Kristen

BTW, a closer look at the Ten Commandments shows that we DO interpret it by taking into account the cultural/historical understandings of the time. For instance, when it says “You shall not make for yourselves any graven image” — even though no one in our culture (to my knowledge) actually carves idols and bows down to them, we still consider the Commandment applicable today. We simply follow the principle that we don’t worship an image of anything created by giving it more importance than God in our lives– even though the current “images” that people tend to worship nowadays bear no resemblance to the ancient idols carved from wood.
We do this in order to keep the Ten Commandments fresh and applicable to our lives today, rather than relegating “you shall make no graven image” to the distant past.