If you were approached by God to help append another Commandment - one that is more modern than those on His original list - what would you suggest?

Other: You will not use archaic language just to make things sound "biblical."

But I really like the checkbook one, so I voted for that!

I'd make the "Love thy neighbour as thyself" a proper commandment. I think a lot of modern Christians forget that one and in my eyes (not believing in God) it's the most important thing in the whole religion.

The one about chewing gum in an audible fashion. It annoys me no end to constantly hear someone snap and loudly chew their gum! >

Thou shalt obey the previous commandments for thy transcend all time regardless of man's foolish and selfish attempts to demean.

If my sister or I made noise with our gum my father would make us immediately spit it out. It would bug the crap out of him.

Thou shalt not chew thy gum in an audible fashion.

People often ask me if I want a piece of gum. As ever I reply, "No, chewing gum is common!".
My Mum instilled this into my mind and by golly it will damn well stay there.

PS I would thank God that she thought I could help!

Thou shalt have sex with a new person and in a new position every day.

I can understand your father being bugged. The worst part when a person makes noise with their gum-especially snapping, is when you are in a position where you can't get away from this person. Case in point-last week I was on the bus and the driver snapped her gum constantly! I had to sit and grit my teeth and put up with it for nearly 10 miles. That seemed like the longest trip in the world!

It already is. At least, it's in the list of commands, and Jesus called it the second most important of all.

The idea of there being only ten commandments, or a special ten that are more important than the others, is pretty recent - it isn't found in the Bible itself. The so-called "Ten Commandments" just happen to be a selection of short, easily remembered rules that make nice soundbites and summarise many of the other laws. But to the Jews of the Old Testament, and the early Christians, they wouldn't have been considered particularly special in any way other than the fact that they're an easily remembered list.

Ah, I see It's just that it seems to get ignored so often.....

I like the airport one, since it just happened to me yesterday.

My live-by:

Thou shalt not aspire to take joy out of others' lives to further thine joy.

Love all!!

Not true. Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; 10:4 refer to the term commandments (literally the "ten things/sayings") which God conveys to Moses and which Moses inscribes on two stone tablets and places in the Ark of the Covenant. The fact that the phrase "ten commandments" doesn't occur as an introduction or a conclusion to the actual list of the commandments in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5 is only mildly problematic, given that there are no other lists of ten things in the Hebrew Bible to which "ten commandments" could refer. It's also irrelevant in the broader sense of biblical theology, given that at some point in the history of the Hebrew Bible's composition, someone did in fact decide that there were ten special commandments, worthy of being inscribed on stone and placed in the ark, which was the throne of God and which resided in the Holy of Holies in the temple. Your point that there are plenty of other commandments in the Hebrew Bible is a good one; however, clearly there was a sense that there were ten special ones.

P.S. I believe there are also early Jewish amulets that contain the ten commandments; it was believed that they had some sort of protective, anti-demonic power.

Thou shalt give thine little brethren what thou deem cometh to them, whence they becometh too annoying, always. >

This survey is funny!

Thou shalt obey the radioactive rubber pants. The pants command you.

all of them.

I liked the first one. I have a bad case of road rage! It brings out the very worst in me when somebody cuts me off.

I think the originals are enough.

Thanks for that comment (not the PS, but the one before it). Do you have any insight about why conservative US Christians see the Ten Commandments as so important? Is it related to Jewish understanding of them? I've never understood the Ten Commandments in schools thing.

Thou shalt not buy more than thou needest.

Oops, that should read "ten commandments," not "term commandments"!!

I don't know much about modern Christian theology, really. I have no idea why they think the Ten Commandments are so important, especially since I thought they considered the laws of the Hebrew Bible to have been surpassed by the NT. Maybe because the Ten Commandments, unlike most of the rest of the laws in the Hebrew Bible, aren't as specifically related to the cult or rooted in ancient Israelite society? They're more general ethical laws, for the most part. I also know some conservative Christian sects attach a lot of importance to Jews and think that they are somehow instrumental in bringing about the second coming of Christ.

I've never even heard of a Ten Commandments in school thing.

The reason we think the Ten Commandments are special is because they are commanded by God. Actually, everything in the Bible is special, but the Ten Commandments are directly given orders that are clear and precise.

So, it offers a more simple model? I'm interested because I get the impression that there is a large group of American Christians who see the Ten Commandments as being extremely important.
I worry that by giving such strong emphasis on the Ten Commandments and adherence to them, that modern-day Christians are focusing more on rules and regulations in a way that emulates the actions of the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus specifically spoke out against these people because of their adherence to rules rather than openly loving their neighbour regardless of cost.

Oh, the schools thing was something I heard when we were living in the US, where some people were talking about posting the TCs in schools to stop people taking drugs (oversimplifying the issue wildly).

That seems like a pretty ridiculous idea. Nevermind that there's no commandment against taking drugs.

There are lots of other laws in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) that are direct commands from God, though. Why are laws like keeping kosher, not wearing certain kinds of clothes and hairstyles, just to name a few, not considered to be on par with the Ten Commandments? I'm not trying to be argumentative here. I'm genuinely curious as to why certain laws (which are also directly given by God) are kept, while others are seemingly discarded.

Thou shalt be eternally aware of people who walk or drive faster than you or who have generally got their crap together more than you and stay the hell out of their way.

Maybe if you engaged in white collar crime your mother would be happier. Those type of people are definitely not the gum-chewing type.

the gum one

Absolutely. I think it goes along with the sort of argument that if everyone just learns the TCs, the world will be much nicer, like it was in the 1950s.....

Riiiight...

(I don't agree that the 1950s was nice, you do realise that don't you? I'm speaking with a fair dose of cynicism)

I think if I did she'd be happy as long I was wearing clean underwear and not chewing gum while I was transferring the company profits to my Swiss Bank Account.

As a Christian, the Bible teaches us to live our life for the Lord. When we are saved we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit therfore we should take care of it, thus no drinking, smoking etc.

The Bible forbids premarital sex and doesn't allow for divorcee to remarry unless the divorce was caused by an affair.

Everything else pretty much is just basic morals and common sense. I don't know of what rules you are referring but I will say that the world is having less and less rules every passing day. Besides new technology, if you look at the world twenty years ago and the world today, it doesn't take a genious to see we have really gone down hill. Kids having kids. Kids killing kids. 50% divorce rate. Abortions just another form of birth control. AIDS. Little girls dressed like tramps. Drugs in schools. etc.

Maybe if we never loosened the rules from times past we wouldn't have to live in this crap.

Actually, we know what the ten commandments are but we know a lot of other things in the Bible too. I can't remember the last time the Ten Commandments were mentioned in church except in regards to some people's attempt to post them in public schools. The ten commandments just gets more "recognition" from the world.

Now, here is my little idea of the Ten Commandments. I believe it is a short, concise list of things that show us we are depraved beings (sinners) therefore leading us to the Savior. No one can live the Ten Commandments. We should try but we are naturally depraved. We are sinners.

As far as being kosher, that was before the Flood. After the flood people became free to eat meat.

I don't know about hairstyles. The only place I can remember hairstyles being brought up in the Bible is with Sampson. He, and only he, was commanded not to ever cut his hair. Now, the Bible says that a man should appear as a man so many Christian schools do not want their boys wearing hair down their backs. I have never heard anything about females. No where is their a specific rule.

The Bible teaches that premarital sex is wrong and so is being provocative. Some interpret what Brittany Spears wears on stage as being provocative. I think most clothing issues are common sense, not just Biblical. There is no directly stated guideline.

Yup--I was just echoing your cynicism!

It's not a commandment exactly, but my favorite such "post-biblical" expression, from the Boston Driver's Handbook, is: Venture not into the shadow of the Callahan Tunnel if thou art low on fuel.

Mind your own business.

I'm relieved.... when we say riiiiight here, it means something a little different.

Well, I meant it in a sarcastic way, but my sarcasm was directed towards those who would want to revert to the 50s, not towards you! Anyway, now that we've devoted entirely too much bandwidth to clearing that up...

OK, keeping kosher in the Hebrew Bible has nothing to do with the flood, nor does eating meat (which is not the same as keeping kosher). In fact, in Genesis 1:30, as soon as God creates people he gives them animals to eat. Noah's instructed to bring pairs of both clean and unclean animals into the ark with him, so it's the first reference which distinguishes between clean and unclean (i.e., ok to eat and not ok to eat) animals. But there's not any reference to eating them, just to bringing them into the ark. Noah offers a sacrifice, but he's not the first to do so (Cain and Abel are), so I'm not sure where you got that thing about Noah.

The laws about keeping kosher (not eating certain animals and seafood; not eating meat and dairy together) are found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and are still practiced by many Jews today. Check out Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 for a sampling of these laws. These books also contains laws including the prohibition of wearing clothing made out of two materials (so, for instance, a cotton/polyester blend would be disallowed according to this law--see Lev. 19:19; Deut. 22:11), and the prohibition against men shaving the sides of their heads, which is why many orthodox Jews wear long side-curls (see Lev. 19:27). All of these laws are given to the people by Moses at Sinai, just like the Ten Commandments. And believe me when I tell you that they are only a very small sampling of a huge mass of laws which pretty much nobody observes anymore. So my question is, why do so many Christians, out of the 600 or so laws in the Hebrew Bible, only hang on to the Ten Commandments and a couple of laws about homosexuality? What about all those other laws? Seriously, go read Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and Numbers while you're at it. I think you'll be surprised by what you find.

And the Hebrew Bible never prohibits pre-marital sex.

They did have some cool frocks in the 50s though....

And some excellent hair-do's!

Thou shall chant:

HARE KRISHNA
HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA
HARE HARE

HARE RAMA
HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA
HARE HARE

Thou shalt not be a stupid, self centered physcotic dog.

We got the cam all hooked up. I'll get ASB to take those pics you wanted.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks - that site looks interesting

I am glad I could help.

Hare Krishna!

Thou shalt not chew thy gum in an audible fashion.
I hate that. The bloody awful of noise and spit and gum meshing as one. Ick.

For my Kids: Thou shalt not whine!

I say "all of the above". Humorous or not, they tend to make perfect sense.

Your trades should be equitable, and not profit from another's loss.

How do I get a hold of you these days?