From today's WSJ. Self-publish indeed.
Funny how God's most important work was delivered to humanity using technology that was available at the time. If he'd sent them laser engraved titanium tablets, we'd still have the finely inscribed originals today.
For an all-powerful god who can create an entire universe exactly how he wishes with just a word, there is no deed which is any more difficult than any other deed. They are exactly as trivial. Anything he does for you is no more difficult or meaningful than not doing it at all. Bestowing personalized, laser-engraved titanium tablets to each and every human on Earth is no more difficult than producing stone tablets... or doing nothing at all.
Instead, we get crap like this.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai.
The god of creation didn't think to make the tablets indestructible, and when they were broken, instead of reconstituting them, asked Moses to make some more, traipse back up the mountain, proposed that "I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest" but then couldn't be bothered - or just plain forgot - and "the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words."
And the whole thing took almost six weeks. Twice.
The universe was created in 6 days, but two tablets with 10 dot points on them took two attempts, each 40 days. And Lord still didn't learn from the first time, because he didn't think to make the second set any more indestructible than the first. Even magic unbreakable stone would have been a true miracle to declare himself to the world.
This is a stupid book, containing a stupid story about a stupid god. How anyone thinks this is the greatest story ever told is beyond me, when it's not even in the top 1000 least facepalmy stories.
