A couple of days ago, we were driving somewhere and Claire spotted a billboard, or maybe it was one of those signs outside some church, but anyhow it mentioned one of the Ten Commandments. I think the commandment had to do with stealing, and Claire immediately said that they had the number wrong – the sign said it was the eighth commandment and she was sure that it was the seventh.
Well, I figured it didn’t much matter and that she was probably wrong. Later I looked it up and discovered that she was right – or maybe wrong – depending on WHICH Ten Commandments were being quoted.
Turns out that different religious faiths have different Ten Commandments lists. Of course, some religions don’t believe in the Ten Commandments at all.
I guess I always just assumed that the Ten Commandments were the Ten Commandments… nope, that’s not true.
I always wondered about the “Ten,” if there was some significance to that number. Why isn’t there 12? I could think of a couple more that could easily be added. Or why not just 3? Or 5? Why 10?
Well, of course this all got me to wondering – and I entered into my extensive research mode.
As far as I can determine, the phrase “Ten Commandments” only occurs three time in the entire Bible. (Thank goodness for the ‘search’ feature of computers.) Two of the occurrences are in Deuteronomy (chapters 4 and 10) and indicate that the ten commandments were written on two tablets of stone – but – neither chapter lists the commandments or says what they were. The “lists” of the commandments are given in Exodus 20 and the same list, slightly reworded, is repeated in Deuteronomy 5. However, neither of these lists is referred to as the Ten Commandments. The list in Exodus doesn’t call them anything and the list in Deuteronomy calls them ‘statutes and ordinances’ or ‘statutes and judgements’ depending on which version of the Bible you’re using. If the subject interests you, and you bother to read these sections of the Bible, you’ll notice that the lists don’t add up to ten – in fact, a lot of the items seem to “run together,” making it difficult to come up with a number.The story in Exodus 20 actually picks up in chapter 19 when God arrives in a thunderstorm and Moses goes up Mount Sinai for the first time. God told Moses to keep the rest of the people away, as apparently God wanted to speak with Moses in private.
In chapter 20, God gives a list of edicts and it looks like the first 10 is what is known as the Ten Commandments. The words “thou shalt” or similar phrases occur 19 times in the chapter. I couldn’t find anywhere in Chapter 20 the word ten and the best I can tell, all the “edicts” are not collectively given a name.
If you continue reading Exodus, at least through chapter 32, you’ll find that God continues to issue edicts… about seduction of virgins, stealing sheep, keeping of slaves, stealing of slaves, etc.
In Exodus 24, God says he will give Moses tablets of stone. But Moses doesn’t actually bring the tablets of stone down the mountain until chapter 32. It’s interesting that I couldn’t find anything that actually said what was on the tablets – obviouly everything in chapters 20 through 32 couldn’t be written on them, so apparently only some of God’s edicts could have been on the tablets of stone.
Now it turns out that when Moses comes down from the mountain and sees what the Israelites have been up to while he was up on the mountain, he gets ticked and throws the tablets down and breaks them. God wasn’t too happy about all that and (in chapter 33) Moses makes friends again with God.
In Chapter 34, Moses made two new tablets of stone, and took them back up Mount Sinai, and God writes on them “the words that were in the first tablets, which thou brakest.” Here is where we are told what is written on the tablets and they are explicitly identified as the Ten Commandments.
When doing my extensive research, most searches pointed me toward Exodus 20. But if you stop reading there, you’d be hard pressed to figure out what the ten commandments were/are…
Before I finally wore out my head, I ventured into the New Testament. From what I can tell, it’s not uncommon for the New Testament and the Old Testament to not be in agreement… but I charged on and found that in Mark 10:19 Jesus is quoted as saying, “Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.” It appears that Mark is now calling the edicts in Exodus 20 commandments and adds one – defraud not – to the mix. To add more to the confusion, Luke 18:20 corrects Mark and drops “defraud not.” And – Matthew 19:18 also drops “defraud not,” but adds “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” that also doesn’t show up in Exodus.
To keep stirring, Matthew 22 talks (with great emphasis of the TWO commandments – neither of which come from Exodus. So, if you go by the New Testament you come up with five plus two to get the Ten Commandments. I should mention that as far as I can tell, there is no list, or mention of the Ten Commandments anywhere in the New Testament.
I hadn’t thought about it much before, but I am beginning to realize that there may be more to the argument of posting the Ten Commandments in and on government buildings than meets the eye.
I’m beginning to think it’s not as black and white as I once thought.
Many of the proponents of posting the Ten Commandments on public buildings claim that they are not promoting a certain religion, but just encouraging morality. The fact is that that argument just doesn’t hold water – it seems like any list that is touting a moral code would stress love and compassion for others – I really don’t see that emphasized.
I’m not sure what I’ve learned from my extensive research, but I guess that if something as simple as the Ten Commandments can get this involved, it’s easier to understand why most wars have been fought over religious disagreements.
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