>To have no other G-ds before Yahweh means exactly that.. put Yahweh first because he has dominion over all. Why would a person want to put a lesser god before Yahweh? The second commandment is against idolatry - idol worship. That is anything which would come between a person and G-d. Today such things would include money, sex, prestige, power, and the list goes on and on. It's very easy to allow something to come between oneself and G-d.<
This seems to me a very sensible way of getting moral meaning out of this text, Andy. But it also seems to me that that this is a meaning that only a modern believer would come up with. When Moses delivered the commandment in c. 1200 BC, the two commandments had a literal meaning: #1 (no gods besides Yahweh) instructed the Hebrews to worship only Yahweh, #2 (no graven images) instructed them not to build or worship idols. Both were potential real sins. And I would be very surprised if it could have occurred to any of them that pursuit of business interests (e.g.) could have threatened breach of this law. In modern times, in order for these commandments to have meaning, we have to interpret them metaphorically, something that was unnecessary for the first two millennia of their existence. And it's not a bad thing that we get moral meaning by metaphorical interpretation of these texts.
The question of the moment, however, is whether it is appropriate for the government to require that these commandments be posted in schools. It seems to me that part of the appeal of the decalogue in this regard is that they are direct in their meaning ('thou shalt not x' is plenty clear), that is except for #1 and #2, which because of the disappearance of polytheism in the history of the western world now requires reinterpretation. The question then is whether posting #1 and #2 in schools would do any good without providing the 'official interpretation'. Now, however, we are getting dangerously close to having the government tell us what to believe, which is something that most Americans seem to not want. |
