10 commandments

[photosynthesis]

why do Catholics and Protestants have different sets of 10 commandments?

[Church Punk]

We do? I did not know that!

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Dec 20 2005, 12:13 AM']why do Catholics and Protestants have different sets of 10 commandments?
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The Catholic Church and some Protestants (Anglican, Lutheran) go by the text of the Deuteronomy account and adopted an enumeration based on the division of the Septuagint.
Other Protestants go by the text of the Exodus account and follow the division of the Hewbrew manuscripts.
The commandments are exactly the same, they're just ordered differently, so its really not an issue of any kind as far as I can tell.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Deuteronomy / LLX
1. I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image.
2. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day.
4. Honor your father and mother.
5. Thou shall not kill.
6. Thou shall not commit adultery.
7. Thou shall not steal
8. Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. Thou shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10. Thou shall not covet your neighbor's goods


Exodus / Heb.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
3. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
4. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors goods

[phatcatholic]

we all have the same commandments b/c they come from the same books of the bible that we all have (Exodus and Deuteronomy). so, this is the first thing to note, b/c protestants will claim that we "add" and "take away" commandments, and that is simply not true. there all in the bible, plain as day, for anyone to read. so, the charge that the Church is "suppressing" the commandment against making false images so that it can bolster its gross idolatry is absurd.

now, where we differ is in how we number the commandments that all have in kind.

protestants make two commandments out of Exodus 20:1-6. catholics, however, see that a command against images falls under the umbrella of having no gods other than the One God, so our first commandment is "I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me" and then are second commandment is from verse 7: "You shall not take
the name of the LORD your God in vain" which is the next fundamentally different command from Exodus.

now, since this effects their numbering, the protestant list combines our commandments 9 and 10 (coveting your neighbor's wife and coveting anything that belongs to ur neighbor) into their 10th commandment.

for more on the difference in numbering, see this New Advent article entitled [b][url="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04153a.htm"]The Ten Commandments[/url][/b]:[list]The system of numeration found in Catholic Bibles, based on the Hebrew text, was made by St. Augustine (fifth century) in his book of "Questions of Exodus" ("Quæstionum in Heptateuchum libri VII", Bk. II, Question lxxi), and was adopted by the Council of Trent. It is followed also by the German Lutherans, except those of the school of Bucer. This arrangement makes the First Commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject and a single class of sins to be guarded against -- the reference to idols being regarded as mere application of the precept to adore but one God and the prohibition as directed against the particular offense of idolatry alone. According to this manner of reckoning, the injunction forbidding the use of the Lord's Name in vain comes second in order; and the decimal number is safeguarded by making a division of the final precept on concupiscence--the Ninth pointing to sins of the flesh and the Tenth to desires for unlawful possession of goods.

Another division has been adopted by the English and Helvetian Protestant churches on the authority of Philo Judæus, Josephus, Origen, and others, whereby two Commandments are made to cover the matter of worship, and thus the numbering of the rest is advanced one higher; and the Tenth embraces both the Ninth and Tenth of the Catholic division. It seems, however, as logical to separate at the end as to group at the beginning, for while one single object is aimed at under worship, two specifically different sins are forbidden under covetousness; if adultery and theft belong to two distinct species of moral wrong, the same must be said of the desire to commit these evils.
[/list]i hope that helps

pax christi,
phatcatholic

[thessalonian]

LD,

Protetants actually have "thou shalt not make graven images" as a second commandment. They then include "thou shalt not covet they neighbors wife" in with property.

What should be remembered in this topic is that the Bible was not divided in to chapter and verse numbers, etc. until long after it was written. Likely when Jerome did his vulgate verse. If you look up the dead sea scrolls you can see there was no chapter/verse/even paragraphs and captialization. It was just text. That is how they wrote. So the division in to 10 commandments oddly enough is a (GASP) Tradition! The iconoclastic version overemphasizes making of images, which is clearly in the context in the Bible of an image being forbidden if it is held up as a God. But not all images were forbidden as we see in Ex 25 (after Ex 20) where the cheribum were placed over the mercy seat. There are images in the temple and the bronze serpant in Numb 16 as well. Thus images are allowed in a religous context but not as the pagans used them as Gods.

Protestants will accuse Catholics of removing the second commandment but we put this tradition together first and if you read the Catechism we do not remove the words "thou shalt not make graven images" right where it belongs as a part of the first of having one God. As to when exactly Catholics started using this version I am not sure. I've seen it in Augustine. I've never checked in to the rest of the fathers. Some Jews use the protestant version. I am not sure when their TC started or if all Jews use it. This would be interesting to check in to and perhaps phatcatholic, you have some input on this.

Ooops. I see you did. Thanks! You've enlightened me.

Blessings

Edited December 20, 2005 by thessalonian