Let Ten Commandments debate begin
BY SOL WACHTLER AND DAVID GOULD
Newsday
April 12, 2005
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opwac124214183apr12,0,6739788.story
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ADAMS & JEFFERSON QUESTIONED THE SOURCE OF THE
TEN COMMANDMENTS
NOVEMBER 14, 1813
Quincy Nov. 14, 1813
Among all your researches in Hebrew History and Controversy have
you ever met a book, the design of which is to prove, that the ten
Commandments, as We have them in our Catechisms and hung up in our
Churches, were not the Ten Commandments written by the Finger of God upon
tables, delivered to Moses on mount Sinai and broken by him in a passion
with Aaron for his golden calf, nor those afterwards engraved by him on
Tables of Stone; but a very different Sett of Commandments?
There is such a book by J. W. Goethens Schristen.84 Berlin
1775-1779. 1 wish to see this Book.
You will see the Subject and perceive the question in Exodus 20.
1-17. 21-28. chapter 24- 3 etc. ch. 24- 12. ch. 25. 31 ch- 31. 18. ch- 31-
19. ch. 34. 1. ch- 34. 10 etc.
I will make a Covenant with all this People. Observe that which I
command this day.
I
Thou shall not adore any other God. Therefore take heed, not to
enter into covenant, with the Inhabitants of this country; neither take for
your Sons, their daughters in marriage. They would allure thee to the
Worship of false Gods. Much less shall you in any place, erect Images.
2
The Feast of unleavened bread, shall thou keep. Seven days, shall
thou eat unleavened bread, at the time of the month Abib; to remember that
about that time, I delivered thee from Egypt.
3
Every first born of the mother is mine; the male of thine herd, be
it Stock or flock. But you shall replace the first born of an ***** with a
Sheep. The first born of your Sons shall you redeem. No Man shall appear
before me with empty hands.
4
Six days shall thou labour: the seventh day, thou shall rest from
ploughing and gathering.
5
The Feast of Weeks shall thou keep, with the firstlings of the
Wheat Harvest: and the Feast of Harvesting, at the end of the year.
6
Thrice, in every year, all male persons shall appear before the
Lord. Nobody shall invade your Country, as long as you obey this Command.
7
Thou shall not sacrifice the blood of a Sacrifice of mine, upon
leavened bread.
8
The Sacrifice of the Passover shall not remain, till the next day.
9
The Firstlings of the produce of your land, thou shall bring to the
House of the Lord.
10
Thou shall not boil the kid, while it is yet sucking.
And the Lord spake to Moses: Write these Words; as, after these
Words I made with you, and with Israel a Covenant.
I know not whether Goethens translated or abridged from the Hebrew,
or whether he used any translation Greek, Latin, or German. But he differs
in form and Words, somewhat from our Version. Exod. 34. 10. to 28. The
Sense seems to be the same. The Tables were the evidence of the covenant,
by which the Almighty attached the People of Israel to himself. By these
laws they were seperated from all other nations, and were reminded of the
principal Epochas of their History.
When and where originated our Ten Commandments? The Tables and The
Ark were lost. Authentic Copies, in few, if any hands; the ten Precepts
could not be observed, and were little remembered.
If the Book of Deuteronomy was compiled, during or after the
Babilonian Captivity, from Traditions, the Error or Amendment might come in
there.
But you must be weary, as I am at present, of Problems,
Conjectures, and paradoxes, concerning Hebrew, Grecian and Christian and
all other Antiquities; but while We believe that the finis bonorum will be
happy, We may leave learned men to this disquisitions and Criticisms.
I admire your Employment, in selecting the Philosophy and Divinity
of Jesus and seperating it from all intermixtures. If I had Eyes and
Nerves, I would go through both Testaments and mark all that I understand.
To examine the Mishna Gemara Cabbala Jezirah, Sohar Cosri and Talmud of the
Hebrews 85 would require the life of Methuselah, and after all, his 969
Years would be wasted to very little purpose. The Daemon of Hierarchical
despotism has been at Work, both with the Mishna and Gemara. In 1238 a
French Jew, made a discovery to the Pope (Gregory 9th) of the heresies of
the Talmud.86, The Pope sent 35 Articles of Error, to the Archbishops of
France, requiring them to seize the books of the Jews, and burn all that
contained any Errors. He wrote in the same terms to the Kings of France,
England Arragon, Castile Leon, Navarre and Portugal. In consequence of this
Order 20 Cartloads of Hebrew Books were burnt in France: and how many times
20 Cartloads were destroyed in the other Kingdoms? The Talmud of Babylon
and that of Jerusalem were composed from 120 to 500 Years after the
destruction of Jerusalem. If Lightfoot derived Light from what escaped from
Gregorys fury in explaining many passages in the New Testament by comparing
the Expressions of the Mishna, with those of the Apostles and Evangelists,
how many proofs of the Corruptions of Christianity might We find in the
Passages burnt?
JOHN ADAMS
84. JA misread the f in Schriften for a long s and took the title
for part of the author's name (Goethens was a possessive form already
obsolescent). One of the earliest collected editions of Goethe's Writings,
unauthorized by him, was fast issued by C. F. Himberg in 3 vols. (Berlin,
1775). A fourth volume (1779) included two tracts on religious subjects, in
part an early application of historical criticism to the Old Testament. The
derivation of JA's translation of Goethe's selection from Exodus 34: 10-27
has not been determined.
85. The principal literary expressions of the Hebrew religion. The
Talmud as the main teaching of Judaism was under attack by the Catholic
Church from the thirteenth century on and at times copies by the cartload
were burned; hence manuscripts of the Talmud are extremely rare.
86. These burnings were ordered under Pope Innocent IV, not Gregory
IX.
SOURCE: Excerpt of letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 14,
1813. The Adams- Jefferson Letters, The Complete Correspondence Between
Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, Edited By Lester J. Cappon,
The University of North Carolina Press, (1959; 1987) pp. 395-97
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JANUARY 24, 1814
Monticello Jan. 24, 1813
DEAR SIR
I have great need of the indulgence so kindly extended to me in
your favor of Dec. 25. of permitting me to answer your friendly letters at
my leisure. My frequent and long absences from home are a first cause of
tardiness in my correspondence, and a Id. the accumulation of business
during my absence, some of which imperiously commands first attentions. I
am now in arrear to you for your letters of Nov. 12. 14- 16. Dec. 3. 19.
25.
I, have made some enquiry about Taylor's book, 24 and I learn from
a neighbor of his that it has been understood for some time that he was
writing a political work. We had not heard of it's publication, nor has it
been announced in any of our papers. But this must be the book of 630.
pages which you have recieved; and certainly neither the style nor the
stuff of the author of Arator can ever be mistaken. In the latter work, as
you observe, there are some good things, but so involved in quaint, in
farfetched, affected, mystical conciepts, and flimsy theories, that who can
take the trouble of getting at them?
You ask me if I have ever seen the work of J. W. Goethens
Schristen? Never. Nor did the question ever occur to me before Where get we
the ten commandments? The book indeed gives them to us verbatim. But where
did it get them? For itself tells us they were written by the finger of god
on tables of stone, which were destroyed by Moses: it specifies those on
the Id. set of tables in different form and substance, but still without
saying how the others were recovered. But the whole history of these books
is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry
into it: and such tricks have been plaid with their text, and with the
texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that
cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New
testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from
an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very
inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out
diamonds from dunghills. The matter of the first was such as would be
preserved in the memory of the hearers, and handed on by tradition for a
long time; the latter such stuff as might be gathered up, for imbedding it,
any where, and at any time.
24. Taylor, An Inquiry into the Government of the United States.
SOURCE: Excerpt of letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, Jan, 24,
1814. The Adams- Jefferson Letters, The Complete Correspondence Between
Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, Edited By Lester J. Cappon,
The University of North Carolina Press, (1959; 1987) p.. 421
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AGAINST DISPLAYING TEN COMMANDMENTS IN GOVERNMENT CENTER
by Jim Senyszyn
http://www.americanatheist.org/supplement/tencomm.html
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Prof Marci Hamilton
* The Ten Commandments in Court: Power And Its Abuse
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20020314.html
* The Ten Commandments and American Law Why Some Christians' Claims to
Legal Hegemony Are Not Consistent with the Historical Record
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20030911.html
* Judge Roy Moore and the Ten Commandments Controversy Why He Was Not A
Fit Justice, Won't Be A Fit Governor, And Belongs in the Private Sphere
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20031118.html
* Two Important Establishment Clause Issues The Supreme Court Will
Decide This Term, Relating to The Ten Commandments and a Key Federal
Statute
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20041021.html
The Texas State Capitol's Ten Commandments at the Supreme Court:
Part One of a Two-Part Series on This Term's Ten Commandments Cases
By MARCI HAMILTON
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20050310.html
Kentucky's Ten Commandments Display at the Supreme Court:
Part Two of a Two-Part Series on This Term's Ten Commandments Cases
By MARCI HAMILTON
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20050322.html
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Is American Law Based on the Ten Commandments?
by Chad S. Inman
http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=389
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MY RESPONSE TO HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR ALAN DERSHOWITZ'S CONDEMNATION OF THE
TEN COMMANDMENTS:
IN DEFENSE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS by Mark Rosenblit]
http://www.rosenblit.com/TEN_COMMANDMENTS.htm
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The Ten Commandments v. Ethics in Public Schools
By Gina Varolli Wednesday Columnist
http://aggressive-voice.com/zz443.html
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Rev. John Leland on the Ten Commandments, Judge Moore and other related
things
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/leland10.htm
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* The Ten Commandments Issues
o The Complete Ten Commandments, a Study Guide
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/10commsg.htm
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o Congress Shall Make No Law Respecting the Establishment of
Reason. Neal Blanchett, Esq. comments on the Ten Commandments controversy.
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/blanch2.htm
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o The Seven Lost Commandments
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/7lostcom.htm
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o Rev. John Leland on the Ten Commandments, Judge Moore and other
related things
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/leland10.htm
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Is it true that Madison said "Our future is staked on the 10
commandments?"
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/misq1.htm
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Study Guide: The Roots of American Democracy
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/studygd8.htm
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Roots of American Law
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/histlaw.htm
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* A Baptist minister and follow warrior with Jefferson, Madison and
others in the struggle for religious freedom gave this advice about
electing public officials: "...guard against those men who make a great
noise about religion..."
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/leland5.htm
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* Madison's Arguments Against Special Religious Sanction of American
Government
http://candst.tripod.com/madlib.htm
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