I’m actually pretty observant, though taking my elderly mother to church on Sunday seems more like doing work than refraining from it, except that I find it impossible not to covet my neighbor’s ass.

Don’t question the 10 commandments that take up 16 versus. 16 is god’s 10. Amen.

There are not ten commandments there. I’m being humerous when I say “Look at the 16 ten commandments” but there are not 10. A lot of other numbers work better than 10.

But somewhere else in the bible there is a reference to there being 10. So they made these phrases fit into ten.

I just gave you the raw data here.

the Bible is nothing more than the Goatherder’s Guide to the Galaxy

Not at all. The bible (the total set of texts) is an an amazing set of documents. Atheists are required to put the entire bible into a single category and label it as “meaningless fiction” or “unicorns” or “the writings of an ignorant sheep herding people” etc. But I’m an anthropologist and I see the bible as an incredibly rich and interesting pile of documents. (hard to read, redundant, and the religious stuff is mind numbing, though some of that is more interesting than most non-believes let it be)

It is a shame that so many people who devote their lives to the study of the bible and related documents come to the table with the assumption of actual spiritual or religious meaning. But almost as bad is writing off this huge pile of ancient documents as nothing of interest because of a not well thought out relationship to history. Almost like one would be happier if they texts were all destroyed.

See: http://quichemoraine.com/2010/08/being-a-voyeur-of-religion-politely/

Don’t get me wrong; I’m an atheist, the Bible is nothing more than the Goatherder’s Guide to the Galaxy, and this judicial decision was correct. But trying to make the Bible look stupid with these sorts of tactics is not only unsound, it detracts from real criticisms of the Bible.

If you were not stupid you would know that I’ve pasted the verses are they appear in the Bible and The Bible is supposedly the word of god and these are his commandments, and there are 16 lines.

So, how do you go from 16 to 10? You can combine some of them as you suggest, but there is not easy way to combine these that makes 10. If you were not stupid you would know, however, that there is a reason for there being 10.

Elsewhere in the Bible, which remember is the word of god, it says that there are 10 commandments. It does not exactly say that, but pretty close, and that’s the standard interpretation by men who lived in caves and thought about this for a long time.

So, the rest of the story is that people have been busy cramming 16 verses that obviously have some number other than 16 assertions into ten commandments.

What is not stupid is me putting the verbatim (but translated) version as it is and letting people ponder this. No, that is actually rather smart of me.

By the way, I had considered changing “thou shall not kill” to “thou shall not murder” because that is closer to the original and the difference in meaning is very, very important.

Especially in a court room in a country with the death penalty.

Now regarding your details, 1 does not merge nicely with 2 any more than 2 merges nicely with 3. All three could merge, or they could all be separate. But this is the word of god, so even thinking that you should merge them means you are going to hell.

5 could be the end of 4, but it is not, they are separate verses. And, 4 could be two different items (Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them AND for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;)

Regarding 8 and 10: NO, they are quite separate. 8 refers to the days of the week that are not Sabbath. 9 makes the exception for the sabbath and specifies that there will be no work. 10 refers to the Lord’s rest on the Sabbath (made such in item 9) and specifies that not only will you not work but you will keep it holy.

Have you ever even MET a Rabbi?

You are correct. Verses do not equal commandments. But only because there is a verse that says that there are ten commandments, and the rest is cramming 16 verses that are all over the place in terms of being distinct, unary, or exhaustive of some pro/prescription into the magic number of 10.

And the whole thing is rather stupid.

Jeesh.

Verses ≠ Commandments