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June 26, 2011 |
| Talmud Teachings | ||
The Talmud is a record of Jewish history and analysis that parallels the Old Testament. Jews do not accept it is scripture, i.e. not authoritative and of course Christians would not either. But the Talmud purports to be a record of the oral traditions that were passed from generation to generation until they were written down. In many cases these writings fill in some of the gaps in scripture. That is what we will see here as we look at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai.
The account of the giving of the law begins in Exodus 20:1
1 And God spoke all these words:
At this point the text begins describing the Ten Commandments and continues on through verse 17.
We now look at a very interesting event that occurred during God's speaking. But first we have to get past a problem in the NIV translation. The NIV has removed some things the translators believed didn't make any sense. The Talmud explains that these things did make sense.
First we look at the NIV for verses 18 and 19.
18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."
Next is another translation of those verses from an unknown source but you can see the same key items in the Douay-Rheims Bible or Young's Literal Translation.
18 And the entire nation saw the voices and the thunder, and the sound of the shofar, and the mountain was consumed with smoke. The people saw and were frightened; therefore they stood at a distance. 19 They said to Moses, 'You speak to us and we will hear, but the Lord shall not speak to us lest we die.'
The important thing to notice here is that they:
The Talmud records that God was speaking to them through their vision instead of their hearing. They saw voices instead of heard voices. The Talmud says this was done so that God could impart the most detailed understanding of the Ten Commandments to them. So God used multiple simultaneous "voices" to convey all this detail. Our eyes can see many things at the same time but our ears can only hear one voice at a time.1
But this completely messed up the people. They had never seen anything like this before and they were afraid. So they asked Moses to tell them what God was saying instead of God. Because of their fear and lack of faith in God they passed up the opportunity to know the Ten Commandments in far greater detail. As a result it is only 40 days later that they violate the Ten Commandments by building an idol and by worshipping it.
Moses tells them as much but again we have to get back to a more literal translation to see it. First the NIV.
20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."
Now the other translation
20'Do not be frightened, the Lord desires to uplift you, that the fear (awe) of God will be upon you, that you will be unable to sin.'
Moses says that this is for their benefit and the result would be that they would be unable to sin.
But they could not overcome their fear and would not have God speak to them directly.
21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
The Talmud records that this event happened after only the first or second commandment, though it appears in the text after all ten. The text reads this way so that the ten would not be interrupted in the text. So the commandments were not given entirely by God but it was Moses who took over the giving of the law and the Talmud says he began again from the start.
So God spoke to Moses in the way that God wanted to speak to all the people and Moses spoke to the people. But it just wasn't possible for Moses to give the people the full understanding of the law.
After this Moses went up Mount Sinai to meet with God.
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky.
There he receives the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments.
Notice that God is standing on a blue stone pavement like lapis lazuli. "In ancient times, lapis lazuli was known as sapphire"2
"According to Jewish tradition, as recorded in the Torah and the Talmud, the Ten Commandments were engraved on two tablets of blue sapphire stone of equal size - each [about 18 x 18 x 9 inch] squares. This is contrary to the popular view that the Tablets were rectangular in shape and square at the bottom with rounded, semicircular tops."34 Other references in Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10 also show God standing on this stone and also showing that his throne is made of it. Therefore the stone tablets were taken from God's throne or the area around it. It might be more precise to say that the tablets given to Moses were shadows of the tablets taken from the throne.
The size of the tablets was such that they would fit side by side and cover the bottom of the Ark of the Covenant and fill it about halfway.
The Talmud says some other things about the tablets that are very interesting. The letters were cut all the way through the stone. The traditional view is that the letters were only engraved on one surface. But the Bible clearly states in Exodus 32:15 and 16
15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
Not only were the tablets cut all the way through, by the power of God they could be read from either side. We would normally expect that one side would be a mirror image. Also, the style of Hebrew writing they were written in had closed characters - our letter O is a closed character. If such a character was cut all the way through we would normally expect the center piece to fall out. But by the power of God this did not happen.
But as Moses descends he is so disturbed to see the Israelites worshipping an idol that he throws the tablets down and they are destroyed. This is described in Exodus 32:19.
19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
Later on, God instructs Moses to prepare new tablets in Exodus 34:1.
1 The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
It seems obvious from this verse and the Talmud agrees that these tablets were the same size and when complete had the same writing as the original tablets but they were made of ordinary stone. The words were also cut all the way through and readable on both sides.
God had intended to provide the Ten Commandments on stone cut from his throne. And he had planned to teach his people those commandments in such a way that they would never sin. But Israel managed to miss out on God's gifts as she would again and again.
God knew what Israel would be when he chose her before she existed. He had many purposes for her and still does. One of those purposes was to show us an example not to follow, an example of wasted opportunities and wasted lives, all because of human fears and lusts.
Let us not follow that example. Instead let us be an example of trusting in God, believing that he knows what is best for us and that we can do what he says we can do. And let us be an example of self control and sinlessness - putting off the old man, as Paul would say about two thousand years after the tablets were given.
1 Derived from http://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/48910407.html
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapis_lazuli