April 26, 2015 — The Ten Commandments

Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, (and Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),

On April 24th, while discussing Saint Catherine’s Monastery, I mentioned that it is near Mount Sinai. Well, that reminded me that I should tell you about Mount Sinai, and the Ten Commandments.

Location of Mount Sinai

Location of Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai is located in the Arabian Peninsula.

A long time ago, there was a fella called Moses. Moses was a leader of the Jewish People. The Jewish People had been held as slaves by the Egyptian authorities, but Moses was able to lead his people to freedom. One day, as the Jewish People were traveling through the desert in the Arabian Peninsula, God appeared to Moses; and, at Mount Sinai, gave Moses two stone tablets, on which there were ten phrases. God told Moses that these ten phrases were God’s commandments for all people to follow.

Now, before we get to the actual ten commandments, we need to learn about some preliminaries.

First, the Jewish People used the Hebrew language (in contrast to us using the English language).

2015_04_26_HebrewLetters

2015_04_26_Alphabet-Sheet

Second, the English language is written using Roman letters (similar to Greek letters) — while the Hebrew language uses Hebrew symbols.

Therefore, sometimes, you may see the ten commandments shown as a set of strange symbols.

2015_04_26_DecalogueParchment_by_Jekuthiel_Sofer_1768

The next concept to learn is Roman Numbers.

Often, the Ten Commandments are preceded by their corresponding Roman Numeral — so, the number 1 is shown as I
the number 2 is shown as II
the number 3 is shown as III
the number 4 is shown as IV
the number 5 is shown as V
the number 6 is shown as VI
the number 7 is shown as VII
the number 8 is shown as VIII
the number 9 is shown as IX
and the number 10 is shown as X

So, finally, the Ten Commandments are:

  • I. I am the LORD your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.
  • II. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
  • III. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
  • IV. Honor your father and your mother.
  • V. You shall not kill.
  • VI. You shall not commit adultery.
  • VII. You shall not steal.
  • VIII. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • IX. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
  • X. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

Most people spend a lifetime learning the true meaning of the Ten Commandments. Different people state them slightly differently, but almost everyone agrees that these are the principles that we should all follow to be good people.

I hope that each one of you grows up and continues to be a very good person; as you already are right now.

Love,

Dziadziuś Paweł.

image_pdf