Mosaic Christian Mosaic

When it comes to a single, simple statement of Judaeo-Christian morality, there's nothing like the Ten Commandments as handed down by God to Moses. Well, except that there are three different versions - so in that sense, there are three things like it.

Now, before you panic, rest assured that all three versions of these Mosaic imperatives are based in the Bible. They're just based on two different passages of the Pentateuch (Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:4-21) and divided in different places. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments for a side-by-side comparison of the three lists and explanation of how and why they're divided up.

Of course, this does create some ambiguity when the practitioners of Judaism and Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christianity try to discuss them. As mentioned in my chapter/blog about sibboleths, for example, Catholics treat the prohibition against taking the name of God in vain as the second commandment, while everyone else calls it the third.

Historians and conspiracy theorists may have a field day with why there are three lists rather than one, but my intention is to bring all these different pieces together into a single picture we can all use - sort of like a mosaic - not to stir up differences.

So, let me first point out that the total content of these two Bible passages is shared and agreed upon by all. There is no outside content introduced, and none removed. So, while emphases may vary, the substance is the same.

Second, perhaps a good analogy would be to refer to Noah instead of Moses for a moment. In Genesis 9:12-17, God designates the rainbow as a permanent sign of a covenant never again to destroy the world with a flood. But, you'll note, it doesn't say how many colours are in the rainbow.

Over time, those of us with our origins in Western Europe (among other geographies) have come to accept that the rainbow has seven colours: ROY G BIV - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

But, when Isaac Newton used a prism to split up a beam of white light into multiple colours, he didn't see lines between each of these colours, but rather a continuum which modern science recognizes as a spectrum of wavelengths that can be divided as finely as you wish, into an effectively unlimited number of colours.

And, when the first nations of North America looked at the rainbow, and the other colours around them, their practical needs caused them to divide them differently as well. Hence, for example, the Stoney Nakoda word "toh" means both blue and green - and, I'd bet, probably some of the spectrum moving towards violet as well.

Which brings me back to the purpose of this entire blog/book: divisions may not be merely arbitrary - they often have important meaning and histories - but when we mistake them for taking precedence over the underlying substance we've divided, we're missing the big picture. So let's take every opportunity to look deeper than those divisions, however important and practical they may be, and see the real meaning, Giver and purpose of our common faith.

(Copyright (c) 2011, Reg Harbeck, all rights reserved)