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BELIEVERpriest
reply to post by Aleister
Moses was told to bring two stone tablets, so I think its safe to say that both the original 10 Commandments AND the instructions for entering the Land were recorded on those tablets and stored in the wooden box for civil documentation.
26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
27 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
34 And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
BELIEVERpriest
reply to post by Aleister
I cited a verse (Exodus 34:1) that indicated the second copy was the same as the copy that was shattered (word for word). The 10 Commandments are the 10 Commandments. There is no literal indication that they were altered in any way.
But by all means, dont let me that stop you from believe what you want to believe.
BELIEVERpriest
reply to post by Utnapisjtim
This is Moses 2nd mountain conference with God during the Exodus. First item on the agenda; replace the 10 Commandments which Moses shattered. Notice how God say "the words that where on the former tablets".
So basically Moses went to God to pettition the renewal of the Hebrew Covenant that the Hebrews almost threw away.
BELIEVERpriest
reply to post by Utnapisjtim
After reading all of Exodus 25&31, and Deut 10, I have to agree with you. There where two arks. One Ark was wood over lain with gold for the purpose of the Holy rituals, and the other ark was a wooden storage unit. The word "ark" simply means storage unit or capsule.
BELIEVERpriest
reply to post by Aleister
Moses was told to bring two stone tablets, so I think its safe to say that both the original 10 Commandments AND the instructions for entering the Land were recorded on those tablets and stored in the wooden box for civil documentation.
Aleister
And none of this is to imply I believe a word of it. The incident report in Exodus 34 lost me when it said Moses didn't drink water for 40 days. Isn't possible, unless God was giving it to him intravenously while he slept.
1 Sam5:6
6 But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
1 Sam 5:9
9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
Emerods
Em´er`ods n. pl. 1.Hemorrhoids; piles; tumors; boils. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.Text
1 Sam 6:4
4 Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
1 Kings 8:9 (KJV)
9 There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
www.sacred-destinations.com...
To Ethiopian Christians and Jews, the location of the Ark of the Covenant is no mystery. According to the Ethiopian royal chronicles, the Ark left Jerusalem much earlier than generally thought - in the days of King Solomon - and went to Ethiopia by the hand of Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. (The Bible tells of a meeting between the monarchs (1 Kings 10), but not a marriage or Prince Menelik.)
The Ark was then kept safe in Ethiopia over the millenia, carefully hidden during wars, and today it is enshrined in a special treasury next to the Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia.
Itisnowagain
reply to post by Utnapisjtim
When I think of the Ark of the Covenant I do not think of any object at all.
I interpret it as 'the light which is seen'.
Awen24
reply to post by Utnapisjtim
A couple of things you've missed:
1) "Sinai" and "Horeb" are two names for the same mountain.
2) Nowhere in any of the quotes you've listed are we told that Moses took an ark up the mountain. In every single case, Scripture says Moses went up the mountain, then came down with the tablets. Not once does it say that those tablets were brought down in an ark. In fact:
- at first, the ark wasn't built - so Moses didn't put the tablets in it until it was complete: (Exodus 25:16, "when the Ark is finished, place inside it the stone tablets...")
- When the first set of tablets were destroyed, Moses was told to bring another set of (blank) tablets up the mountain (Deuteronomy 10:1) This passage, though, is a RETELLING of what has occurred earlier - so Moses says that "I Made the ark out of Acacia wood, and chiseled two stone tablets" etc. etc. - this doesn't necessarily mean that Moses literally crafted a second ark himself, just that he was responsible for the process. This phrasing is common in Jewish literature.
...again, you're looking for something in the text that simply isn't there.
Utnapisjtim
Awen24
reply to post by Utnapisjtim
A couple of things you've missed:
1) "Sinai" and "Horeb" are two names for the same mountain.
Perhaps your pastor says that, but the atlas and Exodus says otherwise. There are actually four names for these two mountains: Mountain of God, Mt. Horeb, Mt. Sinai and Mt. Paran.
Awen24
Utnapisjtim
Awen24
reply to post by Utnapisjtim
A couple of things you've missed:
1) "Sinai" and "Horeb" are two names for the same mountain.
Perhaps your pastor says that, but the atlas and Exodus says otherwise. There are actually four names for these two mountains: Mountain of God, Mt. Horeb, Mt. Sinai and Mt. Paran.
Actually, this one is more of a rabbit warren than I've stated.
I should clarify. I don't believe that Mount Sinai is in the Sinai Peninsula - I believe it's in Saudi Arabia, north of Midian. The Saudis call this mountain "Jabal Al-Lawz" (google it).
As for the verse you quoted from Deuteronomy - that too is a very common Jewish form of literary expression - saying the same thing twice in two different ways. Sinai = Horeb.
Utnapisjtim
reply to post by hounddoghowlie
atleast in the story leading to a handful of golden rodents being added to the ark inventory.