Ten Commandments literally have "you shall not kill"

What would have happened if the Ten Commandments literally had the commonly thought of "You shall not kill" among them? I know that one of them is commonly translated as "You shall not kill". However, the Hebrew verb used in the Torah actually means "commit murder". The verb for "kill" is completely different.

The first amendment that comes in is killing in self-defense is justified if there is absolutely no alternative. Otherwise, there is no way the people can fight wars and stuff.

How would the Israelite people develop, and from then on the world? I can imagine vegetarianism developing very early on...
 
If the Commandment is literally "Thou shallt not kill", then the Hebrews never take what is now Israel, and are confined to a couple of oases in the Sinai until someone else decides to take them over. At which point they cease to exist, and never appear in history at all.

Sorry.
 
The Commandment, with or without the literal phrase, had great impact on the Hebrews.
During WWI, the Germans had great pain with the Jews in its army because while they were the best at shooting targets, they refused to use bullets or any means of killing another man. Or that's a story that I remember.
 

CalBear

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If the Commandment is literally "Thou shallt not kill", then the Hebrews never take what is now Israel, and are confined to a couple of oases in the Sinai until someone else decides to take them over. At which point they cease to exist, and never appear in history at all.

Sorry.

Yep.

They will also be unable to obey the Lord's command to put the populations of the various conquests "under the ban" (i.e. kill everybody). This will undoubtedly cause the Old Testament Lord to smite the pougies out of them.
 

TFSmith121

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Kind of like the Shakers...

Yep.They will also be unable to obey the Lord's command to put the populations of the various conquests "under the ban" (i.e. kill everybody). This will undoubtedly cause the Old Testament Lord to smite the pougies out of them.

Kind of like the Shakers...

Best,
 
What would have happened if the Ten Commandments literally had the commonly thought of "You shall not kill" among them? I know that one of them is commonly translated as "You shall not kill". However, the Hebrew verb used in the Torah actually means "commit murder". The verb for "kill" is completely different.

The first amendment that comes in is killing in self-defense is justified if there is absolutely no alternative. Otherwise, there is no way the people can fight wars and stuff.

How would the Israelite people develop, and from then on the world? I can imagine vegetarianism developing very early on...
It probably very quickly gets reinterpreted to mean "You shall not murder";)

After all, the Christian bible contains much stronger commandments like "turn the other cheek" and "you shall not resist an evil-doer", but that hasn't led to a cessation of war. Likewise with most other religions that preach non-violence; people are very good at coming up with excuses why they absolutely have to kill those foreigners over there and take their stuff.

The only other alternative, is that Judaism never takes off, and is now a completely forgotten historical sect from several thousand years ago.
 
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