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"Oh, Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations.
Thou art Everywhere, but I worship thee here.
Thou art without form, but I worship thee in these forms;
Thou needest no praise, yet I offer thee these prayers and salutations.
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations."

(M. M. Kaye - "The far pavilions")

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Jachwe had seven simple rules in mind. Seven was a good number. Not too many to forget or to be confused. More rules simply weren't necessary. He believed his human beings intelligent enough to figure out the rest going from there on their own. His rules were mainly meant to ensure a peaceful living together- one of the most important things in his opinion.

Honor thy father and thy mother. His humans should remember where they came from and care for each other.

Thou shalt not kill. Life was holy. Death was a necessity to value living. There simply was no other way. It was only his decision to give or take lives, his beings shouldn't take the lives of one another.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. He had in mind an easy concept of love, faith, and monogamy. In one of his last creations he hadn't thought about the later, and it had ended in one big and lustful orgy. That mustn't happen again. Ever!

Thou shalt not steal. Obvious reasons.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. Speaking for itself!

Thou shalt not covet. The last should prevent the breakout of the flaws he so often witnessed in his godlike creatures.

He considered this for a moment. These Commandments were all equally important. He wanted virtuous, truthful, peaceful and hard-working beings, like the original task, said: like himself- godlike. Plus, they should praise and value the achievements of their endeavor.

But something was still missing, something to prevent them from working too hard. They needed a reward. He thought again. He'd thought six days nonstop about his Commandments, considered them from every possible angle. He couldn't see a flaw in them. They should suffice. However, he wasn't sure about the last still missing rule.

Remember the Sabbath day. You needed a break after six days of hard-working. He spoke from experience again. Tomorrow they would start their newest experiment. He'd worked and created six days without a pause, he was more than exhausted. He was in dire need for a break.

Paper wasn't yet invented in his world but that wasn't a problem. Paper wouldn't do anyway, as it was wasting away too quickly. He needed something more resistant to outlast a few decades of time at least. Enough time to sink into cultural memory. He took two tablets of stone and prepared to pass them on.

From the far end of the room, Lucifer watched his very action critically while he himself scribbled his rules into a voluminous black book. In Luce's world, many more rules existed. Everything had a strict order and disobeying those rules would lead to ever so strict punishment. All Lucifer's creations were more or less a variation of the same concept. Even without asking Jachwe was sure that this time wouldn't differ from the many times before.

Some were limited in their gift of imagination. Poor dim-witted doubters.

Jachwe bent down again towards his own creation. With a flick of his finger, he singled out a man and showed him an appropriate location to receive the two stone tablets. All he had to do was say a word. In the beginning, there was always the word. And with those Heavenly words, a God could create any world he could think of. Jachwe spoke the words and they came to live. "Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them." His voice rang loud and clear from above the clouds.

The man obeyed his orders, rose up and went up into the mount of God.

And so it began. Jachwe leaned back to watch.

For him, a period of time like millennia passed in the blink of an eye.

He hadn't been wrong about the inventiveness of his beings. Soon after, they came up with three more rules of their own. Ten seemed a better number for them as it matched the numbers of their fingers. Ten sounded more complete and the additional rules were inspired by the receiving of their commandments. They wanted to honor the giver.

Thou shall have no other gods before me.

No graven images or likenesses.

Not take the LORD's name in vain.

They proved to be thankful and thoughtful. Jachwe smiled. He liked the newest additions. He hadn't been wrong to give them the gift of creativity and memory.

On the other side, Luce was still busy writing into his black book.

Jachwe paused to watch the development of his world. Humankind understood the rules well, but they seemed to find it difficult to follow them through. He saw murders, thieving and adultery, lies and wrong witnesses wherever he looked. Soon they started to fight and kill each other in cold blood. He sat up in alarm. Something was going completely wrong and they hadn't even started the bet.

Lucifer noticed the other God's panic. He looked up from his book and over to him. A sharp and menacing look stood in his dark eyes. Calculating and taxing. He flipped the black volume aside, stood up and came over.

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"What of Art?
-It is a malady.
--Love?
-An Illusion.
--Religion?
-The fashionable substitute for Belief.
--You are a sceptic.
-Never! Scepticism is the beginning of Faith.
--What are you?
-To define is to limit."

(Oscar Wilde - "The Picture of Dorian Gray")

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