Sooo Many Questions

The Bible often is read for the moral and behavioral guidance it provides.

Several questions arise as to what modern man should do with this guidance. Many directives can be interpreted in various ways. The Commandments “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2) and “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7) appear to represent simple instruction on how to honor God. Yet they also can be read as helping to establish a power base from which religious leaders could control the masses. After all, why would an omnipotent and omnipotent God also be a “jealous God?” (Exodus 20:5). What would the creator of all things have to be jealous about?

If guidance has the ulterior motive of advancing one party’s political or economic agenda, should the advise be dismissed wholesale? What should we do if the interpretation is ambiguous: err on the side of following the advice as written?

What if the guidance acts to preserve social harmony, which in an indirect way can be interpreted as serving God’s greater will for mankind, as in taking a day off work for the Sabbath or honoring our parents or not stealing? When the guidance addresses social norms, many even ardent believers feel more than comfortable bending the rules, as in implementation of the capital punishment, which appears on its face to be in direct contradiction of the “You shall not murder” admonition (Exodus 20:13).

One of my favorite Commandments reads: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

This commandment seems value the house above all other possessions. It also appears to consider the wife as property along with the field animals.

Particularly interesting is the direction to not covet the “male” or “female” servants. In this Commandment, does “covet” mean “desire to own” or could it also refer to sex? By explicitly referring to the sex of the servants, does this Commandment contain some message about homosexuality? Are the “servants” slaves and, if so, does this passage condone slavery?

It’s amazing how much controversy can be generated from such a small part of the Bible. The solution to these and many similar questions be reside in a thorough academic examination, or they may be unanswerable.