People wouldn't have time for adultery if they were obeying God in his other commandments about finding a spouse, marrying them, and raising a family. And I also do believe that is why STD's are even in existence. A punishment, negative effect that potentially comes from just sleeping around eg., adultery.

Exactly, people worshiping other gods, they would be giving God's thanks to them when they didn't do anything or even possibly exist or not. Giving credit where credit is due.

This one's pretty basic lol and explains itself pretty much already. But goes along with God's first instruction to us "be FRUITFUL and multiply". Since God wasn't specific bout his "be fruitful" it's only safe to assume to take care of yourself, family, those in need, ect. Stealing is doing exactly the opposite of that, it's actually taking away from somebody's "being fruitful".

Lying about someone is only done in efforts to make yourself look better. Other then that, there is absolutely no reason to lie about someone. And definitely goes against God's commandment to "love others even as he loved the church and gave himself for". For if you loved someone, what need would there be to lie?

Covet =
- To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's).
- To wish for longingly.
- To feel immoderate desire for that which is another's

So as you can see "covet" doesn't specifically mean simply "want". It's wanting someone with incredible desire. 1 our full desire should be purely on and praising the Lord. Wouldn't have time to desire on the level of jealousy if we were busy desiring to praise the Lord and his will. And plus on the lines of "covet" that's along the lines of a desire so strong one would potentially steal it just to have it.

the simplest explanation I ever heard was thou shalt not ROB

that basically all 10 commandments have to do with robbing

robbing God of his due Glory
robbing parents of their due appreciation
robbing a spouse of their marital promise
robbing a person of their reputation and possibly freedom
robbing,,,,lol

basically, keep our eyes on God and what Gods plan is for you and don't bother with what he may have for others or rob others of what he has meant for them

It has always been held, indeed James instructs Paul in Acts, that non-Jews are to follow the Noahide Code and not follow other instructions given to the Jews specifically.

Amen :)

Please do elaborate on the specific verses in question please.

Oy, I will look it up, but I don't own a Bible. As my old Theology professor would say- people who respect the Bible, never actually read it. Reading it would actually help.

At the Council, following advice offered by Simon Peter (Acts 15:7–11), the apostle James submitted a proposal, which was accepted by the Church and known as the Apostolic Decree:

It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.[2] For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. (Acts 15:19–21)

The Western version of Acts (see Acts of the Apostles: Manuscripts) adds the negative form of the Golden Rule ("and whatever things ye would not have done to yourselves, do not do to another").[3]

This is basically the Noahide Code found in Genesis

Seven Laws of Noah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The rainbow is the unofficial symbol of the Noahide Movement, recalling the rainbow that appeared after the Great Flood of the Bible.
Among religious branches of Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah (Hebrew: שבע מצוות בני נח‎ Sheva mitzvot B'nei Noach), or the Noahide Laws, are a set of moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God[1] as a binding set of laws for the "children of Noah" – that is, all of humanity.[2][3]

Accordingly, any non-Jew who adheres to these laws is regarded as a righteous gentile, and is assured of a place in the world to come (Hebrew: עולם הבא‎ Olam Haba), the final reward of the righteous.[4][5]

The seven laws listed by the Tosefta (dated to 220 CE) and the Babylonian Talmud (dated to 300 CE) are:[6]

The prohibition of idolatry.
The prohibition of murder.
The prohibition of theft.
The prohibition of sexual immorality.
The prohibition of blasphemy.
The prohibition of eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive.
The requirement of maintaining courts to provide legal recourse.
According to Rabbinic tradition,[7] the Noahide laws are derived exegetically from the six commandments which were given to Adam in the Garden of Eden, Gen 2:16,[8] and a seventh precept, which was added after the Flood of Noah. According to Judaism, the 613 commandments given in the written Torah, as well as their explanations and applications discussed in the oral Torah, are applicable to the Jews only, and non-Jews are bound only to observe the seven Noahide laws.

Contents
1 Origins
1.1 Hebrew Torah
1.2 Book of Jubilees
1.3 Acts 15
1.4 Talmud
1.5 Maimonides
2 Subdividing the Seven Laws
3 Ger toshav (resident alien)
4 Punishment
5 Christianity and the Noahide Laws
6 Modern views
6.1 Sefer Sheva Mitzvot Hashem: A Shulchan Aruch for Gentiles
7 Public endorsement
7.1 United States Congress
7.2 Israeli Druze
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
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Hebrew Torah[edit]
According to the Genesis flood narrative, a deluge covered the whole world, killing every surface-dwelling creature except Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, and the animals taken aboard Noah's Ark. According to this all modern humans are descendants of Noah, thus the name Noahide Laws in reference to laws that apply to all of humanity. After the flood, God sealed a covenant with Noah with the following admonitions (Genesis 9):

Flesh of a living animal: "However, flesh with its life-blood [in it], you shall not eat." (9:4)
Murder and courts: "Furthermore, I will demand your blood, for [the taking of] your lives, I shall demand it [even] from any wild animal. From man too, I will demand of each person's brother the blood of man. He who spills the blood of man, by man his blood shall be spilt; for in the image of God He made man." (9:5–6)
Book of Jubilees[edit]
An early reference to Noachide Law may appear in the Book of Jubilees 7:20–28, which is generally dated to the 2nd century BCE:

"And in the twenty-eighth jubilee Noah began to enjoin upon his sons' sons the ordinances and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to observe righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to bless their Creator, and honour father and mother, and love their neighbour, and guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity. For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth ... For whoso sheddeth man's blood, and whoso eateth the blood of any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth."[9][10]

Acts 15[edit]
Main article: Council of Jerusalem
The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Saul of Tarsus states:

"According to Acts, Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the proselytes of the gate [e.g., Exodus 20:9] and the Jews met; and only because he failed to win the Jews to his views, encountering strong opposition and persecution from them, did he turn to the Gentile world after he had agreed at a convention with the apostles at Jerusalem to admit the Gentiles into the Church only as proselytes of the gate, that is, after their acceptance of the Noachian laws (Acts 15:1–31)".[11]

The article "New Testament" states:

"For great as was the success of Barnabas and Paul in the heathen world, the authorities in Jerusalem insisted upon circumcision as the condition of admission of members into the church, until, on the initiative of Peter, and of James, the head of the Jerusalem church, it was agreed that acceptance of the Noachian Laws — namely, regarding avoidance of idolatry, fornication, and the eating of flesh cut from a living animal — should be demanded of the heathen desirous of entering the Church."[12]

The Apostolic Decree of the Council of Jerusalem resolved this early Christian dispute by commending that gentiles obey Noahide law (Acts 15:19–21) rather than to live under the same dictates as Torah-observant Jews and be circumcised (cf. Acts 15:5, Acts 15:24).

Talmud[edit]
According to Judaism, as expressed in the Talmud, the Noachide Laws apply to all humanity through humankind's descent from one paternal ancestor, the head of the only family to survive The Flood, who in Hebrew tradition is called Noah. In Judaism, בני נח B'nei Noah (Hebrew, "Descendants of Noah", "Children of Noah") refers to all of humankind.[13] The Talmud also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come" (Sanhedrin 105a). Any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as one of "the righteous among the gentiles".

The Talmud states that the instruction not to eat "flesh with the life" was given to Noah, and that Adam and Eve had already received six other commandments. Adam and Eve were not enjoined from eating from a living animal; they were forbidden to eat any animal. The remaining six are exegetically derived from the sentence "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." in Gen 2:16.[14]

Historically, some rabbinic opinions consider non-Jews not only not obliged to adhere to all the remaining laws of the Torah, but actually forbidden to observe them.[15] The Noachide Laws are regarded as the way through which non-Jews can have a direct and meaningful relationship with God, or at least comply with the minimal requisites of civilization and of divine law.[citation needed]

Noachide law differs radically from Roman law for gentiles (Jus Gentium), if only because the latter was enforceable judicial policy. Rabbinic Judaism has never adjudicated any cases under Noachide law (per Novak, 1983:28ff.), although scholars disagree about whether Noachide law is a functional part of Halakha ("Jewish law") (cf. Bleich).

In recent years, the term "Noahide" has come to refer to non-Jews who strive to live in accord with the seven Noachide Laws; the terms "observant Noahide" or "Torah-centered Noahides" would be more precise but are infrequently used. Support for the use of Noahide in this sense can be found with the Ritva, who uses the term Son of Noah to refer to a Gentile who keeps the seven laws, but is not a Ger Toshav.[16] The rainbow, referring to the Noachide or First Covenant (Genesis 9), is the symbol of many organized Noahide groups, following Genesis 9:12–17. A non-Jew of any ethnicity or religion is referred to as a bat ("daughter") or ben ("son") of Noah. However, most organizations that call themselves בני נח (b'nei noach, "Sons of Noah") are composed of gentiles who are keeping the Noachide Laws.[citation needed]

Maimonides[edit]
The Jewish scholar Maimonides (13th century) held that gentiles may have a part in the world to come just by observing Noahide law. He writes in his book of laws:"[17]

Anyone who accepts upon himself and carefully observes the Seven Commandments is of the Righteous of the Nations of the World and has a portion in the World to Come. This is as long as he accepts and performs them because (he truly believes that) it was the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Who commanded them in the Torah, and that is was through Moses our Teacher we were informed that the Sons of Noah had already been commanded to observe them. But if he observes them because he convinced himself, then he is not considered a Resident Convert and is not of the Righteous of the Nations of the World, but merely one of their wise.[18]

Some later editions of the Mishnah Torah differ by one letter and read “Nor one of their wise men.” The later reading is narrower. Spinoza read Maimonides as using nor and accused him of being narrow and particularistic. Other philosophers such as Hermann Cohen and Moses Mendelssohn have used more inclusive interpretations of the passage by Maimonides.[19] In either reading Maimonides appears to exclude philosophical Noahides from being Righteous Gentiles. Thus Maimonides wants to emphasis that a truly Righteous Gentile follows the seven laws because they are divinely revealed and thus are followed out of obedience to God.[19][20]

Subdividing the Seven Laws[edit]
Various rabbinic sources have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. Maimonides[21] lists other additional Noahide commandments, including the coupling of different kinds of animals and the grafting of different species (as defined by Jewish law) of trees. Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz), a contemporary commentator on Maimonides, expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were listed in the Talmud.[22]

The 10th-century Rabbi Saadia Gaon added tithes and levirate marriage. The 11th-century Rav Nissim Gaon included "listening to God's Voice", "knowing God" and "serving God" besides going on to say that all religious acts which can be understood through human reasoning are obligatory upon Jew and Gentile alike. The 14th-century Rabbi Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi added the commandment of charity.

The 16th-century work Asarah Maamarot by Rabbi Menahem Azariah of Fano (Rema mi-Fano) enumerates thirty commandments, listing the latter twenty-three as extensions of the original seven, which includes prohibitions on various forms of sorcery, as well as incest and bestiality. Another commentator, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes (Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess I, end Ch. 10) suggests these are not related to the first seven, nor based on Scripture, but were passed down by oral tradition. The number thirty derives from the statement of the Talmudic sage Ulla in tractate Hullin 92a, though he lists only three other rules in addition to the original seven, consisting of details of the prohibitions against homosexuality and cannibalism, as well as the imperative to honor the Torah.

Talmud commentator Rashi remarks on this that he does not know the other Commandments that are referred to. Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws is also possible from the reading[citation needed].

The 10th century Shmuel ben Hophni Gaon lists thirty Noahide Commandments based on Ulla's Talmudic statement, though the text is problematic.[23] He includes the prohibitions against suicide and false oaths, as well as the imperatives related to prayer, sacrifices and honoring one's parents.

The contemporary Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein counts 66 instructions[citation needed] but Rabbi Harvey Falk has suggested that much work remains to be done in order to properly identify all of the Noahide Commandments, their divisions and subdivisions.[citation needed]

Theft, robbery and stealing covers the appropriate understanding of other persons, their property and their rights. The establishment of courts of justice promotes the value of the responsibility of a corporate society of people to enforce these laws and define these terms. The refusal to engage in unnecessary lust or cruelty demonstrates respect for the creation itself as renewed after the Flood. The prohibition against committing murder includes a prohibition against human sacrifice.[citation needed]

Maimonides, in his Mishnah Torah, interpreted the prohibition against homicide as including a prohibition against abortion.[24]

Ger toshav (resident alien)[edit]
Main article: Ger toshav
In earlier times, a Gentile living in the Land of Israel who accepted the Seven Laws in front of a rabbinical court was known as a Ger toshav (literally stranger/resident) or "resident alien". Jewish law recognizes a Biblical obligation to help a Ger toshav in time of need (as opposed to the rabbinic obligation help all Gentiles who live among Jews). The regulations regarding Jewish-Gentile relations are modified in the case of a Ger toshav.[25]

Jewish law only allows the official acceptance of a Ger Toshav as a resident in the Land of Israel during a time when the Year of Jubilee (yovel) is in effect. There is discussion in the sources as to whether some of the laws that apply to a Ger Toshav may be applied to some modern Gentiles, particularly Muslims.[25]

A Ger Toshav should not be confused with a Ger Tzedek, who is a person who prefers to proceed to total conversion to Judaism, a procedure that is traditionally only allowed to take place after much thought and deliberation over converting.

Punishment[edit]
The Talmud laid down the statutory punishment for transgressing any one of the Seven Laws of Noah (but not other parts of the Noahide code) as capital punishment[26] by decapitation, which is considered one of the lightest[27] of the four modes of execution of criminals. According to some opinions, punishment is the same whether the individual transgresses with knowledge of the law or is ignorant of the law.[28]

Christianity and the Noahide Laws[edit]
Acts 15 is commonly seen as a parallel to Noahide Law,[citation needed] however, some modern Jewish and Christian scholars dispute the connection between Acts 15 and Noahide law,[29] the content of Noahide law, the historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles, and the nature of Biblical law in Christianity.

The only Noahide law that is not part of the standard moral teaching of mainstream Christianity is the prohibition against eating the flesh of an animal while it is still alive. Many interpret Acts and the Pauline Epistles as making void the dietary laws found in the Torah and known by Noah (Genesis 7:2–3 and Genesis 8:20). This claim is disputed by many Christians, including the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Church of God (Seventh Day). The Apostolic Decree which is recorded in Acts 15 and still observed by the Orthodox includes some food restrictions[30] and is commonly seen as a parallel to the Noahide Laws.

The 18th-century rabbi Jacob Emden proposed that Jesus, and Paul after him, intended to convert the gentiles to the Noahide laws while allowing the Jews to follow the full Law of Moses.[31] This approach is generally considered to be dual-covenant theology.

Modern views[edit]
Some modern views hold that penalties are a detail of the Noahide Laws and that Noahides themselves must determine the details of their own laws for themselves. According to this school of thought – see N. Rakover, Law and the Noahides (1998); M. Dallen, The Rainbow Covenant (2003) – the Noahide Laws offer mankind a set of absolute values and a framework for righteousness and justice, while the detailed laws that are currently on the books of the world's states and nations are presumptively valid.

Sefer Sheva Mitzvot Hashem: A Shulchan Aruch for Gentiles[edit]
After the Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, started his Noahide Campaign in the 1980s, the number of Gentiles willing to keep the Seven Laws of Noah as described in the Torah increased.[citation needed] A codification of the exact obligations of the Gentiles in the spirit of the classical Shulchan Aruch was needed. In 2005 the scholar Rabbi Moshe Weiner of Jerusalem accepted to produce an in-depth codification of the Noahide precepts.[32] The work is called Sefer Sheva Mitzvot HaShem, (The Book of Seven Divine Commandments) published 2008/2009. As it is approved by both Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar and Rabbi Yonah Metzger, as well as other Hasidic- and non-Hasidic halachic authorities like Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz and Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet, it can claim an authoritative character and is referred as a "Shulchan Aruch"[33] for Gentiles at many places.

Public endorsement[edit]
United States Congress[edit]
The Seven Laws of Noah were recognized by the United States Congress in the preamble to the 1991 bill that established Education Day in honor of the birthday of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of the Chabad movement:

Whereas Congress recognizes the historical tradition of ethical values and principles which are the basis of civilized society and upon which our great Nation was founded; Whereas these ethical values and principles have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization, when they were known as the Seven Noahide Laws.[34]

Israeli Druze[edit]
In January 2004, Sheikh Mowafak Tarif the spiritual leader of Israeli Druze signed a declaration, which called on non-Jews living in the land of Israel to observe the Noahide Laws. He was joined by the mayor of Shefa-'Amr.[35]

See also[edit]
Code of Hammurabi
List of ancient legal codes
Natural law
Noahidism
Shituf

Acts and the Torah have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Torah has been fulfilled, completed, finished, by the blood of Jesus. Acts is from the new covenant God has made with us. If people still observe those dietary verses, it is their own choice but is not a need or commandment on us any longer.

One really needs to ask, where you learned exegesis?


"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17).
Perhaps the most widespread controversies about the teachings of Jesus concern His attitude toward the laws of God recorded in the Old Testament.

The approach of most churches and denominations regarding Jesus is that He brought a new teaching differing considerably from the instructions of the Old Testament. The common view is that the teachings of Christ in the New Testament annulled and replaced the teachings of the Old Testament. But do they?

It doesn't ultimately matter what people say about Him. Nor does it really matter what interpretations they give of what He said. What truly matters is what He really said, and whether we're going to believe and accept what He said.

Clear statement in the Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount is a good place to begin. Since this is the longest recorded statement of Jesus Christ's teachings, we should expect to find in it His view toward the laws of God as recorded in the Old Testament. And indeed we do.

One of the reasons for some of Jesus' statements in the Sermon on the Mount is that—because His teaching was so different from that of the Pharisees and Sadducees—some people believed His intention was to subvert the authority of God's Word and substitute His own in its place.

But His real intention was to demonstrate that many of the things the Pharisees and Sadducees taught were contrary to the original teachings of the Torah (or Law) of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. Jesus refuted the erroneous ideas people had formed regarding Him with three emphatic declarations about the law. Let's look at them.

"I did not come to destroy but to fulfill"

Jesus explains His view of the law very early in the Sermon on the Mount: "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17).

So immediately we see that Jesus had no intention of destroying the law. He even tells us to not even think such a thing. Far from being antagonistic to the Old Testament Scriptures, He said He had come to fulfill "the Law and the Prophets" and proceeded to confirm their authority. "The Law and the Prophets" was a term commonly used for the Old Testament Scriptures (compare Matthew 7:12).

"The Law" referred to the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses in which God's laws were written down. "The Prophets" referred not only to the writings of the biblical prophets, but also to the historical books of what came to be known as the Old Testament.

What did Jesus mean when He spoke of fulfilling the law?

Regrettably, the meaning of " fulfilling the law" has been twisted by many who claim the name of Jesus but don't really understand what He taught. They say that since Jesus said He would fulfill the law, we no longer need to keep it.

Another view of "fulfilling the law" is that Jesus "filled full" what was lacking in the law—that is, He completed it, partly canceling it and partly adding to it, forming what is sometimes referred to as "Christ's law" or "New Testament teaching."

The implication of this view is that the New Testament brought a change in the requirements for salvation and that the laws given in the Old Testament are obsolete. But do either of these views accurately reflect what Jesus meant?

Jesus' view of fulfilling the law

The Greek word pleroo, translated "fulfill" in Matthew 5:17, means "to make full, to fill, to fill up . . . to fill to the full" or "to render full, i.e. to complete" (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2002, Strong's number 4137).

In other words, Jesus said He came to complete the law and make it perfect. How? By showing the spiritual intent and application of God's law. His meaning is clear from the remainder of the chapter, where He showed the spiritual intent of specific commandments.

Some distort the meaning of "fulfill" to have Jesus saying, "I did not come to destroy the law, but to end it by fulfilling it." This is inconsistent with His own words. Through the remainder of the chapter, He showed that the spiritual intent of the law made it more broadly applicable, not that it was annulled or no longer necessary.

Jesus, by explaining, expanding and exemplifying God's law, fulfilled a prophecy of the Messiah found in Isaiah 42:21: "The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will exalt the law, and make it honorable." The Hebrew word gadal, translated "exalt" or "magnify" (KJV), literally means "to be or become great" (William Wilson, Wilson's Old Testament Word Studies, "Magnify").

Jesus Christ did exactly that, showing the holy, spiritual intent, purpose and scope of God's law through His teachings and manner of life. He met the law's requirements by obeying it perfectly in thought and deed, both in the letter and in the intent of the heart.

All will be fulfilled

The second major statement given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, in the exact same context, makes it even clearer that He did not come to destroy, rescind, nullify or abrogate the law: "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18).

With these words, Jesus likened the continuance of the law to the permanence of heaven and earth. He is saying that God's spiritual laws are immutable, inviolable and indestructible. They can only be fulfilled, never abrogated.

We should note that in this verse a different Greek word is used for "fulfilled": ginomai, meaning "to become, i.e. to come into existence . . . to come to pass, happen" or "to be made, done, finished" (Thayer's, Strong's number 1096).

Until the ultimate completion of God's plan to glorify humanity in His Kingdom comes to pass—that is, as long as there are still fleshly human beings—the physical codification of God's law in Scripture is necessary. This, Jesus explained, is as certain as the continued existence of the universe.

His servants must keep the law

The third statement of Jesus, quoted earlier in chapter 2, pronounces that our fate rests on our attitude toward and treatment of God's holy law. Again, "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least [by those] in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great [by those] in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19).

The "by those" is added for clarification, since, as explained in other passages, those who persist in lawbreaking and teach others to break God's law will not themselves be in the Kingdom at all.

Jesus makes it very clear that those who follow Him and aspire to His Kingdom have a perpetual obligation to obey and uphold God's law. He is saying that we cannot diminish the law of God by even a jot or tittle—the equivalent in our modern alphabet of the crossing of a "t" or the dotting of an "i."

The value He places on the commandments of God is also unmistakable—as well as the high esteem toward the law He requires from all those who teach in His name. His disapproval falls on those who slight the least of God's commandments, and His honor will be bestowed on those who teach and obey God's commandments.

Since Jesus obeyed the commandments of God, it follows that His servants, too, must keep the same commandments and teach others to do the same (1 John 2:2-6). It is in this way that the true ministers of Christ are to be identified—by their following the example He set for them ( John 13:15).

But how you ask?

Because it's perfect once it's complete. Something could never be perfect until it was complete. So with Jesus fulfilling the covenant prophecies, he made them perfect and complete.

I always thought the book of James
elaborated the best on the principles associated with the 10 Commandments...

Generally speaking and I'm aware that the 10 Commandments are not mentioned in the post of James. However, the book of James does offer a sound set of principles to live by.

I think in order to understand the full scope of why God found it necessary to create the Ten Commandments in stone and have Moses present and teach them to His people after freeing them from bondage to unbelievers, we have to go back to the beginning.

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 2:7

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 2:18

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."

Genesis 2:21-22

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

The Ten Commandments, as written in stone? Then you are quoting the wrong Ten Commandments. There is only one place in the Bible where it clearly and specifically says these are the Ten Commandments written in stone. It is in Exodus 32

But Jesus didn't bring a "new" teaching. The old testament, torah prophesied it's completion, just as the new testament does. Can look at it as basically a different phase. We've moved onto the next course of the lesson so to speak.

Matthew 5:18

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

This is a new testament verse, yes. But it is used for the statement it specifically made. That nothing would change in the law till all be fulfilled, all the prophecies. Same concept would also apply to the old testament/torah. Well Jesus fulfilled the all the the prophecies of the Torah, so therefor he then gave us a new covenant. The two covenant's can not co-exist. They can if you're just going to take pieces out of here or there. But as a whole they can not, and since he didn't come to fulfill just parts of it we end up with the entire old covenant, old testament, torah being fulfilled. And thus why again Jesus gave us a new covenant sealed in his blood.

Genesis 2:23-24

And Adam said:

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 3:20

And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

Genesis 4:1-7

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord."

Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."



According to Genesis God originally created the earth and everything on it for His enjoyment. He also created a man and woman as a married couple, husband and wife, so they could procreate while working together tending the Garden of Eden, His special meeting place where they could socialize with God directly.

Given that God created our original ancestors, Adam and Eve as full grown adults who lacked survival skills and the knowledge of good and evil (rebellion and sin) He instructed them about what they could eat and what they could do for their own good health and safety.

As their Creator/Father, God also instructed them about the importance of resting from their daily labor and taking time to commune with Him every 7th day.