The Nexus between the Ten Commandments of the Bible and the Guiding Laws in <i> Ifá</i> Oracle

Authors

  • Samuel Kayode Department of Religious Studies, University of Ibadan, Ibadan
  • Abraham O. Adebo

Keywords:

Commandments, Yorùbá, Ifá priest, Ọ̀rúnmìlà, Olódùmarè.

Abstract

In every given society, there are rules and regulations enacted to guide the conducts of the people living in the society without which people would do something injurious to fellow human or the society with impunity. Some of these rules and regulations are made to guide our moral behaviours with one another. Some are specifically made to guide profession while some are for religious conducts. Again, some of these rules were made by the members of the society while some were given directly by the creator through religious and natural means to guide our conducts with the creator and the conduct of humankind via their religious belief. However, this paper makes a comparative study on the connection between the Ten Commandments of the Bible and the guiding laws in IfaÌ oracle. This is done to dissuade people from religious particularity, which is the claim that one’s religion is the best. This is to show that the creator has diverse means of revealing Himself to the humankind thereby religious harmony would be achieved in a pluralistic society like Nigeria with diverse religious faiths. However, in selecting society for our study, we focused on the YoruÌ€baÌ where IfaÌ is one of the moral and religious instructors and where these commandments are found. The study adopted physical cosmological theory of Roger Bacon, which believed that the universe is governed by physical laws as theoretical framework. A total number of 20 BabalaÌwo were interviewed to gather their views on the commandments in IfaÌ. The study shows that the respondent BabalaÌwo- IfaÌ priests have perfect understanding of OloÌduÌ€marè’s rules and regulations as revealed in IfaÌ oracle and they as well try to obey these rules.

 

 

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Published

2016-04-15

How to Cite

Kayode, S., & Adebo, A. O. (2016). The Nexus between the Ten Commandments of the Bible and the Guiding Laws in <i> Ifá</i> Oracle. Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies, 4(2). Retrieved from https://www.ajouronline.com/index.php/AJHSS/article/view/3585

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2016): April 2016

Section

Articles

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