Untitled Season 4 Podcast 123, In Defense of Christianity, “The Sabbath Day, Part III, The Ten Commandments.”

Season 4 Podcast 123, In Defense of Christianity, “The Sabbath Day, Part III, The Ten Commandments.” A lawyer, trying to trip Christ, asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Christ’s answer not only confounded the Pharisees, but it establishes the law of liberty for all time.  James calls the Ten Commandments The Law of Liberty.  He calls the two great commandments The Perfect Law of Liberty.Matthew 22:37-40“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The Pharisees, who knew the Books of Moses, would have perfectly understood Christ.  Look at the two great commandments through the eyes of the Pharisees who were steeped in the Law of Moses and the traditions of the Jews.  Note how, through the use of parallel structure, Christ summarizes all of the Ten Commandments in those two commandments:  Just look at the First Great Commandment.“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”Now look at the first five of the Ten Commandments:1.     Thou shalt have no other gods before me.2.     Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.3.     Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.4.     Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.5.     Honour thy father and thy mother.The great commandment is an abstract of the first five commandments. Now look at the second great commandment.“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”The Second Great Commandment is an abstract of the last five commandments.7 LINDA6.     Thou shalt not kill.7.     Thou shalt not commit adultery.8.     Thou shalt not steal.9.     Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.10.  Thou shalt not covet.It left the dissembling lawyers nonplussed.  If we honor God, we will live the first five commandments; if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will live the last five commandments and many more.Again, that relationship between the two great commandments given by Christ, the Ten Commandments given to Moses, and the Story of Creation, because of parallelism, though it may be lost on us, would not have been lost on the early Hebrews. The far-reaching effects of parallelism in the Bible are amazing.  What may not be clear in one context becomes perfectly clear in another.  A very interesting side-line about parallelism becomes apparent.  When you divide the scriptures according to the parallel elements, they are much easier to memorize than the division of the chapter and verse system we use today.  Parallelism is the perfect pneumonic device.  It is very possible that the early Hebrews did memorize long passages of scripture.  Parallelism would facilitate making connections far easier.  A scripture given in one century would correlate perfectly with a scripture given in another century.  The Old Testament would be connected to the New Testament. The parallel structure, including repetition with variation, would automatically bring both scriptures to mind, putting it in a broader context.  Scriptures are not meant to be read in isolation which creates private interpretation.