another complete Hebrew bible was the Aleppo Codex about 100 years older. This latter was damaged during the Aleppo fire in 1947 and is now incomplete. The Leningrad Codex has been corrected against the Aleppo Codex and is regarded as less accurate.

David lived around 1000 B.C. From that time, the tales of him and his life were told through generations for some five hundred years. It was then written down together with much of the other stories of the Old Testament during the Babylonian exile or shortly after. Approximately 500 B.C. (500 years. That’s as distant as from today as to when Columbus discovered America…).

After that is was copied by hand for 1500 years (that’s as far back as the fall of the Roman Empire). And we know that copying by hand generates errors, misinterpretations, and simple changes.

There are many older fragments like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Silver Scrolls, but these are fragments. They are not complete.

David and Jonathan – Vulgata

The Christian tradition has its Vulgata from the 4th century, probably based on the contemporary Greek uncial codices, as well as ancient Hebrew texts. But it’s still handwritten from a handwritten copy. And it is at least partly from texts transferred into Greek from the original narratives in Hebrew… And it is written in Latin.

If you want an English Bible, you can choose the King James Bible… Or you can have one of the 60 (!) other versions available in English.

All this to explain that the text has been changed. We don’t know exactly how much, but knowing that the early Catholic church made quite an effort to create a book that they could promote by editing the material.

It is not controversial to imagine that the story about David and Jonathan has been edited, changed, and overhauled during the centuries, just like many of the other stories in the Holy Bible.

The authenticity of David, Saul, and Jonathan.

On the Tel-Dan Stele, there is an inscription that could be interpreted as … House of David, This is about all of the historical evidence we have. And there’s nothing that suggests that he was King over more than a small people in southern Palestine. The great United Kingdom of Israel could have been a myth about an ancient, powerful, and united Jewish Kingdom. Just like the King Arthur Myth in England.

We have no historical evidence that Saul ever existed.

We have no historical evidence that Jonathan ever existed.

Conclusion

In the end, it comes down to if you believe that the Bible you read today, after 3000 years, is the word of God, or not. If you do, then you will have to determine what God wants to tell you with this story.

If, on the other hand, you look at the long line of circumstantial evidence I’ve put up here, then it is obvious that there is no homosexual relation between David and Jonathan. And the reason is this:

There is no way first the Hebrew scribes, and then the Catholic church would have let these small fragments of Gay love live on for 3000 years. There’s just no way the censorship could have allowed it, knowing what effort the religious community has made to prevent homosexuality during the centuries.

This is a story about how the King of all Kings, the creator of the glorious Kingdom of Israel and Judah, came to be. From his ancestors in the Book of Ruth, until the death of Saul and the resignation of the throne by Jonathan. It just couldn’t have lived on if it was about Gay love. It would have been cut out long before it first came into writing if it was meant as anything else than the legitimate King renouncing his throne to David

Then again, does it really matter? We don’t even know if they existed, let alone if they were this or that, tall or small, gay or straight. It could have been a story to tell us that Gay love is Okey, It could have been a way for God to say: “Your love is as good as anybody else’s. I’m totally cool with that”… But it’s not. Homosexuality is not widely accepted. Not among Christians, not among Jews, and not among Muslims.

We can just hope that all the different religions of this world evolve.

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No, King David, son of Jesse, did not have a homosexual relationship with Jonathan. He just wanted the throne.

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Were the ten commandments written by the Lord and handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai?

October 6, 2022April 2, 2020 by Unfakely

Were the ten commandments written by the Lord and handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai?

yes or no?

Disclaimer

Debating the Bible is an extremely difficult and delicate task. And the 10 commandments in the Bible are the dogma. The Bible is by far the most read, the most translated, and, many would say, the most influential book there is. It is the foundation for Christianity, and the original form of the old testament, Tanakh, is the foundation for Hebraism. Even Islam is largely based on the biblical tradition.

Still, we have to regard it as mostly non-historical, as there are very few historical facts outside the Bible itself to support its accuracy.

Who wrote the ten commandments?

Most modern scholars believe that Moses is a mythological figure and didn’t actually exist in real life. The consensus is also that the Exodus never happened or at least not in the way it is described in the Bible and not from Egypt.

So, we have to discuss the ten commandments strictly from a biblical point of view, the actual writings in the Bible. And here we find other difficulties… What’s been added, what’s been taken away, what’s been modified, and what has been lost in translation. I am going to use the King James Bible as it is regarded by most scholars as authoritative.

What are the 10 commandments in the Bible?

The law of the Lord — Photo Museum Catharijneconvent Utrecht; Ruben de Heer

The 10 commandments in the Bible are ten rules or guidelines for the Hebrew people, later also for Christians. They represent the essence of how to live in accordance with the will of God. The fact that they are ten could be symbolic as the number 10 could represent Divine authority, obedience, etc. The commandments are not numbered in the Bible. Although in some other texts they are organized in 10 distinct spaces. The number ten is mentioned in Exodus. (Exodus 34:28 …he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.) The fact that they’re not numbered has led to many different interpretations of where one ends and the next begins.

Apart from the story in Exodus, they are also mentioned in Deuteronomy 5. The place where the covenant was made in Deuteronomy 5 is Horeb. It could be another location than Sinai, but probably is just another name of the same area.

Deuteronomy 27 is another passage that arguably includes the ten commandments.

So how did they get into the hands of Moses?

In Ex. 19:20 the Lord comes down on Mount Sinai with fire and smoke. Moses walks up on the mountain. There God tells him to go down again and fetch his brother Aaron. Ex. 19:25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.

Then the word continuous… Ex.20:1 And God spake all these words, saying, {20:2} I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This is the first time the ten commandments are cited: Ex. 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me…

Reading the text as it’s written, it’s clear that Moses is down at the camp when he tells his people about the commandments. When he is finished talking, the people answer him.Ex. 20:18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings… they removed, and stood afar off. {20:19} And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. It is clear that Moses was among his people, referring to what God had said when he talks about the ten commandments.

Moses walks into the darkness or up onto Mount Sinai.

who wrote the ten commandments — Courtesy of Thom Chandler

At this point, the children of Israel are very scared because there are lightnings, thunders and smoke, and even trumpets. So they ask Moses to go and talk to God but not let God talk to them, because they would all surely die. So Moses walks into the darkness where God was.

And here follows the law. From Ex. 20:23 until Ex. 31:17. It is the Hebrew law, very detailed and complex. It is six pages in the Bible, 11 chapters, and almost 10.000 words. The Hebrew tradition sometimes regards all 613 commandments in the law as equally important and thus doesn’t refer to the commandments as ten.

At the end of it all, the Lord gives the two stone tablets to Moses Ex. 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

We could assume that they were written on the stone tablets, alone or together with the law, even though the commandments were actually cited by Moses before entering the darkness where God was.

The Golden calf.

Now God tells Moses to go down to the camp because the children of Israel have already turned away from the Lord. And here’s the story about the Golden Calf. Moses in his desperation throws the stone tablets to the ground and breaks them. Ex. 32:19 …and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

Moses convinces God to not kill everybody. Then God talks to Moses in the Tabernacle. He orders him to go up again to the Mountain and to bring two stone tablets, identical to the ones he destroyed so that he could write the same words as on the first two. Moses does so.

Ex.34:1 … and I will write upon [these] tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

Who wrote the second set of the ten commandments?

The Lord speaks to Moses, but he doesn’t repeat the same words as in Exodus 20. This time the ten commandments are different. At the end, it says Ex. 34:28 … And he (Moses) wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

So who wrote down the ten commandments? The first time it was God, but the second time it was Moses.

Conclusion.

The ten commandments in one way or the other were given to Moses by God. The writings on the first tablet could have included the ten commandments but they could also have been omitted. What’s interesting is that the commandments as we know them were destroyed. In their place, the Israelites got ten new commandments that were different from the original. Ex.34:27… And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

Later consensus somehow excluded the second ones and put the first set of tablets inside the Ark and hid them there. I would strongly recommend everybody to read a little from the Bible.

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Yes, and no. The commandments were given to Moses twice and in two versions. The first time handed over to- and the second time written by Moses. The commandments that were carried in the Ark, that helped in crushing the walls of Jerico, that were kept in the temple in Jerusalem, and finally lost after the Babylonian Conquest were the second ones.

sunrise over desert — Courtesy of John Fowler

The ten Commandments

Exodus 34:11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

34:12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: {34:14} For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God:

34:15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and [one] call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

34:16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

34:17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

34:18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.

34:19 All that openeth the matrix [is] mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, [whether] ox or sheep, [that is male. ]

34:20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem [him] not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.

34:21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

34:23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.

34:24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.

34:25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

34:26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

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34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou
these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a
covenant with thee and with Israel.

34:28 And he was
there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did
neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the
tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

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