|
Hi, William —
Thanks for your question.
There are two different sets of numbering
of the Ten Commandments.
They are found in Exodus, Chapter
20.
Below is the entire text:
Exodus 20:1-17
1 And
God spoke all these words, saying:
2 "I
am the LORD your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
3 "You
shall have no other gods before
Me.
4 "You
shall not make for yourself a
carved image, or any likeness
of anything that is in Heaven
above, or that is in the Earth
beneath, or that is in the water
under the Earth;
5 you
shall not bow down to them nor
serve them. For I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers on
the children to the third and
fourth generations of those who
hate Me,
6 but
showing mercy to thousands, to
those who love Me and keep My
commandments.
7 "You
shall not take the name of the
LORD your God in vain, for the
LORD will not hold him guiltless
who takes His name in vain.
8 "Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six
days you shall labor and do all
your work,
10 but
the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the LORD your God. In it you
shall do no work: you, nor your
son, nor your daughter, nor your
male servant, nor your female
servant, nor your cattle, nor
your stranger who is within your
gates.
11 For
in six days the LORD made the
Heavens and the Earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, and rested
the seventh day. Therefore the
LORD blessed the Sabbath day and
hallowed it.
12 "Honor
your father and your mother, that
your days may be long upon the
land which the LORD your God is
giving you.
13 "You
shall not murder.
14 "You
shall not commit adultery.
15 "You
shall not steal.
16 "You
shall not bear false witness against
your neighbor.
17 "You
shall not covet your neighbor's
house; you shall not covet your
neighbor's wife, nor his male
servant, nor his female servant,
nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor
anything that is your neighbor's." |
So as you can see, they are not exactly
as we have memorized them. We have,
in fact, abbreviated many of them.
As Catholics, we consider verses
2, 3 and 4 all of the First Commandment:
Exodus 20:2-4
2 "I
am the LORD your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
3 "You
shall have no other gods before
Me.
4 "You
shall not make for yourself a
carved image, or any likeness
of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the Earth
beneath, or that is in the water
under the Earth; |
But the Protestant churches split
them into the First and Second Commandments.
Also, we treat verse 17 from Exodus
20:
17 "You
shall not covet your neighbor's
house; you shall not covet your
neighbor's wife, nor his male
servant, nor his female servant,
nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."
Exodus 20:17 |
as two commandments:
- Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's
wife.
- Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's
goods.
Whereas Protestant churches call
this one commandment.
- Thou shall not
covet.
So if you read an abbreviation of
the Catholic numbering, that is, I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before
me, it appears that we have deleted
the part about not making engraved
images and worshiping them.
Of course, we don't make images for
the purpose of worshipping them,
but as you know, we are often incorrectly
accused of this.
This misunderstanding pre-dates the
Reformation and is seen in the early
centuries when issues over icons
arose.
As for how the different numbering
occurred, it is possible, but I have
no actual evidence at hand, that
Luther or one of the Reformers may
have renumbered them for the purpose
of emphasizing the prohibition of
worshipping statues. Since they were
accusing the Church of this practice,
this would have served their purpose.
On the other hand, the splitting
of covet commandments into two seems
a bit odd on our part, whereas, the
way the text is written, your neighbor's
wife is thrown in with his servants
and live stock, and preceded by a
prohibition to covet his house.
So it does appear to be one commandment
prohibiting coveting.
The point is that someone, probably
a bunch of Rabbi's several hundred
years ago, figured they should number
these commandments found in Exodus
in a manner that would be easy for
the people to remember. So they picked
10; it's a round number, that is
easy for people to remember.
We could have easily grouped this
text into nine Commandments, eleven
or more.
It really has no bearing on what
God told Moses. It's all found in Exodus, Chapter
20. You are not to covet your neighbor's goods or wife,
you are to worship the one true God
and not images nor statues, you shall
not steal, etc. If one breaks these
laws, one sins against God, it doesn't
matter how they are numbered.
If you visit the Nazareth Resource
Library website, Jim Akin has a far
more scholarly explanation then
I can give you at 3:00 A.M. in the
morning.
Hope this helps,
John DiMascio
|
