According to my new favorite version of the Bible (is that alright to say?), The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha, the phrase that we usually translate as the "ten commandments" is literally "ten words." Each thing that we view as a "commandment" (ex. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me . . .") is actually seen in the Jewish tradition as a word. I understand this as one word.
This concept fascinates me. These many words to us are just one word to God. I guess that when he created the whole of Creation, he spoke relatively few words compared the vastness of what came forth from them. I have always understood the concept that to God a thousand years are like a day and a day is like a thousand years. Not that I have really understood it or truly gotten the whole concept, but I have understood that God's concept of time is different than ours. But I have not fathomed, until now, that God's concept of words is different than ours. I know that His voice thunders, which is pretty awesome, and that He can speak out of no visible form, but the fact that a word from God translates into a chapter of writing in our modern Bibles and into books upon books of commentary on those words is amazing to me.
Maybe that's why when God speaks even a few words to me, it holds a weight far greater than those few words being spoken by someone else. It's like when you get a note from a loved one and you read it over and over, making sure you aren't missing something. The words have such vast weight.
This concept fascinates me. These many words to us are just one word to God. I guess that when he created the whole of Creation, he spoke relatively few words compared the vastness of what came forth from them. I have always understood the concept that to God a thousand years are like a day and a day is like a thousand years. Not that I have really understood it or truly gotten the whole concept, but I have understood that God's concept of time is different than ours. But I have not fathomed, until now, that God's concept of words is different than ours. I know that His voice thunders, which is pretty awesome, and that He can speak out of no visible form, but the fact that a word from God translates into a chapter of writing in our modern Bibles and into books upon books of commentary on those words is amazing to me.
Maybe that's why when God speaks even a few words to me, it holds a weight far greater than those few words being spoken by someone else. It's like when you get a note from a loved one and you read it over and over, making sure you aren't missing something. The words have such vast weight.
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