The author claimed otherwise about 2000 years ago.
“I bring you fifteen. (drops tablet) TEN Commandments”, - Mel Brooks
I don’t know what the other five are but I hope they don’t involve football and beer.
Well, he’s had his 15 minutes of fame, let’s move on now ...
I read and speak Biblical Hebrew. The author is (partly) right about “do not kill”; the actual Hebrew word used is “murder.” As to “covet,” he is mostly wrong; the best translation I can come up with is “desire.”
Jesus:
Mat 5:27 ¶ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
Mat 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
The Christ most decidedly touched upon feelings, as in, "you have heard it said, thou shall not," etc., "but I say to you," thus and such.
In the latter formulations, e.g., with regard to adultery, Jesus was crystal clear about sins of the inner self, the core being, or "cardia," for the human heart.
I am suspicious of all scholars who make grand, sweeping statements about the scriptures, and those who approach the subject without allowing for the possibility of their being inspired by the Living God, Friend of Abraham and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, creator of Heaven and Earth. (Who spoke and not-a-thing became everything.
The ancient Hebrew vocabulary was succinct, consisting of 500 words in the record surviving to the present age, and yes, it's possible there were less shades of meaning, less ambiguity than we are used to in the English-speaking world of the 21st century. But thought proceeded action then as now, and it is out of the heart, Jesus is reliably reported to have said, that proceeds the plethora of human failings, or evils, for the less politically correct.
“The author claimed otherwise about 2000 years ago.”
Really? Want to think that over??
This author is not claiming the Bible is wrong, only that some parts of some modern translations are. Except fot the Septuagint I don’t think there were that many translations in Jesus’ day, and I do not think he referred how well any were translated.
Hank