Commandments

[EzraLB]

I have a question about the Commandments that I'm not clear about. I have read in many different places that the 7th Commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," is actually a prohibition against race mixing, and that if it merely means to have sexual relations outside of marriage, it would be redundant of the 10th Commandment of not coveting thy neighbor's wife.

It seems to me that the 10th Commandment is actually a prohibition against envy--that is we shouldn't envy our neighbor because we prefer his wife over our own. But then again, wouldn't that entail lust in one's heart for a woman, which is the equivalent of adultery?

And given that one of the major themes of the Bible is the prohibition against and the punishment for race mixing, wouldn't we therefore expect such an explicit statement among the Commandments? After all, it's obviously more important to the Adamic race that we don't race mix rather than stealing or not keeping the Sabbath--those actions can be rectified whereas race mixing cannot.

Is the 7th Commandment a prohibition against race mixing and/or marital adultery?

[Gaius]

My understanding would be to go with your first explanation, Ezra.
As you say, the 10th seems just a prohibition on envy, at least at first sight because it includes things other than one's neighbour's wife. However, envy might not stop with just the thought, or even the verbal expression, but could (and perhaps frequently does) carry through to action. Also, as you say, Christ identifies the thought as delinquent.
It seems to me that envy is rebellion against God for not providing the great and all-important me with things, situations etc that I need and should have, because I infallibly know that they would be good for me and moreover I deserve them ...

It's only within the last three or four years that CI has brought to my attention the nature of the 7th Commandment as a prohibition against race-mixing. I believe this is correct for the reasons you state, mainly the question of redundancy/repetition.

[wmfinck]

http://christogenea.org/podcasts/adultery-and-fornication-yahwehs-covenant-people-07-31-10

[Staropramen]

Many people, myself included, assert that the word adultery in the Old Testament means race-mixing. And while I would still assert that this is true, it is not to be told from the definitions of the word as they are given in Strong's Concordance or in Gesenuis' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon. For that reason, and for the way in which the word is used in some Biblical contexts, it is easy for a scoffer or a doubter to refute the assertion that the word is used to describe race-mixing. So here we shall do a study of this word, and some other words which are necessary to gain an understanding of the difference between adultery and fornication.

- See more at: http://christogenea.org/podcasts/adulte ... zxn7U.dpuf

[Staropramen]

^^^ha, beat me by a hair!

[EzraLB]

Thanks Bill and Staro. I read the essay on adultery and fornication--I recall listening to that podcast in the past, but I guess I got confused by the apparent redundancy of the different commandments.

For example, the 2nd Commandment seems to cover the prohibition of the form of adultery in worshiping false idols, which, as Bill pointed out, involves a form of Baal worship, which can entail race mixing.

And as I pointed out, the 10th Commandment seems to cover the prohibition of committing adultery with one's neighbor's wife, at least in one's heart, but it doesn't cover race mixing because a neighbor would be of the same race.

So I was assuming, rightly or wrongly, that the 7th Commandment against adultery had to be a form that wasn't covered in the other two commandments, and would explicitly cover race mixing, along with any other form of adultery that would break the marriage vow with Yahweh.

Sorry to belabor this point, but I have been asked about these issues in the past, and I wanted to be more clear about them in my mind.

[MichaelAllen]

Ezra,

Not directly related to the question... it is my opinion that the 10th commandment is the "thought crime" of the scripture. There is no penal judgment against someone who envies/covets another. It is an internal thing.

I believe that the epistle of James, where he discusses how sin invades our thoughts through the flesh... I think that is a sort of mini-commentary on the Tenth Commandment.