If a person has a fair amount of exposure to Mainstream Christianity, and a familiarity with the Bible, he may notice that Mainstream Christianity often de-emphasizes the Old Testament and puts a disproportionate amount of emphasis on Paul's epistles. I would hesitate to say that any part of the Scriptures can be overemphasized. However, if we give uncalled-for weight and emphasis to certain parts of the Bible, and neglect what the rest of the Scriptures teaches about an issue, we will probably develop and imbalanced view of that particular issue.

While the commandments found in the Torah have traditionally been enumerated at 613, we were curious to determine how many commandments were given in the Greek Scriptures. We started out with the goal of identifying the ten commandments but expanded our scope to include any commandments given in Scripture.

This is the second of two articles: the first is a list of the 10 Commandments given in the Greek Scriptures; the second (this article) is a list of the commandments given in the Greek Scriptures. Here is what we have found so far. Please note that all of these commandments (and especially some of them) are very context sensitive. "Go and do likewise" (without the context surrounding it) is very vague and potentially very dangerous.

Please be cautious in using this list for any purpose other than as a starting point for discussion or further study.

Some of you who read this article will do so out of genuine curiosity wondering why anybody wouldn't want to celebrate Christmas.  To you, I say "shalom [peace] and welcome."  I offer this article to you in a spirit of gentleness and humility.  This article was written to share my heart and the thoughts of a surprising number of believers around the world who do not celebrate Christmas.

Other readers may come here seeking "ammunition" to use against family, friends, or coworkers in a battle of words and wits to prove that Christmas is a pagan holiday and celebrating it is evil and a sin against G-d.  If this is you, may I also offer you "shalom and welcome" and mention that beating someone over the head with the facts will almost never win them over to your side.  As always, our focus should be on Messiah Yeshua and on dealing with the "logs" in our own eyes first before dealing with the splinter in our brothers' eyes (Matthew 7:3).

May Paul's words to Timothy continue to guide and encourage us today:

The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

With that being said let's get on to the list...

Recently we added an apocryphal reference to the site: "The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles" also known as the Didache [Greek: teaching]. The Didache is a short, first century document attributed to the twelve apostles and thought to be the basic instructions for the Gentile believers who are new to the faith. While it is not Scripture the Didache definitely provides valuable insight into the focus of the apostles early teachings. It was originally known from references to it by Athanasius [3rd century], Didymus [4th century], and Eusebius [3rd century], and Serapion of Thmuis (4th century) has a quotation from it in his Eucharistic prayer.

The Didache has two major parts:

1. The two ways: the way of life (Didache 1:1-4:14) and the way of death (Didache 5:1-2)
2. A manual of order and practice (Didache 6:1-16:8)

This is not an exhaustive list but simply represents an initial record of some observations regarding this historical document and the teachings it contains.

Yitro (the Hebrew name of Jethro) is mentioned several times throughout the book of Shemot (Exodus). There is some potential confusion regarding his relationship with Moshe. The following details from Scripture (in parashah Shemot and other passages) are given here to provide some detail on this enigmatic individual.

Names of Yitro in Scripture

There are a number of verses that provide insight into who Yitro was and various names that Scripture uses for him. Click on the images below to enlarge them.

In Exodus 2:15-22 we see the "priest of Midian" had seven daughters who Moshe helped.