Yes. That's the problem with the whole "this is a government of laws, not men" idea. The laws are always, always interpreted by men. They are enforced (or not) by men, at their discretion.
It's much like the "thou shalt not kill" commandment in the Bible. It's there in black and white, and about as clear and simple as you can get. Yet plenty of Jews and Christians kill, and often do so eagerly and joyfully, even thinking they are doing God's work. As the old saying goes, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." Or "Onward, Christian soldiers!"
> It's much like the "thou shalt not kill" commandment in the Bible.
That's an erroneous translation, although I concede it is very common - but rarely if ever found within a Bible as you claim; both the KJV, which I prefer for the music of its language, and the NIV, which is much more common these days, instead correctly render it as "Thou shalt/you shall not murder". I can't speak for Torah, but I doubt it differs there.
The laws of men distinguish mere murder from killing in general, whether it be manslaughter, justifiable homicide, the conduct of warfare, or any of sundry other nuances. Why, then, should the law of God overlook the same distinction?
>The laws of men distinguish mere murder from killing in general, whether it be manslaughter, justifiable homicide, the conduct of warfare, or any of sundry other nuances. Why, then, should the law of God overlook the same distinction?
Because that's old testament morals that have been deprecated by Christ.
That's the whole point of getting a NEW testament.
And Christ is quite clear about the "not kill in general" part.
> Because that's old testament morals that have been deprecated by Christ.
In general, you're not wrong. In this case, though, you are. Matthew 19:16-19 [1]:
> 16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. 18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Had Christ intended to modify the commandment to "thou shalt not kill", I expect He would have.
I'm afraid I am not familiar with them, but I've never pretended to be other than a rather poor Christian. Perhaps you will do me the kindness of citing them, so that I may improve my ability to live up to my faith.
No, because like temporal law, the Mosaic code elsewhere defines what is and is not murder. As 'coldtea elsewhere points out, Christ explicitly deprecates most of that code in his teachings - but he cites this one verbatim, and to do so without intending to implicitly affirm at least the distinction between killing which is wrongful, i.e. murder, and killing which is not, seems an unlikely mistake for any rabbi to make.
>Because apparently the exact name somehow makes the act better (or worse?) in God's eyes.
Not a christian per se, but theoretically speaking, the name is not some mere dressing: it gives the justification (or lack thereof) for the act.
So it makes sense that something described with a different name changes the act in "God's eyes" -- the same way that e.g. killing someone to take their money and killing someone to stop them from killing you are not both "murder".
Besides, what's allowed to humans and what's allowed to God doesn't need to be the same thing. No hypocrisy in that, we're talking about different entities, and nobody said they are equal (on the contrary).
> So it makes sense that something described with a different name changes the act in "God's eyes" -- the same way that e.g. killing someone to take their money and killing someone to stop them from killing you are not both "murder".
Which of course is not what's being discussed, so we're not going to go off on that tangent.
It's much like the "thou shalt not kill" commandment in the Bible. It's there in black and white, and about as clear and simple as you can get. Yet plenty of Jews and Christians kill, and often do so eagerly and joyfully, even thinking they are doing God's work. As the old saying goes, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." Or "Onward, Christian soldiers!"