Throughout history,Jewish & Christian communities alike have found the Sixth Commandment impossible to obey. Yahweh’s demands are such that no society could satisfy them fully.A tragic dimension: a follower of that deity must always be at fault,through sin,or complicity with sin.
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So that’s the Catholic interpretation. Would be interesting to find out the original Hebrew & its precise meaning.
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I doubt it'd be any different than the standard Catholic/Christian interpretation. The Hebrews weren't Jains.
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This is standard human morality btw. It wasn't just the 10 commandments. In Hinduism there's a general "don't kill" rule but there's an obvious nuance to it. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna bitch-slaps Arjuna for not wanting to kill righteously in war.
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But we’re supposedly dealing with divine morality here (though Evolist wouldn’t call it that). It makes more sense to me that a divine commandment would be very straightforward & absolute, with no ifs or buts. But maybe that’s not how the Hebrews saw it.
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You're assuming a sorta modern Sola Scriptura approach to the Old Testament, that's the problem. Those laws were didactic like a lot of ancient near eastern legal systems, it was flexible and could be amended & refined under certain conditions. That's Jesus' point on the law.
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Yes,the most interesting thing about Christianity is its ‘impossibility’.How can one love all men?This strange demand, so impractical&contrary to human instinct,is what is fascinating.Only a few sects have really tried-Cathars,for instance.But even they couldn’t avoid waging war.
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Loving your adversary does not mean not fighting him, it might even require fighting him
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I disagree. The obstacles presented by worldly contingencies are part of that impossibility, which is what lends Christianity its otherworldly beauty. A saint would have to forgo fighting, allow himself to be killed if necessary.
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