>>15441181Exodus 34 might be the most bizarre and poorly written book in Exodus. And a great embarrassment that most christians try to forget exists.
Basically, this book describes moses getting a second set of commandments from god, after the first set is smashed. Except the commandments he is given are completely and wildly different from the first set of commandments.
Christians claim that the speech given by god in this book, where he outlays the commandments, is actually just an extraneous speech that doesn't mean anything. And after this speech, god writes the real commandments as they had been written before.
However, this interpretation of things runs into trouble. Because it explicitly says in the opening that god will write these commandments. And yet, in the ending, it is Moses who ends up writing them down. A clear contradiction.
Although most christian passages dishonestly interpret these verses, the cambridge bible commentary properly recognizes the contradiction, and explains in very exacting detail. This is really impressive, and really lends credence to this bible commentary as the most impressive academic work of its kind.
Although it is a bit outdated, and contains a few references to antiquated concepts. Such as the notion that "vegetable" is the lowest form of life, something that people used to believe in the early 1900's before biological classifications were established.
