The second commandment

[AnotherMan]

I would like to have people thoughts on this:

Quote:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Some people say you can't have a drawing on Jesus, because they take this part of the verse 4 as standalone but if that is true then we cannot even have a teddy bear because that is in the image of something on earth.

Drawing a picture of Jesus, how is it different to writing about it, its another form of communication?

[phkrause]

I would like to have people thoughts on this:

Quote:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Some people say you can't have a drawing on Jesus, because they take this part of the verse 4 as standalone but if that is true then we cannot even have a teddy bear because that is in the image of something on earth.

Drawing a picture of Jesus, how is it different to writing about it, its another form of communication?

I like this translation better: 3 "You are to have no other gods before me. 4 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline. 5 You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, ADONAI your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.

What I read or get from this, is, verse 4 is telling me that God doesn't want me to make images of anything, and than in verse 5 it seems He's letting me know why! And that is not to worship them.

Now if we have a painting of Jesus and are worshiping it, than of course I can see why some would have a problem, but if we are not worshiping it, than I don't see the harm.

[Gail]

That is a good question! There have been icons in churches and those who have destroyed them through the ages. We are missing lots of church art from the time of Henry VIII due to one of those reforms.

When you look at pictures of Bible characters in books, do you bow down and worship them? If you did, then you are breaking the second commandment.

Perhaps God knew too well the nature of man to worship the man-made.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

a "graven" image is one that has been made specifically to worship... there's nothing wrong with statues, paintings, frescoes, or other artwork depicting people and nature, as long as those aren't the object of worship..

[phkrause]

I'm in agreement Pam. Also there are people that worship real people!! Like the Pope, movie stars, sports figures, etc.