The prompt: an account of a conversation in which Deist prophets were characterized as representing human perfection as provided by God Almighty Himself.

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Judaism separates God and His powers from man absolutely. The theme is recurring in the Torah, starting, perhaps, with the masking off of the Tree of Life from Adam and Eve and moves on to Pharaoh in his political hubris and Moses with his stuttering but divinely guided diplomacy, as it were, and on to the “Binding of Isaac” where God sets out to “prove Abraham” but whether for blind obedience or the possession of conscience (should not Abraham have spoken “truth to power”) we are left to argue.

The Roman and Arab uptake of Judaic lore bends content toward the evolving cultural behaviors of each and semi-idolatry, however dressed, becomes part of our bloody medieval merry-go-round (perhaps the idea should be labeled “horror-go-round”) in the conflation of religion with political power.

Whether divinely imparted or wisely composed, the First Commandment would seem most well chosen.

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There must be differences between being revered or thought holy and being regarded as God’s perfect expression of humanity.

I think God forbid Jews that option at the very start of the instructions, so as to eliminate too great an idolatry for either any one leader and the leader’s followers.

–33–