Friday, November 04, 2005

What are the 10 commandments?

A silly question you might think, they are the set of rules that can be found in Exodus 20. Well you would be partly right, after Moses came down from Mount Sinai to find the Israelites worshipping the golden calf Moses smashes the stone tablets on which the commandments were written and is then told by God to re-write the commandments on another stone. Moses does this but the result is not an exact reproduction as Deuteronomy 5 is a similar but not exact copy of the 10 commandments for example the reason given for keeping the Sabbath is that after creating everything in 6 days God had to rest. But in Deuteronomy the reason given is that God freed the Israelites from Egypt.

Also there is disagreement between Catholics and Protestants as the exact numbering and interpration of the commandments:

Catholic commandments:
1. "... You shall have no other gods before me...e.t.c
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain...
3.
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy...
4. Honor thy father and thy mother...
5. You shall not murder
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery
7. Neither shall you steal.
8. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife
10. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house"....."Or anything that is your neighbor's."

Protestant commandments:
1. "...Thou shalt have no other gods before me..."
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image...
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain...
4. Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy...
5. Honor thy father and thy mother...
6. You shall not murder
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery
8. Neither shall you steal.
9. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house...

So which set of commandments are correct Exodus or Deuteronomy and how do you interpret them the Catholic or Proestant version.