Would you believe that the standard artistic format of the Ten Commandments encased in two round-topped stones originally had an anti-Semitic purpose? The stones were designed to represent tombstones and send the message that the laws of the Jews were dead.
That art form was the original creation of British artists in the 11th century. Then in the 13th century when Jews throughout Europe were ordered by the pope at Rome to wear insignia on their clothing to indicate they were Jews that could now be attacked and harassed by the populace of the different countries, in England, King Henry III had the Jews wear an 'identifying badge' in the shape of those two hinged tombstones as that art form was known to the British for what it was intended to represent.
By the 15th century, the history of the purpose of that art form was forgotten and it became accepted as religious art by both Jews and Christians.
Details of that history are presented in chapter 11 of the book 'WHY HUMAN BEINGS DO NOT NEED BLIND FAITH TO BELIEVE IN CREATIONISM'.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
ADAM & EVE DRESSED IN A FIG LEAF
What has been believed to be going from literally naked to clothes of a fig leaf meant that the colloquial and Biblical metaphors of the Torah (Bible) were never really fully applied.
The Sages explained that 6000 years ago (the time the Bible tells us Adam and Eve came onto the world stage) people did not walk around naked. Naked in the Genesis story referred to being devoid of the necessary character and mindset to obey God.
Adam was not the first man ever created (people from the cave man to Homo sapiens [our species] had been developing since the dinosaurs had become extinct) but he was the first man to know God.
No man ever made clothing of leaves which would have dried up in one day and fallen apart even when fresh. We know now that 'clothes of leaves' was an ancient Hebrew colloquial expression for 'offering a poor excuse.' The poor excuse offered by Adam and Eve in their penitence was the blaming of others and not accepting full responsibility for their actions. This is fully explained in the book "WHY HUMAN BEINGS DO NOT NEED BLIND FAITH TO BELIEVE IN CREATIONISM."
Adam and Eve both used the same excuse and therefore the word for 'leaf' in the original scrolls of Moses was in the singular.
Yet today Bible translations for both Christian and Jewish books use the word 'leaves' in the plural.
WHY?
There has to be a logical explanation and the same ones we received from learned Biblical scholars was that the placement of the vowels under the Hebrew letters of the word for leaf and other grammatical considerations required the Hebrew word 'leaf' to be translated and understood to be in the plural.
But there is one problem with that rationale and that is the Hebrew grammatical system and placement of vowels to determine the pronunciation of the words were not developed and made part of the Hebrew grammar until more than 1000 years after Moses and the Israelites of the period of the Exodus. Moses never heard of Hebrew vowels as we see them in modern Hebrew reprinting of the Bible so that when he recorded the word 'leaf' in the singular, he meant one single poor excuse that both Adam and Eve used to explain why they ate of the forbidden fruit.
The Sages explained that 6000 years ago (the time the Bible tells us Adam and Eve came onto the world stage) people did not walk around naked. Naked in the Genesis story referred to being devoid of the necessary character and mindset to obey God.
Adam was not the first man ever created (people from the cave man to Homo sapiens [our species] had been developing since the dinosaurs had become extinct) but he was the first man to know God.
No man ever made clothing of leaves which would have dried up in one day and fallen apart even when fresh. We know now that 'clothes of leaves' was an ancient Hebrew colloquial expression for 'offering a poor excuse.' The poor excuse offered by Adam and Eve in their penitence was the blaming of others and not accepting full responsibility for their actions. This is fully explained in the book "WHY HUMAN BEINGS DO NOT NEED BLIND FAITH TO BELIEVE IN CREATIONISM."
Adam and Eve both used the same excuse and therefore the word for 'leaf' in the original scrolls of Moses was in the singular.
Yet today Bible translations for both Christian and Jewish books use the word 'leaves' in the plural.
WHY?
There has to be a logical explanation and the same ones we received from learned Biblical scholars was that the placement of the vowels under the Hebrew letters of the word for leaf and other grammatical considerations required the Hebrew word 'leaf' to be translated and understood to be in the plural.
But there is one problem with that rationale and that is the Hebrew grammatical system and placement of vowels to determine the pronunciation of the words were not developed and made part of the Hebrew grammar until more than 1000 years after Moses and the Israelites of the period of the Exodus. Moses never heard of Hebrew vowels as we see them in modern Hebrew reprinting of the Bible so that when he recorded the word 'leaf' in the singular, he meant one single poor excuse that both Adam and Eve used to explain why they ate of the forbidden fruit.
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