God said: ""You shall have no other gods before me."

[MathiasOfAthens]

Exodus 20:3 ""You shall have no other gods before me."

But no matter any other way you word it or translate it it still sounds like god accepts that there are other gods but the Jews can only worship him. So he is not denying that there are other gods just that he wants the Jews to worship him and him only.

I think this phrase is commonly interpreted to mean that there is only 1 god but what if it was interpreted wrong and there are many more gods we can worship instead of Jehovah?

[Himster]

occam's razor

[MathiasOfAthens]

You guys just dont like confusing issues so you settle with what seems more simple to you... "dont question anything" "God is always right" even when its a priest saying it.

[hellheaven1987]

Does that mean I can worship Goddesses?

[Ahlerich]

Does that mean I can worship Goddesses?

you can worship whatever but you still will burn in hell

[Col. Tartleton]

you can worship whatever but you still will burn in hell

I'll bring the brats and malt liquor so we can hook up with some succubi and get our Ds wet all up in their gommorah holes. Demons are hott bro. They're just down for it all day. Any time any place. Straight nymphos, which is why the Greeks called them that...

[MathiasOfAthens]

Sure... I hear theres even a god for pleasure and another for orgies.

[Col. Tartleton]

From what I've gathered of the Thomist argument, if a thing that "Just IS" is the requirement for all other things to be, logically there would be pure embodiments of all qualities. These might be of more complexity and thus lower on the chain than the original thing, but they'd be just as real.

So if Yahweh or Physis simply is, Zeus can still exist as the embodiment of the power of electricity. Venus can still exist as the embodiment of love. Mars can be aggression. Chaos can be atrophic. Call them what you like. The argument for monotheism is we should only worship the highest being rather than higher beings. The argument for polytheism is we should worship higher beings in general. I don't think worship is necessary even if we accept the possibility of these higher beings or concepts.

[MathiasOfAthens]

True, but another thing that leads me to believe this phrase did not originally mean the absence of any other beings of higher origin than humans is the pantheon of Jewish gods that existed before Yahweh. I dont remember that exactly points but doesnt Yahweh have a wife?

[Col. Tartleton]

True, but another thing that leads me to believe this phrase did not originally mean the absence of any other beings of higher origin than humans is the pantheon of Jewish gods that existed before Yahweh. I dont remember that exactly points but doesnt Yahweh have a wife?

Yes, Asherah was his wife-daughter or something. She was a fertility goddess so she had trees carved as totem poles or something but Gideon cut them down as part of Jewish Orthodoxy. Or so the story goes. All of the Semitic Gods had Jewish lingual equivalents. Yahweh was called Adonai, related to Adonis, and Asherah was Aphrodite. Allah and Allat. El and Elat. Anu and Inanna. Ausar (Osiris) and Auset (Isis). Horus and Hathor. Mars and Venus. Odin and Frigg. Zeus and Hera. Jupiter and Juno.

The Divine Father and Heavenly Mother. It's all the same Indo-European religion under different names. Modern religions being evolutions at best or perversions at worst of them.

[basics]

" But no matter any other way you word it or translate it it still sounds like god accepts that there are other gods but the Jews can only worship him. So he is not denying that there are other gods just that he wants the Jews to worship him and him only.

I think this phrase is commonly interpreted to mean that there is only 1 god but what if it was interpreted wrong and there are many more gods we can worship instead of Jehovah? "

MathiasOfAthens,

Quite true but not in the sense you are making. Note that other gods has no capitals which of course is important when considering the meaning behind God's word. Isaiah said that there is but one true God meaning that others that claim to be gods are false. That is exactly what God says in the commandment.

So of course there are other gods but these gods are put fairly and squarely at the feet of man's imagination. It is to what man imagines to be a god or god that is not to be in place of the one true God, Him calling that as being put before Him. Man does that all the time and even in the name of God without realising he is doing so. In that case it is usually called religion.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Quite true but not in the sense you are making. Note that other gods has no capitals which of course is important when considering the meaning behind God's word. Isaiah said that there is but one true God meaning that others that claim to be gods are false. That is exactly what God says in the commandment.

No, the capital letter is not important. The original Hebrew did not have capitals.

[basics]

" No, the capital letter is not important. The original Hebrew did not have capitals. "

J. Philps,

That is correct but the Hebrew in meaning could be a few different things to which it is directed, Strong giving these. Our translation makes that difference so that we know what is meant the way the Jews would know what was meant in their tongue.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

" No, the capital letter is not important. The original Hebrew did not have capitals. "

J. Philps,

That is correct but the Hebrew in meaning could be a few different things to which it is directed, Strong giving these. Our translation makes that difference so that we know what is meant the way the Jews would know what was meant in their tongue.

You don't know what they meant. If they had capital letters, they might have used it for other gods as well, and they might not have.

[basics]

" You don't know what they meant. If they had capital letters, they might have used it for other gods as well, and they might not have. "

J. Philp,

According to Strong the Hebrew word could have been applied to certain dignitaries but as the context and flow of Scripture dictates we are not talking here of them, rather the invisible one true God against visible images placed by men to be gods. When Moses, educated and deemed the wisest in all Egypt, was given the words to put into print by God, other gods were quite prevalent in the world yet people had no concrete knowledge of why.

This God laid quite bare so that the people who were about to be chosen as His example of what His will was, would have no doubts as to where they came from, how it all came about, and what would be expected of them. If Moses could have turned away he would have and certainly tried to do but the hand of God on him was irresistible making his journey perhaps longer than it could have been had he been more compliant.

Moses already knew as did the people of the gods of Egypt, how could they not, and any that had been of ther original entrants to that land would also know of other gods that other nations worshipped, the point being that little if any really knew the one true God except perhaps as a long gone memory to them. But wasn't that about to change. For the next forty years they were about to witness exactly what the first commandment asked of them and why. That they were always wanting to go back to what they knew was just an example of human nature in its fallen state.

This was why Jesus in His time here on earth insisted that to be of God there couldn't be any turning back. There is a direct corrolation between the two. The tribes were being taken towards new life just as Jesus led His peers to that life, but their natures only cared for what they knew and what they knew was more acceptable than what they didn't and the thought of the power of God behind them into that new beginning was rejected time and time again.

Things are still the same today as they were all those years ago and more importantly the commandment is still as strong as ever. Whether old or new the gods that men prefer can do nothing to advance their state in life and unsurprisingly they prefer it that way. All their energy is spent up writing volumes on paper and internet rejecting God in the same old manner and for the same old reasons which comes down to adhoring what they have and had, never once contemplating what they could have.

[Makrell]

You shant worship other gods, as there exist no other gods, except inthe imagination of the people who worship them

[MathiasOfAthens]

It doesn't mean there are other Gods, besides the Christian God and the Jew God are the same, just interpreted differently by different creeds.

It basically means put nothing else before God, don't treat anything with more worship than God.

Yeah dont worship any other gods but "me". I understand that bit. Because the Judeao - Christian God is a jealous and vengeful god.

You shant worship other gods, as there exist no other gods, except inthe imagination of the people who worship them

Play along though.

[Makrell]

Play along though.

Well if youve already decided that what i said was true i dont really see why we should continue debating this

[Dominicvs]

It doesn't mean there are other Gods, besides the Christian God and the Jew God are the same, just interpreted differently by different creeds.

It basically means put nothing else before God, don't treat anything with more worship than God.

[SigniferOne]

I think this phrase is commonly interpreted to mean that there is only 1 god but what if it was interpreted wrong and there are many more gods we can worship instead of Jehovah?

By your own admission, if there are other gods underneath God, there is no way to worship them INSTEAD of him.