this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
78 points (90.6% liked)
Asklemmy
43412 readers
1558 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The commandment, when written as is, is "you shall not have any gods before me". The words "gods" and "before" probably cause some kind of misunderstanding, as the commandment has never been seen as blocking the acknowledgement of other entities to me. Relevantly, in ancient times, the entities in other traditions were acknowledged as saints or demonic forces recognizable by the papacy. Saint Brigitte, for example, is a specific saint tied to a specific figure worshipped as a goddess by the ancient Irish. Angels in general are notable for having powerful or effective qualities.
But if the literal meaning of one word is important, we have to factor in the original hebrew meaning. I don't know what it says. But you cant pick an arbitrary translation you like best. My translation of the bible with "besides me" is equally as valid.