If We Can’t Agree That Life is Sacred, We Are Doomed
“Thou shalt not kill”
Once we devalue human life, we are on the road to ruin.
This is why a prohibition against murder made its way into the most famous set of laws in human history.
The Ten Commandments have deeply influenced modern civilization. If you value civilization, you should approach the Ten Commandments with a huge amount of respect (even if you don’t agree with all of them or follow all of them).
For this article, I call your attention to the Sixth Commandment:
“Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13, KJV)
The classic King James rendering of the Sixth Commandment is what I (and many others, at least those of us over 50 and in the English-speaking world) grew up on.
Much discussion has turned on whether “kill” is the best rendering of the Hebrew word “רָצַח” (ratsach). The mainstream scholarship view today is that the Sixth Commandment has “murder” in mind. This is why most modern English translations of the Bible render this commandment as “Do not murder.”
However, before we set aside the classic KJV, let’s keep in mind that the Geneva Bible (1560) and the Bishop’s Bible (1568) both translate Exodus 20:13 the same as the KJV…
