HKB
RECEIVING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
The receiving of the Ten Commandments by Moses, from the Lord, is recorded in the following manner:
"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai, . . . and there Israel camped before the Mount. . . .
"And it came to pass on the third day that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of the tempest exceedingly loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. . . .
"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the tempest sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
"And the Lord came down upon the Mount, and called Moses up to the top of the Mount, and Moses went up."[58:1]
The Lord there communed with him, and "he gave unto Moses . . . . two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God."[58:2]
When Moses came down from off the Mount, he found the children of Israel dancing around a golden calf, which his brother Aaron had made, and, as his "anger waxed hot," he cast the tables of stone on the ground, and broke them.[58:3] Moses again saw the Lord on the Mount, however, and received two more tables of stone.[58:4] When he came down this time from off Mount Sinai, "the skin of his face did shine."[58:5]
These two tables of stone contained the Ten Commandments,[59:1] so it is said, which the Jews and Christians of the present day are supposed to take for their standard.
They are, in substance, as follows:
1--To have no other God but Jehovah. 2--To make no image for purpose of worship. 3--Not to take Jehovah's name in vain. 4--Not to work on the Sabbath-day. 5--To honor their parents. 6--Not to kill. 7--Not to commit adultery. 8--Not to steal. 9--Not to bear false witness against a neighbor. 10--Not to covet.[59:2]
We have already seen, in the last chapter, that Bacchus was called the "Law-giver," and that his laws were written on two tables of stone.[59:3] This feature in the Hebrew legend was evidently copied from that related of Bacchus, but, the idea of his (Moses) receiving the commandments from the Lord on a mountain was obviously taken from the Persian legend related of Zoroaster.
Prof. Max Müller says:
"What applies to the religion of Moses applies to that of Zoroaster. It is placed before us as a complete system from the first, revealed by Ahuramazda (Ormuzd), proclaimed by Zoroaster."[59:4]
The disciples of Zoroaster, in their profusion of legends of the master, relate that one day, as he prayed on a high mountain, in the midst of thunders and lightnings ("fire from heaven"), the Lord himself appeared before him, and delivered unto him the "Book of the Law." While the King of Persia and the people were assembled together, Zoroaster came down from the mountain unharmed, bringing with him the "Book of the Law," which had been revealed to him by Ormuzd. They call this book the Zend-Avesta, which signifies the Living Word.[59:5]
According to the religion of the Cretans, Minos, their law-giver, ascended a mountain (Mount Dicta) and there received from the Supreme Lord (Zeus) the sacred laws which he brought down with him.[60:1]
Almost all nations of antiquity have legends of their holy men ascending a mountain to ask counsel of the gods, such places being invested with peculiar sanctity, and deemed nearer to the deities than other portions of the earth.[60:2]