(2) No graven images or likenesses
1. The translation of the quotation taken are sound like this:
“ ( 8 ) You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ( 9 ) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, (10) but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Deuteronomy 5 )
2. Before we go further to explanation of verse, let we refer to word “image” in the quotation. I refer to Oxford Advance Learner Dictionary :
Image : ( 1 ) a copy of somebody/something in the form of a picture or statue. ( 2 ) a word or phrase used with a different meaning from its normal one, in order to describe something in a way that produces a strong picture in the mind (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
Understanding of the meaning of word “image” is very important because it was a core or foundation of the verse itself. The word itself have carry a lot of weight and overall view on how to understand the command.
3. The verse is clear, no image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. What is the context of the verse? Let limit our discussion to few idea, let put the definition of image as “sculpture”, “statue”, “picture”, etc. The command also referring to image of heaven above. It inclusive of image of God Himself, angels, satanic, genie, heaven, hell, everything.
4. A very important question. So, why God command No copy, image, statue or even imagine Himself while at the same time commanding us to worship Him? Is it better to see and imagine God while worship? A common fundamental question that always being teaches in Akidah/Tauhid (creed) learning classes. This question is very significant. For us, Muslim we need to understand the answer clearly.
5. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; The message very clear. Never ever bow down to image, statue, sculpture, picture, etc. In this verse bow down and worship is being separated. Is it the words have different meaning?
6. What is the meaning of word Jealous?
( 9 )….for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,
For Muslim, most of us will not agree with the quotation. For our, God is not jealous. But we will agree that God will not tolerate with others god or goddess. God being Jealous refers to God not wanting a partner to Himself. Jealously in human terms refers to one person not wanting to enjoy what the other possesses. In terms of God, it refers to God having a Hatred for a person who ascribes partners to Him. So, the meaning to exclusive to that extended meaning only.
7. My head spinning just to justify the below verse. I do not know where to start with. My religion do not have this idea, so it hard to figure out the verse. Seem, it have being exaggerated into the extend it can not be understand.
punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. (10) but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Deuteronomy 5 )
As my only reference is biblehub.com were also do not have a reference or commentary from Christian’s scholar. So, I also surrender to give commentary about this verse.
The real truth are with God only. Wallahu a’lam.
Reality and World 