Opus 2024-439: A Heavy Load

(Deu 9:15 KJV)  So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

I am sporadically doing research and study on the Biblical law.  When I see something of interest it jumps out at me.  This passage did that.  I am seeing a lot of indications that the 613 Commandments that the Rabbis and various preachers like to talk about is a fabrication of a theological position more than an article of faith.

What does the Bible mean when it talks about the Law?  There are numerous words used to express variants of the concept such as statutes and testimonies.  I think they are significant but I don’t have a definitive explanation.

What this verse does it points out that at least here the content of the law was a bit shorter than the 613.  I don’t know if it was just the ten commandments but that is more likely than all the laws of kosher and sacrifice.

Why it that?  Notice that Moses was carrying the law engraved on stone with just his two hands.  I don’t know how many pictures you have seen of writing chiseled on stone but there is a serious limit to how small you can carve words.  I would submit that if Moses was carrying the “two tablets of the covenant” it was seriously shorter than what the Rabbis would have considered the law.  It might be the Readers’ Digest version of the law.

Is this the final word?  Obviously not.  If God did the carving the font could be very small but it had to be big enough to read.  My printout of the 613 runs to 15 pages of 12 point font.  I have not idea how that would work out on stone.

Just an observation.  Keep thinking.  

homo unius libri